The Tolkien Ensemble

The Tolkien Ensemble
The Tolkien Ensemble, 2015
Background information
Origin	Denmark
Genres	Symphonic music, Folk music
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Classico Records
Associated acts	Christopher Lee, Howard Shore
Members	Caspar Reiff, Peter Hall, Morten Ryelund Sørensen, Signe Asmussen, Øyvind Ougaard , Katja Nielsen

The Tolkien Ensemble (founded in 1995) is a Danish ensemble which aims to create "the world's first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from The Lord of the Rings". They published four CDs from 1997 to 2005, in which all the poems and songs of The Lord of the Rings are set to music. The project was approved by both the Tolkien family and HarperCollins Publishers. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gave permission to use her illustrations in the CD layout.

Permanent members are Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall (composition, singing and guitar), Signe Asmussen (singing), Øyvind Ougaard (accordion), Katja Nielsen (double-bass), and Morten Ryelund Sørensen (conductor and violin).

The Ensemble has toured Europe in 2007, combining their own works with soundtrack pieces from Howard Shore's soundtrack to the film trilogy as well as live narration by Christopher Lee.

Composer Caspar Reiff founded the Tolkien Ensemble in Copenhagen in autumn 1995. At that time, Caspar Reiff (1971) was studying guitar at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He formed an ensemble consisting of fellow students from the Academy and his former guitar teacher, composer and multi-musician Peter Hall (1946), LLCM (TD) London College of Music.

The goal set by the two composers, Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall, was to create the world's first complete musical interpretation of the poems from J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece 'the Lord of the Rings', And the ensemble, which was to form the base of this vision, was named 'The Tolkien Ensemble' - an ensemble entirely devoted to the works of Tolkien.

The Tolkien Ensemble's first concert took place at Gjorslev Castle on 21 January 1996 and was followed by a number of successful concerts in Denmark. Towards the end of 1996 Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall were granted permission by the Tolkien Estate to record the first 12 songs from 'Lord of the Rings'.

The two composers chose the young Danish conductor Morten Ryelund as producer and this was to have a major influence on the interpretation of the music and the project as a whole. Morten Ryelund later became a full member of the Tolkien Ensemble and the ensemble was granted permission by HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark to use her illustrations on the CD cover. These unique illustrations, created when she was Crown Princess of Denmark, were to become a recurrent feature on all the ensemble's later CD's.