For the past few months, I've spent most of my create time outside of Middle-earth. That's about to change. Book two--which I've teased on Twitter and in online interviews, but am not yet ready to fully announce--is now in editing. That means I'm headed back to Tolkien's world.

This audio isn't extraordinarily clean, but I do believe you'll get the idea.

Huge thanks to Luzern and the brilliant 21st Century Symphony Orchestra for hosting. It's always a thrill to be even a small part of one of their extraordinary programs.

Let's do this again soon!

After next week's performance in Luzern, Howard Shore will be off to Ireland where the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will present a concert of his music conducted by Ludwig Wicki. Shore will provide the introduction.

The program and ticket details are below. Here, too, is a short interview that Shore did with The Independent, regarding the upcoming show.

Hi everyone,

Very happy to announce that I'll be giving a pre-concert talk with Howard Shore at this upcoming concert in Luzern. If you're anywhere near Switzerland, I simply must insist that you attend! The program is scheduled to include the following:

18.30 Uhr, Konzertsaal: 
«Nerakhoon» (2008)
Suite für Mezzo-Soprano, Chor and Streicher 

«Mythic Garden»
Concerto für Violoncello und Orchester

P A U S E

«The Lord of the Rings Symphony» (Auszüge) 
   «The Fellowship of the Ring» (2001)
     The Prophecy
     Concerning Hobbits
   «The Return of the King» (2003)
     Hope and Memory
     The White Tree
     The Steward of Gondor
     Cirith Ungol
     Anduril
     The End of All Things
     The Return of the King
     The Grey Havens
     Into the West 

Please come say "hello" if you are in attendance!

Excerpted from THIS Hollywood Reporter article:

"Shore will be given the Frederick Loewe Music Award for his work on Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. He previously received the same award in 2005’s for composing the score for The Aviator. “Howard Shore is a master composer who has consistently delighted audiences of the more than 80 films that he has scored,” Matzner said. “In Hugo, the labyrinthine setting of a Paris railway station, where a young boy lives alone, doing what he must to survive, and the discovery of an aging filmmaker gifted with a second chance provide the perfect inspiration for Shore’s haunting score."

This is undeniably out-of-date, but I'm leaving it here purely out of posterity .. and because I just released it was online! If my disclaimer hasn't yet put you off, enjoy my appearance on AM Northwest (and click through if you want to see the "Pumpkin Workout" I referenced on Twitter at the time).

When I signed on to The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, I expected it to be a highly exciting, entirely behind-the-scenes type of job. Taking the stage, and sitting in on TV news and talk shows was never part of the plan. But "best laid plans" and all that ...

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of planes, trains, and rental cars. I don't know if my crash courses in everything from vocal modulation to remedial TV blocking have paid off in any great way, but they were certainly fascinating.

I'm glad Of Rings and Myths came right in the middle of the madness, since it was a wonderful change of pace. My deep gratitude to the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra for their dedication and musical sensitivity, and to J.R. Cassidy for his creativity, musicianship, and for issuing the invitation in the first place. I'm never one to put too much stock in reviews, but since I technically never got to experience this performance from the outside, these outside views were most welcome ... and most kind.

Cincinnati.com wrote:

" ... [A] one-of-a-kind program ...

The KSO’s “Of Rings and Myths” was part performance, part academic lecture on comparing and contrasting two epic tales about powerful rings. The orchestra, under the direction of conductor James Cassidy, alternated between selections from Howard Shore’s score to the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Rings” series and Richard Wagner’s “Ring” opera cycle.

[...]

What made the concert different was what took place between the selections. Doug Adams, the author of the 2010 book “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” was what you might call the star of the show.

Introducing each musical excerpt, Adams explained what the audience would hear – what Wagner and Shore intended to accomplish in the way they used rhythm and strings and brass, and how the two composers created musical moods relating to themes such as love, death, heroism and conflict.

[...]

Adams knew what he was talking about, but it was just as rewarding to let the orchestra perform, and some of the best moments of the two-hour performance were those when the band played, uninterrupted, for five minutes or so. Accompanying the orchestra were three featured vocalists: sopranos Jennifer Cherest and Kara Shay Thomson and tenor Ric Furman; and the KSO Chorale – which was charged with such tasks as singing certain songs in tongues native to Middle-earth.

