The Hobbit 30 Day Challenge - Day 24

How Did You React When You Watched The Trailer?

When I heard the Dwarves singing Misty Mountains Cold for the first time in the trailer, I thought I was in heaven.

Who knew our prince and future king had the voice of an angel? 

The Hobbit 30 Day Challenge - Day 5

Favorite Song/Poem?

Misty Mountains Cold

"The dark filled all the room and the fire died down, and the shadows were lost, and still they played on. And suddenly first one and then another began to sing as they played, deep-throated singing of the dwarves in the deep places of their ancient homes..."   The Hobbit,  J.R.R. Tolkien

Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays Everyone for 2013

This is my favorite version of Misty Mountains because you can hear the voices without any technical enhancements---- from The Hobbit: AUJ Extended Edition.  My best wishes to all for this Holiday Season.

Wouldn't be Nochebuena if I didn't include the song my family would listen to every December 24. Brings back memories of happier times.

However you celebrate this season, wishing you all the best of times with your friends and family.

Feliz Navidad

The Bass Sound in a Male Voice

"You know, there's nothing like a male voice choir; the bass sound in a male voice choir is very rousing, I think." Richard Armitage,  DIY Interview

I have to agree that there's nothing like a male bass voice and Armitage has that male bass voice that is very rousing indeed.  

Thorin and the Dwarves singing the Misty Mountains song in the first Hobbit movie has inspired other bass voices as well:

"Misty Mountains Cold" from The Hobbit, live by the U.S. Marines from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

I have an earlier post somewhere on the blog that was inspired by an earlier interview when Richard Armitage talked about the Russian  male choir, and I talked a bit about my family history listening to Russian male army choirs. I grew up in a family that loves the arts and so I grew up going to all sorts of live performances, including the opera. Several members of my family were big opera fans and as a child and even later, I tagged along for many wonderful performances. If only I would have appreciated it more at the time, but I certainly appreciate the memories now. 

Though not an opera fan like some of my relatives, I have a few favorite operas and favorite arias, and have always appreciated the bass voice more than the tenors. Here are two of my favorite arias, one performed by a male choir and the other by a great opera bass singer of an earlier generation.

Welsh Male Choir Nessun Dorma from Puccini's  Opera Turandot 

Italo Tajo "Madamina, il catalogo è questo"  The Catalogue Aria, Don Giovanni  

Richard Armitage can relate to the "mille et tre" with his growing legion of fans.

We have to remember that Richard is a musician and knows much better than I the power of music. I have my hopes up that we'll hear him sing more in the next Hobbit film this December.  

I also started volunteering for arts and performing arts groups at an early age, when I was in High School and later college. I remember volunteering for a time for the Washington National Opera sorting tickets and mailing them out to subscribers. A group of us would be in a room backstage sorting through all this while the evening's performance was on stage. We could listen to, though not see, the entire opera from loudspeakers in our windowless room. 

Going back to Armitage's comments on the male bass voice and male choirs, below are more examples of the power of the voice and the deepest of male singing voices: 

Russian basso profondo - Russian choir



Serbian basso profondo - low voices of Serbia



Canto Gregoriano - Monjes de Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain



In conclusion, my favorite male choir-  Richard Armitage and The Hobbit (Dwarf Cast):

Thank you Richard Armitage for the inspiration. 

From the DIY Interview - the entire quote:

"I suppose an extended version of the boot camp was when all the dwarves went into the studio and started singing. But because I had to work on that little bit of singing on my own, we did work on a sound for him. I didn't want him to sound like he was any kind of trained singer, he was just somebody who had a voice. The dwarves were notoriously good singers though... it was very nerve-wracking! You know, there's nothing like a male voice choir; the bass sound in a male voice choir is very rousing, I think." Richard Armitage

For the entire interview click HERE

Thank you to Richard Armitage Central and RichardArmitagenet.com for the pics/scans.

(apologies in advance to all the opera aficionados for any mistakes in opera terminology)

The Hobbit Dwarf Song and Russian Choral Music

In the interview below Richard Armitage talks about how he listened to a lot of Russian choral music to find the sound for Thorin's singing and for the sound he wanted for Misty Mountains Cold. 

I have no special knowledge of Russian choral music,  but Richard's answer reminded me of all the times in my childhood and youth that I went with my family to listen to the Russian Red Army Choir sing. Does the Russian Army still sing and have a choir?  

I was happy to find that YouTube had vids of the Russian Red Army Choir singing and below two songs that were my favorite and they always sang in their concerts. To me they fit what Richard was referring to in the interview.

While on YouTube I thought I would search for more Russian choral singing and here are two that I thought the dwarves would feel are kindred singers.

Update 1/27/13- Thanks to inspiration by my friend Dezmond's comments below, I looked for and found a video of 
Serbian Orthodox Church Music:

 Now for our own beautiful basso

 Thorin (Richard Armitage) and the Dwarves (the charming Hobbit cast) sing Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold