Svatební píseň Romantická Oslavná Milostná I. věk Epická

The melody of the “Wedding song” is stolen from my favorite opera “La forza del destino” by Giuseppe Verdi. In the opera it´s a prayer to Virgin Mary, sung by a soprano (Leonora) and a man choir (monks). I originally planned to take only one or two of the voices and some instruments from the score and I nearly fainted after Daniela decided it would be amusing to try and study all of Verdi´s many lines. In our Fellowship we are a little short of monks and the song was finally performed by Beren, Lúthien, four bridesmaids and a great wolfhound of Valinor. The song in our arrangement is also in much faster tempo than the original.

Jana Pažoutová

Jana came up with the idea that she has a favorite aria from Verdi's opera “La forza del destino” and asked me, what I think about her intend to text it for the wedding of Beren and Lúthien. Why not, I'm saying (the soprano soloist on youtube was really good), add the lyrics and get the notes. Which also happened.

Studying Verdi's score taught me a lot. First of all: There were so many voices and instruments in it that only one line could fit on each page of the score. The second thing that surprised me was the music itself - absolutely harmoniously trivial, no dissonance or harmonic twists. And the third thing was the complicated rhythm of the aria - while some instruments play in a rhythm of 12/8, others on the other hand 16/8, and I realized that this permanent trio feeling is quite typical for Verdi.

However, we would not be able to deal with that in FS - I chose (no matter what Jana said) only a small part of the voices (choir, one solo voice, one harmonic instrument and cello), and I rewrote everything to 12/8 rhythm. We replaced the hundred-headed choir of monks with four bridesmaids and radically accelerated the whole.

Daniela, (translation: Elsa)

Now I call upon the Valar with my song,
for them to look kindly at the couple,
may Varda bless their love
and Manwë grants them happiness.

Beren and Lúthien Song Cycle

(contains 24 songs, of which 20 on CD Beren and Lúthien, 2 only here on the website Songs of Middle-earth, 2 not yet recorded)

• The Story of a Maid (not on CD)
  
• Tarn Aeluin
• Meeting of Beren and Lúthien
• Jewel for Jewel
• Who is Comming? (not on CD)
• Interrogation by Sauron
• The Duel of Sauron and Finrod Felagund
• Finrod's Death
• Valacirca
• The Flight from Hírilorn
• Tol Sirion
• Double Song (not on CD, nor on website)
• Throw Me a Stick!
• Thuringwethil
• Morgoth's Laullaby (not on CD, nor on website)
• Carcharoth
• Flying High
• The Return to Menegroth
• The Wedding Song
• The Wolf Hunt
• The Longing
• Lament of Lúthien
• The Resolvement
• Farewell (Namárië)