— Ch. 1 · Origins And Collaboration —
The Road Goes Ever On.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
The first edition of The Road Goes Ever On appeared on the 31st of October 1967 in the United States. Donald Swann, an entertainer by trade, composed the music for this collection while J.R.R. Tolkien provided the words from his Middle-earth writings. Their partnership began when Swann performed the cycle for Tolkien in Priscilla Tolkien's garden. The author approved most of the music but had specific thoughts about one piece. He hummed a melody for the Quenya song Namárië that resembled a Gregorian chant. Swann adopted this humming as the final tune for that track. Richard Leonberger notes that Swann spent twelve years composing these nine settings. He started writing seven poems to music in Ramallah near Jerusalem during 1965. This early work included A Elbereth Gilthoniel and O Orofarnë before he replaced some with other selections.
Musical Structure And Content
Sheet music occupies pages 1 through 62 and pages 78 through 84 in the 2002 edition of the book. The original 1967 release featured ten tracks across two sides of an LP record. Side one contained Tolkien reading six poems from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. William Elvin sang on side two alongside Swann playing piano. The main sequence includes songs like In the Willow-meads of Tasarinan set in D minor. Another track titled Upon the Hearth the Fire Is Red appears in G major with a lively tempo. The song Namárië stands apart because it uses Quenya language and follows a freely flowing rhythm. Additional songs appeared later including Bilbo's Last Song which entered the second edition published in 1978. Lúthien Tinúviel sits in an appendix rather than the main cycle but can be sung in D major as Swann suggested. The table of lists shows keys for each piece though transposition remains acceptable according to the foreword.