So, I did in fact mention something very like this already, but I'm endlessly fascinated how people with actual experience in bands/choirs/whatever don't seem to fall for the "morgoth did nothing wrong at the beginning" crowd's agenda. Or at least I've never seen anyone invoke their experience while arguing for this, and I have when it came to the inverse.

"No, actually thinking that you're a diva, you should have the most important part and you're not doing it wrong, everyone else is, is not freedom of expression; it's being annoying, and also probably a soprano"

Huh, music is good for the soul.

"The Song I" - Concept Art for the Ainulindalë, 2004

“when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.”

—Ainulindalë, The Silmarillion (p. 31 in my copy)

SIR. Not sure Tolkien intended this, but there are much Gender thoughts provoked by this passage for me. The idea that gender is both intrinsic and a choice is really close to what I think. And comparing gender or biological sex to a “raiment”; or clothing. YES. Gender is a performance as much as a feeling, and sometimes I would like to throw it off and not be perceived, much like the Valar. (I have so many thoughts about this very short passage right now and not all of them are coherent yet)

There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of me mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony.

  —  Ainulindalë (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Can we take a moment to appreciate how perfectly they worked Tolkien’s creation myth The Ainulindalë into the intro music/visuals

"...deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came."

Description of the Third Theme The Silmarillion Ainulindalë

Never since have the Ainur made any music like to this music, though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Ilúvatar by the choirs of the Ainur and the Children of Ilúvatar after the end of days. Then the themes of Ilúvatar shall be played aright, and take Being in the moment of their utterance, for all shall then understand fully his intent in their part, and each shall know the comprehension of each, and Ilúvatar shall give to their thoughts the secret fire, being well pleased.

The Silmarillion I Ainulindalë

I think if our efforts are worthy, (Matthew 25:14-30), anything we may offer can be brought back into harmony.

I’ve just heard Michio Kaku explaining string theory and all I could think of was Ainulindalë.

the entire first few paragraphs of the Ainulindalë are just "Ilúvatar hearkened"

I doubt I'll live to see it, but I was just thinking of how interesting it would be to have an adaptation of LOTR with largely diegetic music. Not ironically, either! There's so much music in LOTR, and Middle-earth's world-building is so deeply interwoven with literal music—and it's not that I don't really enjoy a lot of the non-diegetic Middle-earth music that exists, but a version in which you really feel how deeply musical the world is for the characters would be so cool.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—Eru Ilúvatar, whenever something happens.

Interviewer: So, how much would you say Tolkien’s works influenced your life?

Paul Corfield Godfrey, the man who spent the past 40 years of his life composing an epic cycle of five operas based on the Silmarillion: *vibrating with barely contained divine power* hum, a normal amount?

Here’s the link to his website: https://www.paulcorfieldgodfrey.co.uk/tolkien-cycle

I am currently listening to Beren and Lúthien and it’s simply enchanting

Interesting element in the Valaquenta: while this fandom has more or less decided on Morgoth being older than Manwë (in so far as it is possible for beings created before time), and while I think I can see where this comes from (Morgoth's seeming fixation on making people believe they will be usurped by younger siblings which might seem to point to him having persuaded himself that's what happened between them (wrong of course, but what can you expect) and other nice parallels), it explicitly says here that they were "coeval", meaning "having the same age or date of origin; contemporary" (source: a simple Google search)...

I wonder if the other popular fanon of them being created the first of all the Ainur has any source in the text... I don't think it's contradicted anywhere though.

Anyway, if they were, Varda was second or close; I'm not accepting any corrections. This serves the additional benefit of her feeling personally betrayed by Morgoth, since she would have known him pretty closely before he became evil incarnate.

augh i hate when a word or phrase gets stuck in my head and i keep randomly repeating it to myself for weeks at a time. get out get out get out

Finally getting around to reading the Silmarillion! I’ll probably be posting my thoughts as I go, but first

More progress on my first minecraft build! I made a post earlier about initial terraforming and waterfall wrangling, and I’ve made good progress now on the lower level of the pagoda. It took a little while to figure out what colour scheme I wanted to go for, but I’m happy with what I’ve got so far.

This will probably be a two-level build - I’ll add the second level and another two curving roofs and that’ll be done. I would have liked to make three levels, but given it’s my first build the floor area is small and the third level wouldn’t have enough space for a proper curved roof.

And it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Ilúvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.

The Silmarillion I Ainulindalë