The finest vocal performances occurred during the Wagner pieces. Furman and Thomson shined during the excerpt of “Brunnhildle the Valkyrie and Siegfried’s Heroism,” where Thomson’s Brunnhildle tries to dissuade Furman’s Siegfried from falling in love with her."

MusicInCincinnati.com wrote:

"If Richard Wagner were alive today?

No doubt about it, he would be making movies. His idea of Gesamtkunstwerk, or “complete art work,” uniting word, music, drama, visual art, etc. has come true in the realm of cinema.

How natural, then, that James R. Cassidy, innovative, “can do,” music director of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, would find a link with Wagner in film-making. And not just a philosophical one. Music for films has long been where classical music “went” when audiences began abandoning contemporary art music.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” published in the 1954-55, draws from the same wellspring of North European mythology as Wagner’s four-opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (“The Ring of the Nibelung”). Director Peter Jackson made Tolkien’s novel into the tremendously popular “Lord of the Rings” films in 2001-03. Hugely successful along with them was the musical score by Howard Shore.

The KSO, KSO Chorale and three superlative vocal soloists joined with “Lord of the Rings” expert Doug Adams to compare and contrast Shore and Wagner Saturday night in Florence Baptist Church at Mt. Zion (Florence, Kentucky). Adams, a Chicago based musician and writer, author of “Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” provided narration for the concert, which comprised excerpts from both composers’ music and a comparison of the two “Ring” tales (Wagner wrote both the words and music for his four operas). It was a giant-sized task, 15 hours of opera and 11 hours of film score condensed into 92 minutes of music, but accomplished with considerable success.

[...]

... [T]he program, written by Adams, was meticulously planned and well presented. Adams' narration was pointed, intelligent and well keyed to the music (though familiarity with the two "Rings" was definitely an advantage). The 72-member KSO performed admirably, with strength in all sections, give or take a fumble or two now and then (notably by brass and percussion). Concertmistress Manami White gave just the right Celtic lift to her solo in “Concerning Hobbits,” Shore’s charming evocation of the Shire. And the trumpets, which definitely could be heard, were resplendent in such excerpts as Wagner’s “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla.”

Best of all were the singers, sopranos Kara Shay Thomson and Jennifer Cherest and tenor Ric Furman. Cherest possesses a beautiful but lighter voice, while Thomson and Furman seemed eminently capable of walking off the stage into a production of Wagner’s “Ring” at any time.

Although the “Ring” stories were told concurrently, the first half was primarily Shore's music. A comparison was drawn between the “Forging Theme” from Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” (with anvils) and Shore’s metal-heavy depiction of the industrial wasteland of Isengard. Similarly, Adams contrasted the birdsong motif from Wagner’s “Siegfried” and “Nature’s Reclamation” from Shore’s “Two Towers.” The Chorale, which sang Tolkien’s languages (Dwarves, Elves, etc.), gave vicious voice to the Orcs in their 5/4 rampage. Soprano Cherest displayed a voice of crystal clarity in excerpts from “Return of the King.”

The second half focused on Wagner. Adams contrasted the ringwraiths from “Fellowship of the Ring” with Wagner’s “Valkyries,” the latter given splendid voice by Thompson backed by Cherest in their famous “Ride.” Also heard were Wagner’s “Magic Fire Music,” “Forest Murmurs” and the battle of Siegfried and the dragon Fafner from “Siegfried.” Cherest and the Chorale lit up “The Grace of Undómiel” from “Return of the King” (Shore), which made a nice contrast with the love story of Wagner’s Siegfried and Brunnhilde. Furman, who looks, acts and sounds like a Siegfried of the future, sang Wagner’s hero with heft and beauty, yielding nothing to Thompson’s formidable Brunnhilde, and leaving one wishing to hear more from him."

Of course, leave it to the message boards to offer the pithiest -- and maybe most genuine -- comments. One poster at FilmScoreMonthly.com offered:

"The KSO did a great job, and Doug Adams narrated the evening in an eloquent and efficient manner that tempts me to call him "film music's David Hyde Pierce" from now on. But I won't.

[...]

I enjoyed the mix of people that came to this, it would be terrific to have more events like this one that bring different audiences together."

I have to admit, I got a good chuckle out of that one! All in all, the program was received exactly as I'd hoped it would be. There's so much incredible music in the performance, it almost can't help but be uniquely satisfying. I expect we'll have a chance to do this show again sometime soon!

