When I need to think about words, I can’t hear them. I mean: I can’t listen to music with words and write at the same time, unless I’m having a really good day tuning out the lyrics. The flip side is that with instrumental tracks that I know well, I can get caught up in anticipation, or the emotion, or the half-forgotten fingering of the chords. (And lyrics can be worse! The tiny movements of one’s throat and soft palate when you hear a great choral work that you’ve studied in and out, the practiced breaths at just the right time–before you know it, you’re writing lux aeterna when you mean the meeting adjourned at 8:35 a.m.)
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to skip sharing this piece with you. This is the first piece out from the upcoming soundtrack by Howard Shore for The Hobbit. The title could be a bit spoilery, I suppose; I don’t immediately remember who this is, but it’s a good bet that the character’s in the movie. It’s always interesting, to me, to hear how books translate into music.
