Lord of the Ring: The Animated Musical | Music: The Wood Is Full of Rumor
In this week’s essay, I introduce the next musical selection, which includes an instrumental and the song “The Wood Is Full of Rumour”. While not treated as a song in the original text, I wrote the piece by borrowing information provided by Gandalf to Frodo while he discussed the interaction of the Woodmen and Wood-elves who live in Mirkwood and could not catch a monstrous “ghost who drank blood”. I also drew inspiration from music of the Middle Ages, including the medieval method of creating harmony and the instruments that originally played this music.
Plainchant and Organum
During the late 9th century, an unknown author now known as Pseudo-Hucbald wrote a pair of manuscripts, Musica enchiriadis [Music Handbook] and Scholia enchiriadis [Comment Handbook] that changed the sound of Western music forever. Before these books, the accepted form of sung music was plainchant or plainsong, the English translation of the Latin phrase cantus planus which arrived via Old French during the late 14th century. All of the singers in a church would sing in monophony, meaning the same melody. Pseudo-Hucbald proposed that singers might try polyphony or many voices, preferably a major fourth, a perfect fifth, or an octave above the melody. In the medieval period, this was known as organum, Latin for “musical instrument”, which entered both Old English and Old French around the 12th century; its modern sense of “instrument involving pipes” arose by the late 14th century.
Organum was a huge hit and gave rise to a wide range of chants. The most famous of these is the Gregorian chant, erroneously attributed to Pope Gregory I. Composers and singers had their favorite styles of organum. Pseudo‑Hucbald and his followers preferred intervals of a fifth or diapente, while Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo and his followers preferred intervals of a fourth or diatesseron. Guido’s other major accomplishment was developing modern staff notation, which I still use today in a digital format. Also existing today is the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society based in the UK, which produces regular publications and a scholarly journal along with hosting performances and other events. Chants are alive and well!
Medieval Instruments
Outside of voices reminiscent of a medieval style, I selected instruments of the time. I have already described the elf instruments, including the kantele or Finnish folk dulcimer that first appeared in “The Epigraph” and the goavddis or Sámi frame drum introduced in the “Lothlórien / Galadriel Theme” first appearing in the “After Breakfast” instrumental.
The woodmen use one instrument similar to the hobbit musicians of the Shire, albeit larger in size. The viol or viola de gamba was popular between the 15th and 18th centuries before it became the violin, viola, violoncello or cello, and double or upright bass.
Accompanying the viols is the tambourine, also known as the timbrel or tabret. This ancient instrument is a frame drum with tiny cymbals around the edge. While used in the worship of many Mediterranean pagan gods who have previously appeared on the blog, including the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Phoenician goddess Astarte or Asherah, the instrument also appears in the Bible. Israelite leader Miriam, the older sister of the first priest Aaron and of Moses who was floated down the river in a basket as a baby, led women in playing timbrels and dancing (Exodus 15:20). King David often held celebrations with timbrels (1 Samuel 18:6; 2 Samuel 6:5; 1 Chronicles 13:8), while the instrument appeared in multiple psalms and prophesies.
Another instrument heard here is the shawm, an ancestor of the oboe that first appeared during the 16th century after being introduced from Islamic cultures. By combining the viol, timbrel, and shawm, the listener quickly identifies the sound as medieval even if they cannot name the exact instruments.
Music Theory Summary
This simple piece contains a brief introduction where all instruments play together. The dulcimer, frame drum, and viol play the same repeated rhythm: a quarter note and two eighth notes. The tambourine plays the rhythm at half speed: an eighth note and two sixteenth notes. The shawm plays alone: a seven-beat note followed by an accented quarter note.
Next, the wood-elves sing their line of the song in two voices: a high voice and a low voice set apart in a perfect fifth, making this the diapente style preferred by Pseudo-Hucbald. The wood-elves are accompanied only by dulcimer and frame drum in the same steady rhythm. For the next line, the woodmen sing in four voices set apart in fourths, fifths, and octaves. The tambourine accompanies them in the same rhythm as before, while the shawm and viols play the same melody as the singers. Finally, both wood-elves and woodmen sing a line together with all of the instruments. When the people stop singing, the instruments continue as before, tagging the final two measures of the song, until a mighty crash of the percussion brings them to a close.
Watch the music video here: