Channels, Fall 2017

Channels • 2017 • Volume 2 • Number 1 Page 117 which begins with the singer feeling downcast about the darkness, but ends in looking forward to a better time. This optimism is followed by a farewell as the travelers are able to move forward in their journey. Finally, “I Sit Beside the Fire,” shows a traveler after he have returned home reflecting on all he has seen. The piece ends cyclically with a melodic reference to “The Road Goes Ever On” which can also be considered a reference to the books, where the poem is quoted many different times throughout the story. In the song cycle, however, the melody is set to a hymn the travelers sing after all they’ve been through. Throughout the cycle, the poetry of Tolkien flows in such a way to tell a new story mimicking one of the themes from his novels, and Swann puts it together powerfully, the music and poems working together to tell both the story of The Lord of the Rings and Swann’s own story of the road always continuing, even when one’s individual travel is finished. Swann’s portrayal of Tolkien’s poetry is highly effective. However, while helping to define a world as Kerman discusses, the work raises many questions, especially regarding authorial intent – other than “Namárië,” none of these pieces were composed directly by Tolkien, but instead received his approval after they were written. Invariably, this means that Tolkien originally had other melodies in mind as he wrote the poetry, which raises the question of whether these tunes should be considered the “official” ones, or whether pieces shown in the movies or performed by The Tolkien Ensemble have a similar canonical validity. Many of these questions are matters of opinion, but as the book of the song cycle has Tolkien’s name attached to it as author, and Tolkien was given the opportunity to have input, it seems reasonable to consider the melodies of the song canon. While reading through the novels, one can stop and listen to these settings with the knowledge that in Tolkien’s mind, the lyrics one is reading corresponds to the music they would hear from a performance of this book. The Road Goes Ever On , composed by Donald Swann with poems by J.R.R. Tolkien, is a clear view into what Kerman would define as a work which creates a world. By taking clues from the books and creating music that would fit into the culture of Middle Earth, Swann extends, with Tolkien’s help, the world that Tolkien created. He shows cultural and emotional depths that cannot be seen as clearly without hearing the music, and in crafting the individual songs also tells his own story, narrating the emotional journey of a traveler. In the end, the cycle is a highly effective addition to the canon, and will allow fans and interested scholars to delve deeper into the story Tolkien created for years to come.