Symphony No. 1The Lord of the Rings is the firstsymphony forconcert band written byJohan de Meij, and one of several works ofclassical music based onJ. R. R. Tolkien's fantasyThe Lord of the Rings. It premiered in 1988 with theGroot Harmonieorkest van de Belgische Gidsen conducted byNorbert Nozy.
In 1989 the symphony won theSudler Composition Award.
The symphony consists of five movements,[1] each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book:
The CD by the military bandKoninklijke Militaire Kapel helped give the symphony worldwide acclaim. In 1989 it won theSudler Composition Award.[3] It has been recorded by several orchestras.[4] An orchestral version of the piece, orchestrated byHenk de Vlieger, was premiered and recorded in 2001 by theLondon Symphony Orchestra to coincide with the release of the 2001 film,The Fellowship of the Ring.[5]
The musicologist Estelle Jorgensen wrote that while the symphony has a programmatic aspect, it is "also formally interesting as sheer instrumental sound."[6]
The Tolkien scholarDavid Bratman noted in 2010 that the symphony had attracted four recordings. He commented that though it was Dutch, it was in the tradition of British concert band and symphonic composers likeMalcolm Arnold andGustav Holst.[2] He stated, too, that like another symphony based onThe Lord of the Rings, the Finnish composerAulis Sallinen's 1996 Symphony No. 7The Dreams of Gandalf, it mainly aims not to tell the story but to create a mood. Thus, three of the movements introduce characters – Gandalf, Gollum, and (the finale) the Hobbits. The second movement, Bratman wrote, presents the character of a place, the Elvish wood ofLothlórien, "which, like everyone fromBo Hansson toEnya, de Meij seems to hear as steamy."[2] He made an exception for the fourth movement, "Journey in the Dark", which does narrate a story, the dangerous passage through the Mines ofMoria.[2]
In celebration of the symphony's 25th anniversary, de Meij conducted the Performance of the piece by the bands ofValparaiso University.[7]
In 2001, Paul Lavender wrote a shorter, Grade III variation of the symphony, condensing three of de Meij's five movements into a concert version. It was premiered at the 2001Midwest Clinic by theVanderCook College of Music, directed by De Meij.[8]
