I was very excited when I saw this submission, as LOTR has been a pretty big way that me and my sister have connected over the years. I have fond memories of reciting Tolkien's poetry to each other and remember being very excited to hear some of our favorite ones realized as full songs when the first Hobbit movie came out. I was immediately struck by how immersive the track is. The panning and recording technique make for such an intimate listening experience that I feel as if I'm there sitting at a long table in a great hall and singing along. I really enjoy how personal and genuine this submission feels :)
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Tolkien Music Project - The King Beneath the Mountains's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to Project Description | #1 | 4.846 | 4.846 |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity | #2 | 4.308 | 4.308 |
| Overall | #2 | 4.308 | 4.308 |
| Execution | #5 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Composing Quality | #5 | 4.231 | 4.231 |
| Listenability | #7 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/alkan23/3b11f4b9-1335-4f99-be02-9f0eaeba2853
Description
This is a development of a composition I wrote for what I'm considering a lifelong project of writing music to the songs of Middle Earth, where Tolkien wrote poetry that is supposed to be sung.
The King Beneath The Mountains is one of those. Context:
"The King beneath the mountains is a poem about the King under the Mountain.[1] This song was sung by the people of Lake-town upon the arrival of Thorin Oakenshield and the Company. It was a prophecy made after the fall of Erebor and Dale about Thrór and Thráin."
https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_King_beneath_the_mountains
In the book, they supposedly use harps, though Tolkien's use of harps probably comes from the use of the word "harpa" in Norse poetry. So, I actually used a Ukele to emulate the block strumming technique of an Anglo Saxon lyre. I strung the Ukele with gut and tuned it to a more medieval tuning of a fourth and fifth interval, which is easy to improvise on.
My main objective with this was to come up with a compelling melody that fit the meter of the poem:
The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!
His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.
The woods shall wave on mountains
And grass beneath the sun;
His wealth shall flow in fountains
And the rivers golden run.
The streams shall run in gladness,
The lakes shall shine and burn,
All sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-king's return!
There are also supposed to be more lyrics as implied in the book; however, I don't feel confident in my poetry skills, so I just developed on the song. Part of how I wrote this is that it would be a song that everyone in Laketown would know, and would also know how to harmonize to, but it would be done improvisationally.
Screenshot of DAW
https://i.imgur.com/hJ4rtl7.png
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