Musical Versions
In 1967 Donald Swann published a musical rendition in the musical score of the song cycle The Road Goes Ever On. He and Donald Elvin also recorded this song cycle on an LP record. The LP also included a recording of Tolkien reading this prayer. The Road Goes Ever On was republished in 1978 and 1993, and the recording was released as a CD in 1993. The CD contained only the song cycle (including "A Elbereth Gilthoniël"), but not Tolkien's reading of the prayer.
The 1981 dramatisation by BBC Radio of the Lord of the Rings, included a version composed by Stephen Oliver which was released as the second track of soundtrack album, which itself is included in some commercial versions of the BBC's production.
A rendition composed by David Long with Plan 9 (David Donaldson, Steve Roche, and Janet Roddick) is briefly heard in the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, where Sam and Frodo encounter "wood elves" who are singing the hymn while leaving Middle-earth. The complete song ("Passing of the Elves" / "Elvish Lament") is included in The Complete Recordings edition of the soundtrack for the film.
Read more about this topic: A Elbereth Gilthoniel
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or versions:
“I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seemed all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny man’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)