Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings

The symphony consists of five movements,{{cite web |title=The Lord of the Rings |author=Amstel Music |url=http://www.euronet.nl/~amsmusic/toelicht/lordof.htm |accessdate=2007-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071104085318/http://www.euronet.nl/~amsmusic/toelicht/lordof.htm |archive-date=4 November 2007 |url-status=dead}} each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the book:

1. Gandalf (The Wizard): this movement is "marked by a full, striving theme, and later breaks into a fast ride on Shadowfax."
2. Lothlórien (The Elvenwood)
3. Gollum (Sméagol)
4. Journey in the Dark
5. : a. The Mines of Moria
6. : b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm
7. Hobbits

The CD by the military band {{ill |Koninklijke Militaire Kapel |nl}} helped give the symphony worldwide acclaim. In 1989 it won the Sudler Composition Award.{{cite web |title=Johan De Meij |work=The Flying Inkpot |url=http://www.inkpot.com/classical/meijbonering.html |accessdate=7 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222124052/http://www.inkpot.com/classical/meijbonering.html |archivedate=22 December 2007}} It has been recorded by several orchestras.{{cite web |title=World Projects Faculty Member: Johan de Meij |url=https://www.world-projects.net/faculty/johan-de-meij/ |publisher=World Projects |access-date=28 September 2021}} An orchestral version of the piece, orchestrated by Henk de Vlieger, was premiered and recorded in 2001 by the London Symphony Orchestra to coincide with the release of the 2001 film, The Fellowship of the Ring.{{cite book |last1=de Vlieger |first1=Henk |last2=de Meij |first2=Johan |title=Symphony no. 1: inspired by the lord of the rings |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48691862 |publisher=WorldCat |access-date=10 November 2021 |oclc=48691862}}

The musicologist Estelle Jorgensen wrote that while the symphony has a programmatic aspect, it is "also formally interesting as sheer instrumental sound."{{cite journal |last1=Jorgensen |first1=Estelle R. |title=Music, Myth, and Education: The Case of The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy |journal=Reasons of the Heart: Myth, Meaning and Education, an International Conference University of Edinburgh, September 9–12, 2004 |date=December 2004 |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/27585/Music%20Myth%20and%20Education%20The%20Case%20of%20%20The%20Lord%20of%20the%20Rings%20Film%20Trilogy%20pre-print.pdf?sequence=1 |page=18}}

The Tolkien scholar David Bratman noted in 2010 that the symphony had attracted four recordings. He commented that though it was Dutch, it was in the tradition of British concert band and symphonic composers like Malcolm Arnold and Gustav Holst.{{cite book |last=Bratman |first=David |author-link=David Bratman |chapter=Liquid Tolkien: Music, Tolkien, Middle-earth, and More Music |editor-last1=Eden |editor-first1=Bradford Lee |editor1-link=Bradford Lee Eden |title=Middle-earth Minstrel: Essays on Music in Tolkien |date=2010 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5660-4 |pages=162–163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AOS74uZTasYC}} He stated, too, that like another symphony based on The Lord of the Rings, the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen's 1996 Symphony No. 7 The Dreams of Gandalf, it mainly aims not to tell the story but to create a mood. Thus, three of the movements introduce characters – Gandalf, Gollum, and (the finale) the Hobbits. The second movement, Bratman wrote, presents the character of a place, the Elvish wood of Lothlórien, "which, like everyone from Bo Hansson to Enya, de Meij seems to hear as steamy." He made an exception for the fourth movement, "Journey in the Dark", which does narrate a story, the dangerous passage through the Mines of Moria.

In celebration of the symphony's 25th anniversary, de Meij conducted the Performance of the piece by the bands of Valparaiso University.{{cite web |title=Johan De Meij - Symphony No. 1: The Lord of the Rings - V Hobbits | website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvgnj7LWtDQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/Yvgnj7LWtDQ| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|accessdate=8 March 2016}}{{cbignore}}

In 2001, Paul Lavender wrote a shorter, Grade III variation of the symphony, condensing three of de Meij's five movements into a concert version. It was premiered at the 2001 Midwest Clinic by the VanderCook College of Music, directed by De Meij.{{cite news |title=Lord of the Rings (arr. Lavender) |url=https://www.windrep.org/Lord_of_the_Rings_(arr._Lavender) |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240226205906/https://www.windrep.org/Lord_of_the_Rings_(arr._Lavender) |archive-date=2024-02-26 |access-date=2025-03-10 |work=Wind Repertory Project}}

• Dutch Royal Military Band conducted by Pierre Kuijpers (Ottavo, 1989) *The composer served as music advisor for this recording
• The Danish Concert Band conducted by Jørgen Misser Jensen (Copenhagen, 1994)
• Ensemble vents et percussion de Quebec conducted by René Joly (ATMA, 1997)
• London Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Warble (2001)
• Blaeserphilharmonie Regensburg conducted by Jörg Seggelke (2007) {{cite web|title=Der Herr der Ringe, Johan de Meij - Sinfonie Nr.1|url=http://sbor.de/index.php?id=66|accessdate=2014-10-07|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011084604/http://sbor.de/index.php?id=66|archivedate=2014-10-11}}

• Music of Middle-earth
• {{section link|Music of The Lord of the Rings film series|Symphony}} (symphony based on music from the Peter Jackson films)

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Category:1988 compositions

Category:Compositions by Johan de Meij

De Meij

De Meij 1

Category:Music based on The Lord of the Rings