"Embodying the Voices", Friedhelm Schneidewind - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Faramir Jones · 02-08-2010, 06:42 AM

When I had got towards the end of reading Music, I was struck by this interesting, not article, but appendix by Friedhelm Schneidewind, 'Embodying the Voices: Documentation of a Failure'. Mr. Schneidewind attempted to deduce 'the vocal ranges of the various humanoids in Tolkien's works on the basis of their descriptions'. (p. 303) This was, he correctly said, an issue faced by those who set Tolkien's songs and poems to music, officially or unofficially.

I won't describe his account of how he tried to do this, and all the reasons he gave for his failure, which are very interesting reading. I'm going to comment on the main reason he gave: 'it is not easy to extrapolate the voice range of a person from his/her physical constitution. There are too many different parameters involved'.(p. 304) Even within the same species, such as humans, there are cultural and personal differences. (p. 305)

One example I thought of when I read this were the Dúnedain. According to a piece in Unfinished Tales, the average height of such a Man would be 'two rangar', often called 'man-high' or six feet four inches. (The unit of measurement called the 'rangar' was 'slightly longer' than a yard, being about thirty-eight inches.)

Elendil was supposed to be more than man-high by 'nearly half a rangar', say about eighteen inches, which would make him about seven feet ten inches. He certainly wasn't called 'the Tall' for nothing!

(Unfinished Tales, pp. 285-286)

I was therefore interested to observe from what I had read that the cultural and personal differences between, say, the Dúnedain and 'modern' Men would be a bigger issue in trying to deduce their vocal ranges than their different weights or sizes.

All in all, a very thought-provoking piece.

02-08-2010, 06:42 AM	#1
Faramir Jones Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Lonely Isle Posts: 706	"Embodying the Voices", Friedhelm Schneidewind When I had got towards the end of reading Music, I was struck by this interesting, not article, but appendix by Friedhelm Schneidewind, 'Embodying the Voices: Documentation of a Failure'. Mr. Schneidewind attempted to deduce 'the vocal ranges of the various humanoids in Tolkien's works on the basis of their descriptions'. (p. 303) This was, he correctly said, an issue faced by those who set Tolkien's songs and poems to music, officially or unofficially. I won't describe his account of how he tried to do this, and all the reasons he gave for his failure, which are very interesting reading. I'm going to comment on the main reason he gave: 'it is not easy to extrapolate the voice range of a person from his/her physical constitution. There are too many different parameters involved'.(p. 304) Even within the same species, such as humans, there are cultural and personal differences. (p. 305) One example I thought of when I read this were the Dúnedain. According to a piece in Unfinished Tales, the average height of such a Man would be 'two rangar', often called 'man-high' or six feet four inches. (The unit of measurement called the 'rangar' was 'slightly longer' than a yard, being about thirty-eight inches.) Elendil was supposed to be more than man-high by 'nearly half a rangar', say about eighteen inches, which would make him about seven feet ten inches. He certainly wasn't called 'the Tall' for nothing! (Unfinished Tales, pp. 285-286) I was therefore interested to observe from what I had read that the cultural and personal differences between, say, the Dúnedain and 'modern' Men would be a bigger issue in trying to deduce their vocal ranges than their different weights or sizes. All in all, a very thought-provoking piece.