music to sleep by

[martasfic]

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

If anyone out there, like me, can’t quite get to sleep please enjoy some Chet Atkins:

It’s strangely beautiful and relaxing. This song has a special place in my heart because it was the first “real” song (i.e. not a dumbed-down version written for learners) I really mastered on the piano. I think I like it better on the guitar, though.

I’m trying to imagine where this kind of music might be heard in Middle-earth. Somehow I can most easily imagine it in Dol Amroth. “My” Faramir plays a lute and I can imagine him sitting up around this time of the night (2 AM) and gazing at the stars, absent-mindedly playing something like this in a very low-key moment. Or maybe in Rivendell, where the Twins would hound Lindir for a song like this until they got it.

What about you? What kind of music do you associate with your favorite Middle-earth place? Inquiring minds and all that.

Ooh, and as an extra bonus, Spotify threw up this Chet Atkins song after the Entertainer. Fans of “Mad About You” may get why it had me smiling.

Comments

[dreamflower]

I would never have thought of that song in that way--my first encounter with it was hearing it in the theater as part of the soundtrack for "The Sting"--which was definitely piano.

I like the guitar version, and can easily imagine as you do as a Dol Amroth song.

Here is one that I have thought of as hobbity since the first time I heard it: I can just see hobbits dancing a circle dance to it, and in my fanon, it's Frodo's favorite dance--



And my Pippin plays the bagpipes:

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

Those songs are simply loverly, Barbara! The first one in particular - I can just see Frodo and one of the Gamgee girls cutting a rug at a harvest dance to it, and Bilbo clapping his hand to his knee as he watches on. :-)

[dreamflower]

It actually inspired a little ficlet:

http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=3043&cid=12021

I honestly can see all the moves of the dance in my head as I listen.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Och! I liked both of these VERY much.

- Erulisse (one L)

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I must admit I'm fonder of Alley Cat on guitar than Scott Joplin, although Chet Atkins had a lovely hand and a mellow instrument. They were both a pleasure to listen to.

- Erulisse (one L)