While I was away

[Hermitage]

As some of you know I have played Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) a bit while away from WOW (and more importantly NEM).

A couple of old friends played LOTRO, and lured me to try it. Once I discovered the music system I knew I had to involve myself to some extent. The LOTRO music system is unique in MMO's as far as I know.

This is the first piece I wrote for online performance, a short Tom Bombadil melody:

The Day Tom B went to War

It's probably the most stereotype neo-medieval as I have ever allowed Phedelene (my LOTRO minstrel composer) to be, she's all into experimental musix.

I could probably find a link or two more if anyone is interested.[/url]

[Shinkai]

/salute

A very nice melody, not sure about the title though, Tom has no interest in the actions of mortals, and thus doesn't take part in war.

[Hermitage]

Yeah the title is somewhat misleading, on purpose ...

On the other hand Tom's actions are just about as undetectable as those of Schrödinger's cat so we would never really know.

[Muckyfloor]

>.< I suspect herm secretly hosts QI.

Lawl you can imagine him strolling into a warzone with a bindle on his shoulder to this tune^

[...Mayday...]

i keep hearing these rumors that the herm is back *points at hermi* are you being sneaky stealthy? :o I have not had the chance to say "OHAI" yet *sob*

[Hermitage]

Nah I just haven't been much online yet since I resubbed.

Winter time is hibernation time!

[...Mayday...]

I think u forgot to get out of hibernation last year :P

[Hermitage]

Anyway, to expand a bit on Phedelene's (literally "Fat Lene" in Danish which is kinda funny because she's skinny even for an elf) merits:

One of the challenges that immediately attracted me to composing and arranging LOTRO music is the pretty odd instrumentarium:

Drum (Visually a bodhran rim drum, musically 3 octaves of mostly terribad percussion samples, with no metallophones (cymbal, triangle etc.) whatsoever).
Lute (The third age equivalent of the ubiquitous nylon string guitar).
Harp (Sounds more like a Gaelic harp than an orchestra one).
Theorbo (Bass lute, the samples sound a bit like a bass balalaika).
Bagpipe (Oi!).
Flute (The samples sound like the player had at most 3 hours experience with the instrument; very "breathy" and occasionally a fair bit out of tune).
Clarinet (Nice sound but TERRIBLY out of tune).
Horn (Visually reminiscent of the medieval "sink"; sound like a tenor sax).

While it's pretty easy to create "folksy" or indeed "medieval" sounding arrangements with these instruments (there's quite a lot of that around!) I saw it as an opportunity to profile Phedelene as more of a musical experimenter, trying to break away from the mold (and at the same time challenge myself as an arranger) ...

Here is one of her forays into "world music" (equally paying tribute to both Middle Eastern traditional music and jazz):

Desert Breezes from Khand (In came Myrtle)

[Hermitage]

Beastage wrote:

>.< I suspect herm secretly hosts QI. Lawl you can imagine him strolling into a warzone with a bindle on his shoulder to this tune^

Wat is QI?

[Tokryva]

Herm cannot be Stephen Fry... no way José!

[Muckyfloor]

He knows too much to not be stephen fry!

Oh tis a english show called QI = Quite Interesting where they discuss...quite interesting stuffs! With great success too :o

[Hermitage]

Beastage wrote:

Oh tis a english show called QI = Quite Interesting where they discuss...quite interesting stuffs! With great success too :o

Fankjoo - I knew Stephen Fry but not QI!

Talking of interesting, here's a quite interesting piece of music, it's a couple of years old now, from a TV show with Danish avant-garde group Efterklang and Radiounderholdningsorkesteret (the Danish national "light" broadcast orchestra).

It starts very slow, but please listen to it in its entirety, it's one of those pieces that grow on you.

(And they made the entire orchestra wear pointy hats which is quite interesting in its own right)

Cutting Ice to Snow - Efterklang & Radiounderholdningsorkesteret

[Hermitage]

Two of my favorite drummers at the moment - a thing they got in common is that they both got great chops but use them to play music instead of playing technical excercises ...

Gavin Harrison
Making complex things sound easy - the verse is in 7/8 but he masks the odd meter by playing the backbeat on "3 and" and "7" instead of trying to be clever.

Emmanuelle Caplette
Great pocket and great personality!

[Shinkai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MrKxzqJhR8

A Youtube QI link.