The Road Goes Ever On
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- This article is about the song cycle, book, and recording. For the individual songs of this name, see The Road Goes Ever On (song).
The Road Goes Ever On is a song cycle that has been published as sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by Donald Swann, and the words are taken from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth literature.
The title of this opus is taken from "The Road Goes Ever On", the first song in the collection. The songs form a song cycle, designed to fit together well when played in sequence.
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[edit] Musical and lyrical content
With Tolkien's approval, Donald Swann wrote the music for this song cycle, and much of the music resembles English traditional music or folk music. The sole exception is the Elvish (Quenya) song "Namárië," which was based on a tune by Tolkien himself and which has some affinities to Gregorian chant.
This book has been valued even by those uninterested in the music, since it helps Tolkien's readers to better understand the cultures of the various mythological beings presented in Middle-earth, and helps linguists analyse Tolkien's poetry. For example, it contains one of the longest samples of the language Quenya (in the song "Namárië"), as well as the Sindarin prayer "A Elbereth Gilthoniel."
Also, in addition to the sheet music, the book includes an introduction that contains additional information about Middle-earth. Prior to the publication of The Silmarillion, such information was rare and was greatly valued by Tolkien aficionados.
[edit] Publication history (book and audio recordings)
The first edition of The Road Goes Ever On was published in 1967.
An LP record of this song cycle was recorded on 12 June 1967, with Donald Swann on piano and William Elvin singing. This record also includes Elvin reading the Sindarin prayer "A Elbereth Gilthoniel," in addition to the musical version of this prayer by Swann and Elvin. This LP record, entitled Poems & Songs of Middle Earth, is long out of print and very difficult to find.
The second edition of The Road Goes Ever On, published in 1978, added music for "Bilbo's Last Song." This song was also published separately.
The third edition, published in 1993, added music for "Lúthien Tinúviel" from The Silmarillion, which had earlier appeared in The Songs of Donald Swann: Volume I. The third edition of The Road Goes Ever On was packaged with a CD that duplicated the contents of the LP record from the 1970's (except for the Tolkien-read poem), as well as two new recordings. The third edition was reprinted in hardcover in 2002 by Harper Collins (ISBN 0-00-713655-2); this had the same text and CD as the 1993 edition.
On June 10, 1995, the song cycle was performed in Rotterdam under the auspices of the Dutch Tolkien Society, by the baritone Jan Krediet together with the chamber choir EnSuite and Alexandra Swemer on the piano. A CD of this concert was published in a limited edition.
[edit] List of songs
The complete list of songs in this song-cycle is as follows:
- "The Road Goes Ever On." From The Fellowship of the Ring I, 1: "A Long-expected Party."
- "Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red." From The Fellowship of the Ring I, 3: "Three is Company."
- "In the Willow-meads of Tasarinan." From The Two Towers III, 4: "Treebeard."
- "In Western Lands." From The Return of the King VI, 1: "The Tower of Cirith Ungol".
- "Namárië." From The Fellowship of the Ring II, 8: "Farewell to Lórien."
- "I Sit Beside the Fire." From The Fellowship of the Ring II, 3: "The Ring Goes South."
- "A Elbereth Gilthoniel." From The Fellowship of the Ring II, 1: "Many Meetings."
- "I Sit Beside the Fire," conclusion.
- "Errantry." From The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
The following additional songs were added after the first edition, but do not form part of the song cycle itself:
- "Bilbo's Last Song." Given to Donald Swann at Tolkien's funeral. — Only in the second and third editions of the book. On the CD but not the LP.
- "Lúthien Tinúviel." From The Silmarillion 19: "Of Beren and Lúthien." — Only in the third edition of the book. On the CD but not the LP.
[edit] External links
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| Published during his lifetime: | The Hobbit · The Lord of the Rings · The Adventures of Tom Bombadil · The Road Goes Ever On |
| Posthumous publications: | The Silmarillion · Unfinished Tales · The History of Middle-earth (12 volumes) · Bilbo's Last Song · The Children of Húrin · The History of The Hobbit |
| Lists of articles: | By category · By name · Writings · Characters · Peoples · Rivers · Realms · Ages |
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| Bibliography | |
| Fiction | Songs for the Philologists (1936) • The Hobbit or There and Back Again (1937) • Leaf by Niggle (1945) • The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945) • Farmer Giles of Ham (1949) • The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953) • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), The Return of the King (1955) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962) • The Road Goes Ever On (1967) • Tree and Leaf (1964) • The Tolkien Reader (1966) • Smith of Wootton Major (1967) |
| Posthumous Fiction | The Father Christmas Letters (1976) • The Silmarillion (1977) • Unfinished Tales (1980) • Bilbo's Last Song (1990) • The History of Middle-earth (12 Volumes) (1983–1996) • Roverandom (1998) • The Children of Húrin (2007) • The History of The Hobbit (2007) |
| Academic | A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925) • Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography (1925) • The Devil's Coach Horses (1925) • Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad (1929) • The Name 'Nodens' (1932) • Sigelwara Land parts I and II, in Medium Aevum (1932-34) • Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale (1934) • Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1937) • The Reeve's Tale: version prepared for recitation at the 'summer diversions' (1939) • On Fairy-Stories (1939) • Sir Orfeo (1944) • Ofermod and Beorhtnoth's Death (1953) • Middle English "Losenger": Sketch of an etymological and semantic enquiry (1953) • Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (1962) • English and Welsh (1963) • Introduction to Tree and Leaf (1964) • Contributions to the Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer) (1966) • Tolkien on Tolkien (autobiographical) (1966) |
| Posthumous Academic | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (Modern English translations, 1975) • Finn and Hengest (1982) • The Monsters and the Critics (1983) • Beowulf and the Critics (2002) |
