Towards the end of Thursday’s lecture, we were given some audio examples of the Music of Creation and the music of Melkor. While I do have a fondness for two of the Creation pieces we listened to — Jupiter being something I played back in high school and Ma Vlast being one of my personal favorite Romantic era pieces — I gravitated towards Melkor’s music more. Perhaps it is because I am, in fact, a metalhead, and metal is one of my favorite genres of music; I thought “Into the Storm” is a good song, with good instrumentation. In my mind, I did not really understand why it would be considered an example of the Music of Melkor, as “Into the Storm” was not the discord-filled piece of music I would expect the Music of Discord to be.
So this got me thinking about what really is Melkor’s music, and is it really as disharmonious as it is presented? Surely there is one clear answer, for Tolkien writes it in The Silmarillion:
“Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straightway discord arose about him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first. Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound” (16).
The Music of Melkor is discord. It is discordant, unharmonious yet has a strange power over the other Ainur, to the point where they join in in singing Melkor’s music. It is persuasive, much like the serpent to Adam and Eve when they ate the apple in the Garden of Eden. It is different from the Music of The One, as the thoughts that make up Melkor’s music were as a result of Melkor thinking differently than Ilúvatar’s song. It is the antithesis of The Song of Creation, where creation is the elves and men, the rivers and the greenery and all that is good in the form of a pleasant melody sung by all of the Ainur. We can, with very reasonable judgement, say that the music of the Ainur is much more akin to sacred music than not. After all, Tolkien, in a letter to his son, remarks upon the well of which the fidelis are supposed to draw “nourishment” from, the story which all other stories come from. If there is no Genesis, then there is no rest of anything, really.
The story of Genesis has much importance in the mind of Tolkien, that is certain. But why does the music sound the way it does? Why does Melkor’s music sound the way it does?
I am of the belief that there is some degree of bias in this point of view, for Tolkien expressed his fondness for Genesis and his disdain for the “modern” music of when this letter was written (1945). He tells his son that “I read eagerly all the details of your life, and the things you see and do — and suffer, Jive and Boogie-Woogie among them. You will have no heart-tug at losing that (for it is essentially vulgar, music corrupted by the mechanism, echoing in dreary unnourished heads)...” using the concept of brain nourishment that was introduced earlier. To me, the concept of “Boogie-Woogie” being “vulgar” was odd, as I see it more as music that the older generations look towards as music that is pure and uncorrupted while they push that rock and other harder forms of music, much like “Into the Storm”, is vulgar and the antithesis of all that is holy. In other words, what the music of Melkor is is derived from the person who is making the judgment. For Tolkien, the music of discord seemed to be more akin to the loud and fast melody of big-band jive and the boogie-woogie bugle boy. If anything, the concept of Jive being hailed on the same level of vulgarity and discord as the Music of Melkor feels more akin to the satanic panic of the 80s, where the older generation viewed Twisted Sister and Motley Crue as what I can deem as “Melkorian” — it was loud, brash, fast, and unlike anything before it, hymns and jive and all.
The Music of Creation for Tolkien is derived from his love of the Book of Genesis and an appreciation of classical music, for he writes in the Silmarillion, “Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and lutes, and pipes and trumpets, and viols and organs, and like onto countless choirs singing with words, began to fashion the theme of Ilúvatar to a great music…”, a combination of instruments usually used in more classical arrangements. Brass is used in a melodic way in The Planets while they are used in a seemingly disjointed and even crazy way in Jive. Harps, lutes, organs, and viols are connected to religious music and hymns sung during mass. This is no mere accident, as describing the music more akin to the hymns of the Bible emphasizes the holy nature of this music. Paired with the similarities between the Ainulindae with both the books of Genesis and Jubilees, it cannot be denied that there is Catholic musical influence as well as classical music influence in the Music of the Ainur. It is beautiful, do not get me wrong, and it does feel appropriate for music of the Gods. However, the vague nature of the Music of Melkor does indeed leave some room for question. For Tolkien it would have most likely been the music of which he speaks of to his son, the popular music of the time if you will. In class on Thursday it was power metal, and to some of my classmates it would be the “sounds” of Lou Reed.
And yet, I find myself enjoying the music of Melkar more. I find myself more drawn to thrashing, layered guitars and groovy basslines and sharp drums — think Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer… the list goes on and on. Even now as I am writing this I have Stone Temple Pilot’s Core blaring in my headphones. It may be that my head is “unourished”, too cut off from the well of knowledge and creation and corrupted by the vulgarity of rock n’ roll. However, I find a rhythm, a beat, harmonies and melodies. Even a song that I would consider “Music of Melkor” in the sense of disharmony and lyrics, Megadeth’s “The Skull Beneath The Skin”, is a personal favorite of mine due to the way it sounds. It is discord making its way into harmonies, something that, while seen as the antithesis of creation, itself is a creation of something that is appealing to my unnourished mind. I like discord in my music, but that does not lead me to turn towards evil. To me it is the music that drives my creations like my writing and even this assignment. While the music can lead to the misery, in my eyes the discord is discord only to those who judge it so.
-NPM
(Also, Melkor’s Music to me is more akin to Lou Reed, like most of my classmates have said.)
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