I batter books with my barren heart

[sovay]

My schedule for this year's Arisia is compact and somewhat memorial:

Dramatic Readings from the Ig Nobel Prizes
Friday 10 PM
Marc Abrahams (m), Michelle Liguori, James Bredt

Highlights from Ig Nobel prize-winning studies and patents, presented in dramatic mini-readings by luminaries and experts (in some field). The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions about the research presented—answers will be based on the expertise of the presenters, who may have a different expertise than the researchers.

[In previous years I have read "The Number 13 as a Castration Fantasy" and "The highest-ranking rooster has priority to announce the break of dawn." Come discover with me what abomination of science I will have to explain this time.]

Harlan Ellison: In Memoriam
Saturday 1 PM
Michael A. Burstein (m), Robert B. Finegold M.D., John Trimble, Lisa Hertel, Sonya Taaffe

Harlan Ellison was one of the great short story writers of all time, and one of the field's larger-than-life figures. He was also someone whose bad behavior often undercut his achievements and even the good deeds he attempted to do. We'll discuss both his literary legacy and his personal one. Note that this panel will likely discuss topics that are uncomfortable for some people.

Ursula K. Le Guin: In Memoriam
Saturday 2:30 PM
Trisha J. Wooldridge (m.), Mark W. Richards, Sarah Smith, A.J. Odasso, Sonya Taaffe

SFWA Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin passed away early last year at the age of 88. Best known for her Earthsea series, as well as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Disposessed, Le Guin consistently pushed themes of identity and social structure in her narratives. Join our panelists as they remember her life and works, and share what Le Guin meant to us all, as well as her influence on the genre as a whole.

Nightstand Readings
Saturday 7 PM
Timothy Goyette, Kel Bachus, Sonya Taaffe

Come find the next title to set on your nightstand for your bedtime reading routine, with authors reading to you from their own original works of fiction.

[I may read from either Forget the Sleepless Shores or new fiction. Come find out!]

Sing-along: Yiddish Songs
Sunday 11:30 AM
Anabel Graetz (m.), Sonya Taaffe, Marnen Laibow-Koser

There is a rich tradition of song from Jewish communities in Russia and Eastern Europe. Come sing along with some of these. Songs of work and play will be featured; no liturgical songs will be included. (Participatory sing-along with words provided.)

What We DIDN'T Steal from Tolkien
Sunday 5:30 PM
Kristin Janz (m.), James Hailer, Bekah Maren Anderson, Ken Gale, Sonya Taaffe

Tolkien, for all his flaws, did things in his work that revolutionized the literary landscape, yet so much of the deep, interesting, and nuanced aspects of his writing get overlooked in favor of the things at the surface level—the things that became trope-namers or cliches of the genre, the ways he influenced authors who came after. But what parts of Tolkien have been overlooked? What did he do that was worthwhile, yet which modern fantasy authors haven't emulated?

And Monday is spatch's birthday, so this works out nicely. Who can I expect to see there?

Comments

[kore]

What did he do that was worthwhile, yet which modern fantasy authors haven't emulated?

I guess my first reaction would be all the songs, and/or poetry -- but like Peter S. Beagle said the best of the songs start singing themselves off the page, and the narrative voice has the vocabulary and even cadences of epic poetry and often the characters do too. Singing is such a huge part of that world -- and people do it so naturally and openly -- but it just appears in little bits in all the adaptations. Digging around, I found this post about the Tolkien Ensemble:

The Tolkien Ensemble was established in 1995 by Caspar Reiff of the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and by Peter Hall of the London College of Music. In the next few years, they managed to assemble a group of fellow musicians equally enthusiastic about the project and began recording and performing concerts to high acclaim worldwide. At a 1999 concert at Exeter College in Oxford, even the Professor’s daughter Priscilla Tolkien praised their accomplishments.
In 2001, the Ensemble collaborated with renowned actor Christopher Lee, who narrates some poetic tracks and is the voice of Treebeard in songs from The Two Towers. The Ensemble initially released separate collections of pieces in albums titled An Evening in Rivendell, A Night in Rivendell (both 2000), At Dawn in Rivendell (2002), and Leaving Rivendell (2005). In 2006, all of their pieces were released in a Complete Songs and Poems collection, with the pieces arranged as they appear in the books. They were also given permission to use illustrations by HM Queen Magrethe II of Denmark for their album covers.

http://tolkien-ensemble.net/musik/musik.html

I don't know if they sound right, but it's interesting that they tried. (I dunno if I'm right either, the first thing that leaped to my mind was "The singing always gets left out." There are books that feature singing, but I don't remember a lot that have as many actual songs and poems as LOTR does.)

[sovay]

I don't know if they sound right, but it's interesting that they tried.

Donald Swann did a cycle of Tolkien settings that have always interested me. (He also did an opera of Lewis' Perelandra, which I have wanted to see ever since I heard it existed because what.) They don't sound like Middle-Earth to me, but again, I like that someone gave it a shot.

Did you ever listen to the 1981 radio series of The Lord of the Rings? I think thisbluespirit recommended it to me; Stephen Oliver did the music and I like it. This is Bill Nighy as Sam: "In Western Lands."

[negothick]

There's one good book on the larger subject of music and Tolkien--a bit late to track it down, but maybe you can find it--Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien, edited by Brad Eden (2010) from McFarland.Not surprisingly, Google Books has the bits online that discuss out-of-copyright poetry rather than copyrighted music.
Since the films, copyright enforcement on Tolkien's lyrics has been strict--the groups performing Marion Zimmer Bradley's settings have been shut down, and Broceliande's recording "The Starlit Jewel" was proscribed. Nevertheless, these settings can still be heard in filk circles.