As soon as Rings and Myths was over, I was back on the road for a press tour. In the space of just over two weeks, I managed to see Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Florence, KY; Cincinnati, OH; Dallas, TX (layover); Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; and San Jose, CA. I'm sure those who travel for business on a weekly/daily basis are scoffing at my pusillanimity here, but that's a tall order of planes, trains, and rental cars as far as I'm concerned! And a press tour is not exactly a cakewalk -- just ask poor Harry Belafonte! There are a lot of early mornings and tight schedules. I mean, it's not digging ditches, but you do have to stay on your toes while constantly in motion.

I'm glad this was all able to come together, of course. My own goofy schedule almost prevented me from making the rounds, so I'm very thankful to all the producers and publicists that stuck with me while I tried to iron out early October.

And I certainly hope we help spread the word! Shore's Lord of the Rings in Concert performances are amazing. I know I'm likely preaching to the choir here -- literally in some cases -- but these shows are not to be missed. They're so difficult to describe. It's like an evening theater, a symphonic performance, and a premiere screening of a film all tossed together. Of course, it's not exactly any of those things, but maybe that's why it's so special. I hope my soundbite descriptions in the media have done some justice. I always leave feeling like I should have been just a bit more articulate, but I think everyone feels like that.

If you care to judge for yourself, you can see and hear a good bit of the resultant press below. Beware, my comments are redundant since I'm essentially pitching the show anew to each city. But if you want to watch me get slightly tireder upon each appearance, feast your senses!


- KING5-TV:





- 7Live









- KGO TV (video)


- Celluloid Dreams Radio (mp3 download)


 - KMJ Radio (mp3 download)


There's certainly more material to air -- I hit a ton of outlets -- but I'm not sure how much of will be directed toward the internet. Still, if you haven't yet slaked your thirst for media, I'm told there's more to come, so I'll keep adding to this post and announcing via Twitter and Facebook.

I'm fairly comfortable with the press appearances at this point. And I've been lucky: I haven't had to deal with anyone that seemed disinterested in either the concerts or the book. I know that's an interviewer's job, of course, because I used to dabble in that line of work. But that's also enabled me to recognize insincerity pretty quickly, so I was glad to be working with such great people.

That said, my passion is the work, not the promotion. And right now I'm only a few weeks away from the start of the next project. You may have heard a little about it. If not, I'll fill you in as soon as I'm able.

I couldn't be more excited ...

Back soon,

D

I'll be doing press for The Lord of the Rings in Concert again this week, so look for posts/tweets from Portland, Seattle, and Oakland. This, by the way, is the first time I've ever posted to the blog from an airplane. Hello from midair! Updates as schedule allows. D

I'll be signing The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films this coming Saturday, October 8 following the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's Of Rings and Myths performance. Details HERE. If you're in the area, please come say "hello!"

It was one year ago today that The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films saw it's debut upon the world's stage in a London music shop. It's hard to believe it's been a year. It's also hard to believe it's only been a year. The book, in various versions, has been my constant companion for so long, it just feels like something that's always been around. In my mind, at least, it has a rather timeless quality.

Or that could just be some lingering jet-lag. Speaking of which ...

I'm hitting the road again. Tomorrow evening I'm off to LA for a two-day jaunt. I'll be signing books at the Orange, CA Barnes and Noble on Thursday night at 7:00, and I'll be lecturing at Fullerton College the next morning 10:00 a.m. In between, I'll be speaking with ... essentially every media outlet in the greater Los Angeles area. It's like being on a reality series that's divided up in 4 minute chunks between 10 different stations. For a few hours, at least, I'll be hard to miss!

I'll leave LA behind on Saturday, then I'm off to Kentucky to prepare for Of Rings and Myths, which will premiere on Saturday, October 8 at 8:00 p.m.

From Kentucky, I'll head back out west for stints in Portland, Seattle, and Oakland ... and maybe more, who knows. I'm still finding out! It's a constant whirlwind of The Lord of the Rings In Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring press until Oct. 14. Then I'll just head home and collapse in a heap.

Until then, however, I'll try to keep you updated on the travel. Keep your eyes on the Twitter and Facebook feeds, since they're usually the easiest to update quickly.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the one year anniversary of this great ongoing adventure! Thank you always for joining me. See you soon!

