A question for those who have read the books.
I did try and think up some LOTR related title but quickly got stuck. :D I’ve recently been listening to the music of the films again and as I've been doing so, I've also been reading the annotated scores for the films. Fascinating stuff, but one of the best bits for me has been discovering just what all the choral work in the music means. It's amazing the amount that there actually is, songs about the Balrog, Durin, Boromir's death, Shadowfax, Entmoot, Theoden, the Dimholt Road, everything, it's great, and they all come with both the English translation and their Middle earth counterparts. The notes say the following in regards to the lyrics of the songs. "Choral lyrics in The Lord of the Rings films reference the past histories and broader concepts of Tolkien’s universe. Several passages directly quote the author’s writing, though the majority of the verses are original, scribed by Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, David Salo and, for Enya’s work, Roma Ryan" One of the choral pieces that is most prominent in the films, indeed, it's one of my favourite pieces of the score, is called "The Revelation Of The Ringwraiths". It can be heard often in FOTR - when the Hobbits are being chased towards the Buckleberry Ferry, at Weathertop, the Prancing Pony, and chasing Arwen to the Ford. It is, quite frankly, awesome. It was written by Boyens and translated into Adûnaic by Salo and goes like this. Nêbâbîtham Magânanê Nêtabdam dâur-ad Nêpâm nêd abârat-aglar îdô Nidir nênâkham Bârî’n Katharâd We renounce our Maker. We cleave to the darkness. We take unto ourselves the power and glory. Behold! We are the Nine, The Lords of Unending Life. I just love those lyrics, kind of sums them up perfectly. There's a video on Youtube, with the Adûnaic lyrics on screen. Like a singalong. Brilliant - Watch it here! - Weathertop) Anyway, all of this is basically a longwinded backstory way of getting to my question. With all the songs and verses related to events and characters that Tolkien did write, did he do anything Wraith-specific? Are there any little ditties or poems about the Nazgul to be found in Tolkien’s prose that were simply put aside for the film, or is the above all that we have? Or should I just read the books and find out for myself ;D

To be honest Gimli,I don't remember any verses about the Nazgul at all...

I haven't read them for a year or so now so I can't properly remember all the poems and songs, there are so many of them! There may be a song about the Nasgul and how they became what they are, but that also may be my imagination. You'll have to read them Gimli, or wait for me to re-read them this summer and tell you. :P

Cheers guys! I do hope to read them this year. I'm sure I've said that every year for the past 5! I really do mean it this time though. It's great once you know the lyrics, it just adds a whole new depth to the music, makes everything seem bigger, bolder, more steeped in history and mythology. I've even found myself singing along, to a degree (it's quite hard to match the grunts of the Māori chanters in Moria though :D ) I'm really waiting to find someone here, or anywhere really, who owns the full scores and has some musical nouse to them. Although the liner and annotated notes give a good track-by-track breakdown, and do describe all the various themes, it can still be hard to follow at times. I couldn't tell you a quaver from a packet of Quavers, so when talk of beat patterns and counterpoints come along, I'm just lost, and when The One Ring itself has 5 different themes, it sometimes is hard to pick up on them all when surrounded by other music. Which is a real pain, because you can pretty much follow the entire plot just by the music and I find that really interesting :? :D