Tolkien gets Toes Tapping

Fresno State wind ensemble prepares to bring the sounds of ' Lord of the Rings' to life

By Rory Sa

Gandalf is coming to Fresno State to give music fans a taste of Middle-Earth. And he’s bringing a few of his closest friends with him.

Fresno State’s Wind Ensemble will be performing Dutch composer Johan de Meij’s Lord of the Rings symphony Friday at 8 p.m. with two concerts on Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m.

The production will feature Fresno State’s wind ensemble, dancers, narration, illustrated slides and the original slinker himself, Gollum.

Dr. Lawrence Sutherland, a professor at Fresno State, will conduct the symphony. Sutherland sounded eager as he described the beginning of his latest concert.

“ When the movie came out everyone was stoked,” Sutherland said. Graduate student Kevin O’Dell approached Sutherland about performing the symphony for a concert.

“ We decided it’d be great to deal with multimedia presentation, narrators in costume, visual things on screens and everything,” Sutherland said.

O’Dell brought together a talented mix of musicians, dancers and performers to bring elements of J.R.R. Tolkien’s thousand-page epic to Fresno State.

De Meij wrote the symphony in the late ‘80s. The symphony is divided into five parts, or movements: The first, Gandalf, revolves around the pivotal ally of Middle-Earth. The second movement deals with the Elves of Lothlorian as well as one of the events the Fellowship of the Ring dealt with in the first novel/movie.

The third movement focuses on the pathetic Gollum. The fourth deals with the felowship’s journey through the mines of Moria, their escape from the Orcs and Gandalf’s confrontation with the sinister Balrog. The final movement is dedicated to hobbits, the half-sized, hairy-footed heroes of LOTR.

The piece was performed last May as a fundraiser to help pay for seats in the music building’s concert hall. Sutherland and O’Dell took what they learned from this first performance to make improvements in the presentation. “Something I’ve learned from the last one is ‘less is more.’ You don’t have to tell everyone everything,” O’Dell said. “You don’t have to give a complete synopsis of the entire movement when you can print it in the program, or they can just use their own imaginations.”

“I didn’t want the music to be overshadowed by anything because the main focus is the music,” Sutherland said.

“ We’re here to perform this work. Everything else should be there to enhance and make, and try and make that work better, if that’s even possible.”

One addition to this year’s performance will be dancers. O’Dell approached dancers Diane Engeln and Aimee Morales about adding their talents to the concert. O’Dell worked with the two in the music department’s opera workshop. O’Dell said he gave the pair a CD of the symphony. That night O’Dell received a call from the dancers.

“ They actually called me to tell me ‘this is gorgeous; this is a beautiful piece of music.’”

Morales is a fan of the novels and the movies. “I never imagined I’d be dancing, or having to use what I’ve learned or read and turned it into a dance,” she said.

The performance also features projections with illustrations by artist Alan Lee. Lee created illustrations for the anniversary addition of the LOTR novels, and later served as a conceptual designer for the film trilogy.

Morales warned fans of the books and the movies not to come with expectations for the two. “There are elements of [the two] but it’s something on its own as well.”

This year proceeds will go toward sending the wind ensemble to the first annual WPC New Orleans Music Festival.