D

I still think it's funny that TheOneRing.net knew about this before I did! That said, yes it's true, I'll be on the west coast at the end of next week promoting The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films and The Lord of the Rings: In Concert -- The Fellowship of the Ring. There's more to come. West coasters may be seeing me around during the coming weeks. Stay tuned ...

From Barnes and Noble:

Author Event, Special Event In connection with "Lord of the Rings in Concert" at the Honda Center, author Doug Adams will join us to sign his book, a comprehensive look at Howard Shore's score featuring an Exclusive Rarities CD of unreleased LOTR music -- must for all LOTR fans.

Thursday September 29, 2011 7:00 PM Orange Orange Town &Country, 791 South Main Street Suite 100
Orange, CA 92868, 714-558-0028

In May of this year, I was contacted by Howard Shore's office with a rather unique request: Can you write a concert?

Wait, let me back up.

Before I came into the picture this inchoate concert was the brainchild of James Cassidy, conductor of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Cassidy had envisioned a concert that would encompass both of the great musical Rings, one Wagner's, one Tolkien's/Shore's. He had brought his idea to Shore, who was intrigued. This, of course, had been a topic of conversation for a number of years. Jonathan Dean had given some Wagner/Shore talks back in the early 2000s, and added some thoughts for the Music of LOTR book. Alex Ross had written a piece for the New Yorker. One of New York's very first choral performances of Shore's Rings music featured a sort of back-to-back with Wagner. But these fascinating comparative glimpses were just this -- cursory glimpses into a rich vein of subject matter.

So that mid-May phone call came in. Can you write a concert? A Wagner/Shore concert? Can we do something that is both deeply informative and narratively resonant?

"Sure! Yes!" I said, remembering that whenever asked if you can do something, you're supposed to say "Sure! Yes!" and then figure it out later.

"Sure! Yes!" I think you're supposed to repeat it, too.

So over the next few weeks and months I once again buried myself in Ring lore. It had been a while since I'd been back in research mode and it felt ... good, actually. Great, even. I love this part of any project. I re-read every Wagner text I had at hand, and ordered a few new ones to boot. Heck, I even reviewed certain bits of my own book, just to put myself back in the proper headspace.

And, of course, there was the music -- nearly twenty-four glorious hours of it -- which I studied with the written scores. We wanted a two-act performance, each half around forty-five minutes in length, so some judiciously thoughtful pruning was required.

"Pruning" is a scary word. It's essentially an act of adaptation, which, when you're dealing with such classic material, is quite a gamble. Too much of this, or too little of that, and you're sunk. In this case, however, "pruning" was the key.

I decided this would work best as a performance for orchestra, chorus, soloists, and narrator. Wagner isn't Shore and Shore isn't Wagner, but they were both influenced by the same sort of mythological histories, and they responded in somewhat similar ways. Sometimes those similarities are musical, sometimes textual, sometimes extra-musical, etc. If these things were going to be addressed in a performance, you'd need a narrator. And, if the narrator is going to make these points, the audience needs to hear these points. This is a performance, not a lecture. So this means you can't have Act One be purely Shore or Act Two be purely Wagner. The composers need to coexist structurally. And once they're doing that, the "pruning" spells itself out nicely, because your structure is dictated by the relationship between the two composers' music. How does Wagner handle conflict, musically speaking? How does Shore? How does Shore handle love? How does Wagner? How about death? Rebirth? Nature? Greed?

This was the trick to the storytelling. Don't try too hard to compress. You simply can't push that much material into that size box. Instead, shift focus; move your frame around. "Pruning" led to a comparative structure, and the comparative structure led to what I feel is the perfect balance of the two composers. Act One will be primarily focused on Tolkien and Shore with splashes of Wagner tossed in here and there. Act Two is the direct opposite: Wagner with dashes of Shore for variety and clarity. The weighty/lengthy pieces were referred to as the "Selections," the shorter (but still substantial) bits were "Inserts."

