Of Harps and Hobbits

We all know what is going to happen this December – that single life-changing event we’ve all been waiting for, more than Christmas, more than the Mayan end of the world, more even than the release of The Avengers. This December, Peter Jackson will release his first installment of The Hobbit.

If you’ve seen the theatrical trailer, you know already that the film promises to be exciting, breathtaking, suspenseful, and, of course, musical. As I was watching the trailer, happiness bubbled up inside of me; the film looks like it will be amazing, but one question rose to the forefront of my mind. (No, I’m not kidding.) I couldn’t help but wonder: where are the musical instruments?

Where are Fili And Kili’s fiddles, Bombur’s drum, Dwalin and Balin’s viols “as big as themselves”, and most importantly, Thorin’s harp? In the first chapter of The Hobbit, Tolkien described Thorin’s harp as beautiful and golden and when he struck it, “the music began all at once, so sudden and sweet that Bilbo forgot everything else, and was swept away into dark lands under strange moons, far over The Water and very far from his Hobbit-hole under The Hill.”

Two pages of dwarvish poetry follow and years ago I composed a melody to accompany all ten verses. Here is a clip of that composition starting about half-way through, recorded at Ferguson Hall during my honors recital in 2009:

The first verse:

Far over misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.

My favorite verse is probably the sixth due to its mention of harps (I’m not biased):

Goblets they carved there for themselves
And harps of gold; where no man delves
There lay they long, and many a song
Was sung unheard by elves or men.

I love Howard Shore’s version of this song that we hear in the new Hobbit trailer. I sang and hummed the melody for days after I first heard it. But my one fear is that it will come to supplant my meager compositional attempt even in my own mind. The grandeur, the cinematic splendor of the film will most likely eclipse my rustic childhood fancy.

One of my very first memories (in life) is of my mother reading to me from the old 1970’s edition paperback. And even though I am eagerly anticipating Peter Jackson and Howard Shore’s version of The Hobbit, I’m planning on hunkering down with my book-inspired mental images and melodies and fighting to “make new friends, but keep the old.”

Any thoughts on the upcoming movie or the book? Are you looking forward to the movie? What parts of the book do you especially want to see on film?

See the upcoming movie trailer now AND hear a snippet of the song!

Next post: Where Opera and Baseball Meet…

Stephanie Claussen is a professional harpist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She performs on her harp throughout Minnesota in various concerts, recitals, and collaborations with other musicians. Consider signing up for her e-mail newsletter to be notified directly of upcoming performances and important announcements.