John Takis

Thor, you rogue! I did not carefully sequence this album with an ideal listening experience in mind just to have you turn up your Norwegian nose at it!

 

So the Label X CD is a bootleg??? I bought it in Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus back in the mid 90s so I assumed it was official! (Mind you, I bought the two Tsunami CDs there too and they are generally considered to be of questionable legality these days, aren't they?) So who conductied Heidi? According to the Label X CD Eberhard Soblick conducted the orchestra, but the new Quartet release states "Composed and Conducted by John Williams" on the cover.

 

No, it is not a bootleg, but it was produced in Germany where other copyright rules apply.

 

 

The Label X CD was apparently produced in conjunction with Studio Hamburg, who helped finance the film and gave it theatrical distribution in Germany. Label X did not, however, license the recordings from Capitol Records or EMI. It may have been within the letter of German copyright law (or maybe not; I'm no lawyer), but from an international perspective it was dubious. Furthermore, I would argue that the treatment of the music left something to be desired. Nothing was done to address the looped passages (which were not done for musical reasons, but to conform to dialogue), and in my opinion the track sequence was also wanting in terms of musical flow. I don't wish to offend anyone who was happy with this approach, but I was not satisfied.

 

As far as Eberhard Soblick goes, consider that John Williams is credited as the sole conductor in the film itself, and John Williams is credited as the sole conductor on the original Capitol Records LP. I am unwilling to accept the Label X CD as good evidence to the contrary, given the presence of major errors throughout their release. For example: Label X erroneously credits CBS rather than NBC; they give a recording date of 1967, when I have documents that indicate 1968; and they use the "Johnny Williams" credit, when both the film and original album use "John Williams." Most objectionably, they make NO mention of the fact that, in addition to the Hamburg material, their release includes tracks that were recorded by Williams at CTS Studios in London (and without crediting the vocalist).

 

These are some of the reasons I hope that Williams fans who already have the Label X CD in their collections will consider purchasing the Quartet Records release -- if the improved sound were not motive enough, of course!

Thanks, Jason. This was a fascinating project to work on, and really gave me new appreciation for Mahler's First Symphony, on which Fielding's score is based.

Orcs might actually live indefinitely as there lineage traces to Elves but their violent life and society does not allow this for most of them.

It's an interesting notion, although my guess would be that whatever corrosive biological process Morgoth used to deform the Orcs' original genetic makeup made a long and healthy life unlikely, even apart from their lifestyle. I like the fact that in Jackson's films, the "leader" Orcs (both Gothmog and the Great Goblin) are especially diseased and deformed. This seems correct to me; one can speculate that longevity goes hand in hand with increasing physical corruption -- and that without the benefit of a hardy Elvish constitution (or what remains of one), these beings would have succumbed to their grotesque infirmities long ago.

The more interesting question to me is not where the bodies of Orcs (and other servants of the Enemy) come from. It is easy to imagine Morgoth corrupting pre-existing life into something terrible ... in fact, it is not too hard to imagine this in the real world, given the current state of science. The bigger question concerns their minds and spirits. The idea of an entire race of truly living beings, with their own thinking brains and souls, who are essentially predestined for damnation was troubling to Tolkien. There is some interesting writing on this topic in the "Myths Transformed" section of the History of Middle-earth book Morgoth's Ring. Having presented the Orcs as unable to repent or be redeemed, Tolkien was forced to consider their nature as "rational" agents. One concept was of Orcs as mere intelligent animals, capable of being trained to speak and behave the way a parrot does. But this in itself doesn't seem like a totally satisfying explanation for how they are presented in the novels. I favor the theory that the wills and minds (such as they are) of the Orcs are actually broken fragments of the mind/will of Morgoth himself -- and probably Sauron with him. Unable to create minds and souls ex nihilo, they expended some of their own power to infuse their malformed subjects with thoughts and motives. This concentrated their power in the form of an army of followers ... but a crude and fractious one. And it had the effect of diminishing their own potency and selfhood -- sort of like Voldemort breaking his soul and installing its pieces in "horcruxes," in the Harry Potter series. This scenario would be similar to the way that a large portion of Sauron's power and will was concentrated in the One Ring; it made a great weapon, but it made him ultimately vulnerable to dissolution. It also neatly explains why the Orcs, after Sauron's downfall, essentially go crazy and destroy themselves. The vital principle that was animating their brutish thoughts and desires was suddenly torn away, and all that was left was broken animal impulses.

There is also a suggestion that certain "higher level" Orcs or Goblins may in fact house indwelling spirits from before the creation of Arda, as with Balrogs, creatures like Ungoliant, and (it is implied) Dragons. In a case like this, Morgoth's groundwork provides a body and a fallen spirit provides a "soul." Azog seems like he would be a likely candidate for this sort of malefic possession ... perhaps the Great Goblin, also. It would help explain why they have so much more personality and strength of will than the underlings who surround them.

Still, the odd thing about the Dwarf issue is that it's repeatedly emphasised that only the Men were given the GIft of Illuvatar... and yet the Dwarves die a natural death, too.

The "Gift of Ilúvatar" is not merely natural death, but a liberation of sorts from the "Circles of the World." Men are spiritually restless and seek beyond the world, and their spirits truly depart from the world after death. The spirits (or fëa) of Elves who are killed, by contrast, never leave the world, but are gathered in the Halls of Mandos, in Valinor -- which, despite being largely sundered from Middle-earth at the time of LOTR, is still considered to be part of Arda proper. Thus, it is possible for Elves to be reincarnated, after a fashion.

The fate of Dwarves is left somewhat obscure. They die a "natural" death like Men; yet, in keeping with their origin, they are far more creatures of Arda, and feel spiritually at home within it. Their conception of an afterlife is one of peaceful rest, deep within the bosom of the earth ("I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers until the world is renewed..."). Like the Elves, they have an idea of reincarnation, although it seems limited to the original Dwarf Fathers. Given all this, one might posit that the "Gift of Ilúvatar" -- with its connotation of eternal restlessness within Arda and an ultimate destiny external to it -- would be incomprehensible, if not horrifying, to the Dwarvish mind.

Do hobbits have the "Gift of Ilúvatar?" I suspect the answer is yes. It is true that, like Dwarves, they are comfortable living in communion with the earth; moreso than most of the human cultures we meet in LOTR. But Tolkien makes it fairly apparent that they are an offshoot of humanity -- perhaps closer, in their lifestyle and outlook, to the human community as it existed before the corrupting influence of Morgoth (nor are they totally immune to such depredations, as Saruman/Sharkey makes abundantly clear). In their affinity for the natural world, they can be said to have "gone Dwarvish" to an extent. But the innate restlessness that is humanity's legacy has not been bred out of them entirely -- as personified, of course, by Bilbo Baggins!