Here's our musical rundown:


Act One
Selection 1: Shore: The Prologue
Selection 2: Shore: Concerning Hobbits
Insert 1: Shore: The Pity of Gollum
Insert 2: Shore: The History of the Ring
Insert 3: Wagner: The Ring Motif
Insert 4: Wagner: The Forging Theme
Insert 5: Shore: Isengard (Five-beat Pattern)
Insert 6: Shore: Rivendell
Insert 7: Shore: The Fellowship Theme
Insert 8: Wagner: Siegfried's Horn
Insert 9: Shore: The Gondor Theme
Selection 3: Shore: Khazad-dûm
Insert 10: Wagner: Birdsong Motif
Insert 11: Shore: Nature's Reclamation
Insert 12: Wagner: Loge as Fire
Selection 4: Shore: March of the Ents
Insert 13: Shore: Mount Doom Theme
Insert 14: Shore: Andúril - Flame of the West
Insert 15: Shore: Fellowship, Gondor, and Rohan
Insert 16: Shore: Sam at Cirith Ungol
Selection 5: Shore: For Frodo/Mount Doom/Crack of Doom
Selection 6: Shore: Days of the Ring


Act Two
Selection 7: Wagner: Entrance of the Gods Into Valhalla
Insert 17: Shore: Ringwraiths
Selection 8: Wagner Ride of the Valkyries
Selection 9: Wagner: Magic Fire Music
Insert 18: Wagner: Siegfried's Strength Motif
Insert 19: Shore: Descending Thirds
Selection 10: Wagner: Forest Murmurs
Insert 20: Wagner: Dragon Motif
Insert 21: Wagner: Siegfried vs. Fafner
Insert 22: Shore: Five-beat/Fellowship
Insert 23: Wagner: Brünnhilde’s Love (Siegfried Idyll)
Insert 24: Shore: The Grace of Undómiel
Insert 25: Wagner: Brünnhilde the Valkyrie & Siegfried's Heroism
Insert 26: Shore: Shire Theme (flute setting)
Insert 27: Wagner: Siegfried and Brünnhilde the Woman
Insert 28: Shore: The Death of Boromir
Selection 11: Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral Music
Selection 12: Wagner: Finale

And between everything is the narration that keeps track of the story elements, and the development of the leitmotivic material. But it's the music that carries the show, not the words. All is in service of these two composers. Obviously, it's quite a balancing act!

As I say, this was huge fun for me. It was a chance to dig into this music once again and find something entirely new to talk about. It was also a chance to program music that's rarely heard like this. In the case of Shore, this will be the first time some of this music has been heard live without overlaid sound effects and dialogue. And Wagner's Ring score is notoriously difficult to bring into the concert world because it's so interwoven with its lengthy plot. I don't know that some of these pieces have ever been done outside of the opera hall in this manner.

Of Rings and Myths is on the Kentucky Symphony's schedule for the evening of Saturday, October 8, 2011. Handling the vocal end of the evening will be the KSO Chorale featuring soprano Kara Shay Thompson and tenor Ric Furman. I'll take the role of narrator for the night and James Cassidy will conduct the gathered forces. Tickets and additional details are available at the KSO's official website. (I'll also be signing The Music of the Lord of the Rings that weekend in conjunction with the concert -- details to come.) If this performance is the success we hope it will be, we'd very much like to see the show tour as have previous Rings shows. This is a fantastic way to bring this music to orchestras that aren't equipped for the multimedia experience of the LOTR Symphony or the Live to Projection performances. And per our usual, the goal is to create something that's satisfying to fans of both Rings, musicians and non-musicians, young and old.

If you're in the area, please come join us! If not, this one may be worth a road trip! More to come ...

I'm still holding on to an exciting announcement that ought to revealed later this month, though it's already leaked in some quieter corners of the internet. If you're really dedicated, you may be able to track it down. No, that's not a challenge!

But it's now well into August, and high-time we get the new Discussion Board up and running. Happily, Ravinia has just announced its new three-part contest, so we have something great to hang a new thread on!








And don't forget that I'll be signing The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films at 6:45 p.m. before the concerts on both the 18th and the 19th. Look for me in Ravinia Gifts, the official gift shop. I'll also be in attendance at the performances both nights as well (no sign-and-dash for me!), so come say "hello!"

I'm no Groupon expert, so I'm hardly qualified to parse the following ... but it sounds like there's a good deal to be had! If you're still on the Ravinia fence, maybe this will tip you over. Anyway, it appears you can follow in the hallowed footsteps of Fruffy the dancing bear, so what's not to love?

