The Song of Galadriel

In the course of an otherwise unfruitful visit to a dingy junkshop on Pantarholmen, Karlskrona, ca. 2002, I picked up an odd-looking double album called The Lund - St. Petri Symphony by Lubomyr Melnyk. I found it wasn't a symphony in any conventional sense, but rather piano music: extended compositions comprising patterns of rapid arpeggios, what its originator termed "music in the continuous mode".

I enjoyed the album a good deal and went on-line in search of more information - but at that time there wasn't much of it to be found. I did, however, stumble upon a forum post giving a (snail-mail) address where Melnyk might be contacted. I wrote him a letter, having gathered it would be possible to order records from him directly - which proved to be the case. The Song of Galadriel was one of the three LPs I obtained that way.

The album, recorded and released in 1985 consists of two long tracks, one per side: 'Legend' and the titular 'Song of Galadriel'. Tolkien was apparently a major inspiration to Melnyk, but not in any blatantly straightforward way. On his website the composer has written that the music is "(a) [...] the actual song sung by Galadriel, and, (b) it is about her song, ie. the effect of the beauty of her singing, its meaning, and the experience of hearing it, and (c) it is about those things of which she sings, and (d) it IS those things of which she sings..."

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