Speeding up

This week has been extremely busy. My week started out with major orchestration work on the new album. The strings are going to sound fantastic. And I've been working on the recording room in my home as well. This new album is going to have a lot to offer. And all of it is being orchestrated to be playable by small-medium sized orchestras. One piece is even written for an octet.

I also had the chance to listen to some work from last year - all trailer styled pieces. Might have more to say on that later.

I'll be looking at getting the Patreon page up and running again in the next two weeks. Looking forward to interacting with some of you there. By all means, if you're able to donate, that's always appreciated. If not, sharing these posts and other fundraising links is always helpful to me.

Also this week, I finalized a deal to license The Deeps of Time to a video game mod for Crusader Kings 2. If you're into gaming at all, you won't want to miss this mod - it's Silmarillion themed.

Keep your eyes peeled. There's more good news on the way soon!
Aaron

The Big News

So this week I've been mentioning there would be some big news regarding The Silmarillion Symphony. Here is the long and short of it: The Lego Silmarillion:Beren and Luthien stop motion film will not be released this year, but likely early next year. As this was the only official music I planned on releasing this year, I felt the need to address that by releasing some new works.

So it's with great anticipation that Volume 2 will be released by Christmas this year, tentatively titled "The Fall of Fingolfin". As I mentioned a couple blogs back, the original plan was to release The Fall of Fingolfin sometime in late 2017. A part of the planned release is currently on soundcloud and this blog to be listened to (Rochallar).

I'll be running some sort of fundraising in order to finance some of the album soon. For those of you so inclined, any support is always appreciated.

There are multiple avenues to purchase the first album including iTunes, bandcamp, google play and cdbaby.com. Any purchases are a wonderful support as well.

Many thanks to all,
Aaron

A Gem from Colbert and Other Thoughts

"Gandalf is a Maiar who has been in Arda since Iluvatar cried ‘Ea,’ so he knows it all. The cool thing about Gandalf is in Valinor, he was named Olorin, and he was one of the Maiar associated with the Valar, who are upper angels you might say, the archangels or demi-gods, named Nienna. Most of the Valar in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are associated in some way with a power or a focus or a patronage associated with Greek gods … Nienna, there’s no association in any other mythology. Because what does she do forever? What is her power? Does anyone know? Nienna weeps forever, and turns grief into wisdom. That is her power. And Gandalf, who was Olorin at the time, that’s his patron, that’s who he hangs out with. That’s why he’s not interested in power or glory when he comes to Middle-Earth, like Saruman. Saruman was a Maiar of the Valar Aule, who was the craftsman. So that makes sense, right?" - Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.

A few days ago (I believe I was on vacation) the above gem came across my facebook feed. It reminded me of the Vala Nienna mostly. Now, Nienna is not often mentioned throughout the book, but when she is, she's the one suing for pity, compassion, and empathy. 

It's that compassion that Gandalf learns from her. And boy, we should listen. Colbert makes an awesome point - Nienna doesn't have a power that we'd easily identify with other mythical gods. We don't identify compassion and empathy with power. But what if Nienna's power in fact is spent in empathy and compassion on behalf of others? In this way, she's the polar opposite of Melkor/Morgoth, who spends his power to control everything, and is without pity.

And I think, that every day, we have a choice as to how we spend what power and influence we have: to spend it coercively, or to spend it with compassion.

A look into the future

This past week I've had no time to work on the blog. Just tonight I've had an hour to work on some music for a future Silmarillion Symphony release. Here is Rochallar:  https://soundcloud.com/aarondunnbassist/rochallar

This piece may not be released until later next year, as part of The Fall of Fingolfin.

Peace.

Empathy

The events of the past week have been a huge shock. There's an almost hopeless feeling about it all. Multiple incidents where people are dying. From Baghdad to Baton Rouge to Dallas, there's way too much pain to go around. 

Amid the host of voices saying "we must do this" and "we must do that", it's hard to hear a voice without blaming one person or cause, or (gasp) justifying killing another human being.

I'm not one for moralistic forms of reasoning, but I'm struck by the sheer amount of angry, empathy-less rhetoric. I wonder where the possibility of forgiveness has gone in our communal consciousness. Most of all I look for solutions. 

No matter how hopeless it feels, no matter how massive the scope of the changes that need to be made, we get to participate in changing the world for the better. It may seem ridiculous for one person to change the course we are on. But it's worth a try.

A beautiful pattern emerges in Tolkien. We find that his heroes are the types we would not easily pick out. An exile 'crept from the shadows.' A few little people from an obscure, naive culture. A haggard, homeless orphaned man (on more than one occasion). Even old people. I greatly enjoy how heroic many of his female characters are. Often they are not the most outwardly impressive people. A lot like us.

So I'll leave us with a quote from Tolkien. This, I believe is something worth taking heed of, and immediately.

“I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.” –J.R.R. Tolkien

Better late than never

I've had quite the packed schedule the past few weeks, what with a long road trip over last weekend and a busy week at work. At any rate, today was fabulously successful. Managed to get a good amount of composing done. Even if just sketching out ideas, it all counts.

I finally had time to record some cello parts for the upcoming short film Lego Silmarillion, and I am very happy with the results. In regards to the film itself, we hope that it will be released around Christmas of this year. Managed to catch up with the director today, and get some more vision on how the film is shaping up.

I would love if you'd listen to today's work "A Dangerous Road", with cello recorded by yours truly. As always, please subscribe to the blog, and do share.

This week's update...and a preview.

This week I didn't have much put together in the way of writing. Instead, check out this video.

And here's the piece I mentioned in the video: https://soundcloud.com/aarondunnbassist/thingol-preview .

As always, best wishes,
Aaron