{"id":4577,"date":"2020-03-20T11:12:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/?p=4577"},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T20:15:15","slug":"hobbits-hymn-from-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/hobbits-hymn-from-lord-of-the-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobbit&#8217;s Hymn from Lord of the Rings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/johandemeij.com\/post\/305\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4578\" src=\"http:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Lord-of-the-Rings-230x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"184\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Lord-of-the-Rings-230x325.jpg 230w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Lord-of-the-Rings-298x420.jpg 298w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Lord-of-the-Rings.jpg 363w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\" \/><\/a>Hard to believe that Johan de Meij&#8217;s first symphony &#8220;Lord of the Rings&#8221; was premiered over 30 years ago. Because of Johan&#8217;s excellent support of music education, he created a special excerpt from the 5th movement, &#8220;Hobbits,&#8221; for our Bandworld readers. We hope you enjoy the &#8220;Hobbit&#8217;s Hymn&#8221; from Johan&#8217;s award-winning composition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bandworld.org\/MagOnline\/Issue23\/60.pdf\">Download the full score and parts<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/johandemeij.com\/\">Visit Johan de Meij&#8217;s website<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bandworld.org\/MagOnline\/Issue23\/60.pdf\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4613 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1224\" height=\"1584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn.jpg 825w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-251x325.jpg 251w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-768x994.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-791x1024.jpg 791w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-696x901.jpg 696w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-1068x1382.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Hobbits-Hymn-325x420.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1224px) 100vw, 1224px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eQNmdRiYYLE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis of the piece from Johan&#8217;s Website<br \/>\n<\/strong>Johan de Meij\u2019s first symphony \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d is based on the trilogy of that name by J.R.R. Tolkien. This book has fascinated many millions of readers since its publication in 1955. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The movements are:<\/strong><br \/>\nI. GANDALF (The Wizard)<br \/>\nII. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)<br \/>\nIII. GOLLUM (Sm\u00e9agol)<br \/>\nIV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK<br \/>\na. The Mines of Moria<br \/>\nb. The Bridge of Khazad-D\u00fbm<br \/>\nV. HOBBITS<\/p>\n<p>The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its premi\u00e8re in Brussels on 15th March 1988, performed by the \u201cGroot Harmonieorkest van de Gidsen\u201d under the baton of Norbert Nozy. In 1989, The Symphony The Lord of the Rings was awarded a first prize in the Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition in Chicago, and a year later, the symphony was awarded by the Dutch Composers Fund. In 2001, the orchestral version was premiered by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>Although it is not simple to summarize such an extensive and complex work, the main outline is als follows: the central theme is the Ring, made by primaeval forces that decide the safety or destruction of the World. For years it was the possesion of the creature Gollum, but when the Ring falls into the hands of the Hobbits the evil forces awake and the struggle for the Ring commences. There is but one solution to save the World from disaster: the Ring must be destroyed by the fire in which it was forged: Mount Doom in the heart of Mordor, the country of the evil Lord Sauron.<\/p>\n<p>It is the Hobbit Frodo who is assigned to carry out this task, and to assist him a company, the Fellowship of the Ring, is formed under the leadership of Gandalf, the wizard, which includes the Hobbits Sam, Peregrin and Merin, the Dwarf Gimli, the Elf Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn, the later King. The Companions are secretly followed by Gollum, who does not shun any means, however perfidious, to recover his priceless Ring. However, the Companions soon fall apart, after many pernicious adventures and a surprising d\u00e9nouement Frodo and Sam can at last return to their familiar home, The Shire.<\/p>\n<p>Explanation of the five movements:<\/p>\n<p><strong>I. GANDALF (The Wizard)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe first movement is a musical portrait of the wizard Gandalf, one of the principal characters of the trilogy. His wise and noble personality is expressed by a stately motiff which is used in a different form in movements IV and V. The sudden opening of the Allegro vivace is indicative of the unpredictability of the grey wizard, followed by a wild ride on his beautiful horse \u201cShadowfax\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe second movement is an impression of Lothl\u00f3rien, the elvenwood with its beautiful trees, plants, exotic birds, expressed through woodwind solo\u2019s. The meeting of the Hobbit Frodo with the Lady Galadriel is embodied in a charming Allegretto; in the Mirror of Galadriel, a silver basin in the wood, Frodo glimpses three visions, the last of which, a large ominous Eye, greatly upsets him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>III. GOLLUM (Sm\u00e9agol)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe third movement describes the monstrous creature&nbsp; Gollum,&nbsp; a slimy,&nbsp; shy&nbsp; being&nbsp; represented&nbsp; by&nbsp; the soprano saxophone. It mumbles and talks to itself, hisses and lisps, whines and snickers, is alternately pitiful and malicious, is continually fleeing and looking for his cherished treasure, the Ring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK<\/strong><br \/>\nThe fourth movement describes the laborious journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, headed by the wizard Gandalf, through the dark tunnels of the Mines of Moria. The slow walking cadenza and the fear are clearly audible in the monotonous rhythm of the low brass, piano and percussion. After a wild persuit by hostile creatures, the Orks, Gandalf is engaged in battle with a horrible monster, the Balrog, and crashes from the subterranean bridge of Khazad-D\u00fbm in a fathomless abyss. To the melancholy tones of a Marcia fun\u00e8bre, the bewildered Companions trudge on, looking for the only way out of the Mines, the East Gate of Moria.<\/p>\n<p><strong>V. HOBBITS<\/strong><br \/>\nThe fifth movement expresses the carefree and optimistic character of the Hobbits in a happy folk dance; the hymn that follows emanates the determination and noblesse of the hobbit folk. The symphony does not end on an exuberant note, but is concluded peacefully and resigned, in keeping with the symbolic mood of the last chapter \u201cThe Grey Havens\u201d in which Frodo and Gandalf sail away in a white ship and disappear slowly beyond the horizon.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jwpepper.com\/Lord-of-the-Rings\/4990768.item#\/submit\">Buy a full set of Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hard to believe that Johan de Meij&#8217;s first symphony &#8220;Lord of the Rings&#8221; was premiered over 30 years ago. Because of Johan&#8217;s excellent support of music education, he created a special excerpt from the 5th movement, &#8220;Hobbits,&#8221; for our Bandworld readers. We hope you enjoy the &#8220;Hobbit&#8217;s Hymn&#8221; from Johan&#8217;s award-winning composition. Download the full [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":7307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,243,205],"tags":[247,246,408,253,305,307,306,7],"class_list":["post-4577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-article","category-video","tag-bandworld","tag-bandworld-magazine","tag-download-music","tag-free-music","tag-full-band","tag-johan-de-meij","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7237,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions\/7237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}