See more HERE. And if you're in the area, please stop by to say "hello." Even if you already own the book, it would be nice to put some faces with names.

LOTR: FOTR Live to Projection is headlining the most recent Ravinia Newsletter, which, of course, gives me the perfect excuse to remind everyone that I'll be signing The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films before the performance each night.


What's more, Ravinia's ticketing page has all the pertinent details in place already:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Ludwig Wicki, Conductor

The Lakeside Singers

Chicago Chorale

Chicago Children's Choir

Kaitlyn Lusk, Soprano

$50 reserved

$25 lawn

Ticket & dining package $65

Compare: our price is less than half that of other venues with this show; and we have the CSO!

VIDEO SCREEN ON THE LAWN

Doug Adams author of the book The Music of the Lord of the Rings will participate in book signings prior to the August 18 and 19 CSO Lord of the Rings—The Fellowship of the Ring performances at 6:45 p.m. in front of Ravinia Gifts.

Gates open at 5:00 PM

Click above to order, and I hope to see you there!

A few days before the final Luzern lecture I received a note from Howard Shore: “Can I join the lecture via Skype?” Thanks to the fast-moving KKL crew, we were able to set up all necessary technology in a short period of time, test it out, and confidently tease the audiences that a “very special guest” would be joining us on Friday.

Howard and I often remark that no matter how many times we have to speak about the LOTR score, we always find something new to discuss. Of course, we have to cover some familiar territory in order to properly contextualize the conversation for the audience, but by and large we find a new road each time we set out.

This time our conversation navigated such diverse topics as Naked Lunch, The Social Network, David Cronenberg, and yes, The Hobbit. (I wonder how it will feel, years from now, to revisit this interview and hear Howard talking about his still-pristine copy of the book.) We also were able to take an unusually – and refreshingly – broad look at LOTR, since I’d spent most of the prior week parsing details and minutiae.

The video here primarily consists of still pictures captured by a number of people, but there's a little bit of full-motion video interspersed, so keep your eyes on the screen!



I suppose this post also serves as my semi-official Luzern wrap-up. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be there at the beginning … to see to first of what we can only assume to be many LOTR cycles to come.

My deep thanks to everyone that made this possible.

The picture below was sent in by a generous reader. Did anyone here attend the Tampere performance? I'm sure we'd love a review!

Kaitlyn Lusk, Erik Ochsner, and the Music of LOTR book, post-concert in Tampere

During the months of March and April, I provided a series of five lectures for the Luzern presentation of Howard Shore's LOTR Cycle. Over the coming days I will be presenting the content of those lectures.

If you've looked ahead to the embedded videos, you've no doubt noted that you're not looking at Luzern, Switzerland. Instead, you're looking at Wheaton College in Illinois. My "Overview" lectures in Luzern and Wheaton were very similar, but Wheaton had the added advantage of a PowerPoint presentation and, more importantly, a piano. You'll hear the volume of my voice slide up and down as I turn my head to operate the laptop -- and you'll notice I bobble the piano playing here and there because my head is craned backward to look at the screen! -- but overall the sound is pretty good on this one.

Luzern is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I could write a dozen posts on nothing more than the landscape. Heck, I may even post some of my Mount Pilatus videos during a future content drought. Wheaton, however, has something very unique and special -- the incredible Marion E. Wade Center -- which houses books, papers and artifacts from seven British authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien. They also boast one of the most comprehensive Tolkien libraries imaginable ... including, now, two copies of The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films. It's pretty amazing to think that this book now resides on a shelf not too far from Tolkien's own writing desk. If you're ever in the Chicago area -- maybe next summer for Ravinia? -- and have the time to take a tour, I promise it will be a rewarding experience.

In the meantime, the full Wheaton lecture is below. This was an incredibly enthusiastic -- and, as you'll note, vocal -- audience. I thought it would consist of primarily college students, but there were some middle-school kids and older folks in attendance as well. I was still a bit jet-lagged at the time, but their enthusiasm helped fuel me, so I'm incredibly grateful. This was a truly fun lecture to give and, in many ways, maybe the best one yet.







Next up is the grand finale in the Luzern lecture series. This, too, was a bit of an overview lecture, but our special guest provided a rather unique perspective.

Preview below. See you next week when this runs.

The Great and Powerful Oz? Photo by Basil Böhni.