official site of pZi / Pal Zoltan Illes composer, producer

    
 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Symphonic Tales of The Silmarillion - Seventh Movement: Aulë, Smith of the Valar - Compositional Diary

At last the seventh movement of the Symphonic Tales of the Silmarillion cycle is ready! Portraying Aulë, creator of the land masses of Arda, father of the Dwarves. He was the divine master of crafts, smithing many things, among them the Chains of Melkor. Link

"As Aulë is a smith, he is the Vala most similar in thought and powers to Melkor, in that they each gloried in the fashioning of artful and original things. Both also came to create beings of their own. But while Aulë strove to be true to the original intent of the Music of the Ainur, and submitted all that he did to the will of Ilúvatar, Melkor wished to control and subvert all things, and was jealous of the creations of others so that he would try to twist or destroy all that they made. There was long strife between Aulë and Melkor both before and after the creation of Arda. Aulë, however, traditionally opposed attempts to fight Melkor, for fear of the damage that would be wrought to Arda.
When the Elves came to Valinor, the Ñoldor became the students of Aulë. Fëanor was his greatest pupil, and from him learned to make gems through craftsmanship that is now forgotten. This would eventually lead to the Silmarils, the greatest creation of handiwork within Arda. On the Flight of the Noldor, the Noldor who returned to Valinor under Finarfin named themselves the Aulendur, Followers of Aulë. Despite his lordly skill, Aulë is humble and compassionate, and indeed the Dwarves survived only because Aulë submitted them to the will of Ilúvatar. His spouse is Yavanna, with whom he dwells in central Valinor." -- http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Aul%C3%AB

The arrangement is heavily relying on choral parts, especially accented on the bass section of the choir, representing the dwarven folk who He created. 
It consists of two main characteristic parts: first one is depicting the more serious, epic nature of this divine figure. At start the choirs are going light accompanied by some wind and stringed instruments playing piano, then switching to a higher gear with the epic Godzilla hits and some quick string runs and brass progressions. 
The second part is giving a cheerful salutation to the archangel with quickly evolving melody in the forte part and slower choral parts, both in a graceful, light and positive context. 
Hope you'll enjoy it!


Monday, March 16, 2015

Symphonic Tales of The Silmarillion - Fifth and Sixth Movement: Elbereth & Melkor - Compositional Diary

The portraits continued! First released Elbereth, also known as Varda, wife of Manwë. Then just yesterday Melkor's portray got ready to be rolled out! Hope you will like them!

Elbereth, Queen of the Stars


Melkor, The Dark Lord