LOTR: Bilbo's Birthday Song

Whistle
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Late one night in the chat room a while back, Lark brought to my attention an interesting piece of music that is played in The Fellowship of the Rings during Bilbo’s birthday party. The main part is played on a whistle (or similar instrument). Both of us thought this would be a fun song to learn on the whistle. However, there is no written music available or even a complete recording of it that I am aware of. (Unfortunatly, this is one of the tunes not on the soundtrack.) If anyone out there does know of a good recording or music for this song, please let us know here.

So Lark sent me a clip of the song off the movie and I set about trying to pick out the notes by ear and write them down. Thought there might be some others here who would have fun with this song, so we are posting the results here. Thank you Lark for getting the sound clips and posting everything on your webpage. :slight_smile:

So here it is for your whistle playing pleasure… or frustration… :stuck_out_tongue:

http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/Bilbo.html (A new link that should do better bandwidth wise.)

There are the soundclips and then a series of jpeg images which contain a whistle TAB of the song with the notes written out below it in the key of D. I tried to make it as plain as possible. The images should be able to be saved and then printed out. I clicked the “fit to page” option on mine and they printed out great, though other computers might vary.

I picked the notes out the best I could and while it sounds okay to me, someone with a better ear may likely find spots that could use improving. If you do, please let me know so we can fix it. Trying to make this as complete as possible.

Also, there were a few spots that are improvised due to the nature of it being picked off of a movie with people talking and fireworks going off and the end of it just kind of gets cut off. So like at the end, I just added a repeat of the first part again, it makes it seem more finished. But you don’t hear it ending like that on the movie clip (as I said, it just gets cut off).

I would recommend listening carefully to the sound clip (or that spot on the movie) to help you get a feel for the song, and also using a whistle that plays that second octave real well. :smiley:

So I hope you all will have some fun with this song… happy whistling!

:slight_smile: Sara


P.S. Just thinking I should have wrote on that first page “Play Part One Twice” instead of “Repeat Part One Twice”. Well, you’ll get the idea. :wink:


(Edited to add new link.) :slight_smile:

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Hi Sunny Sara,

I couldn’t hear the soundclips, probably because my speakers in the office are pants. However I do have the DVD at home, so I’ll give it a spin tonight.

cheers, Martin

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:laughing:

hobbits! :heart:

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Oh, btw, I’d re-rip those mp3s I have my speakers turned all the way up, and I can only barely hear it (my other mp3s sound fine, so it’s nothing wrong with the computer…)

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:astonished: Oh Dear!

Sorry to hear people are having trouble with the sound clips. The orginal one Lark sent me did need to have to be turned up a bit to hear it, but I could hear it well enough. The trouble is that this clip is recorded with the movie playing on the TV being the source of the sound as we have been unable to find any other source for the music, so the quality isn’t the greatest like a CD copy would be.

I didn’t check the clips after they were posted last night to make sure those ones were okay though. Just went to check them and was told that the webpage had exceeded it’s hourly bandwidth and would be available in a few hours. Hourly bandwidth? :confused: Didn’t know there was such a thing. Anyhow, sorry about the unexpected technical difficulties. We will get it working better A.S.A P.

:slight_smile: Sara

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Okay… just to let you all know. Checked the soundclips. The second one labeled “Hear it with some filtering to try to bring out the music more” was really hard to hear when I listened to it. Until we figure out what happend to it, I would recommend the first clip labeled “Hear it as it apeared in the movie” for while it is not perfect (as it was recorded off the TV after all) it seems much better and is loud enough that you should at least hear it (hopefully). Hope that clip will be of some help. And of course, those of you with access to this movie on video or DVD can just pop it in the player and turn it up as loud as you like. :smiley:

I also added a second link (see first post). I hurried and put together a second page at geocities. That way if one page is temporarily unavailable again, then hopefully the other page will be up and working. The second page has the one louder clip on it and the jpeg files of whistle TAB in order of the page number. If folks still run into problems accessing it, let me know and we will figure out something.

Happy Whistling!

:slight_smile: Sara

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Just cause I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive, I’m gonna try dubbing it directly from the video and transfering it to MP3. I may be able to get better sound quality. I’m also gonna use an ABC program to make sheet music of this for anyone who wants it. I’ll post here or create a new topic when I’m done. Awesome job on finding it and transcribing it, by the way! This may be my new fav. song to play.

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Hi Sunny Sara,

I had a couple of dozen listens to the scene on my DVD last night, and started to transcribe & check against your fingering chart. The tune gets more complicated in each successive part, and the foreground noises get louder as the scene goes on, so it is indeed hard to pick out the tune by the end. However, it can be done, and your fingerings look pretty good to me for the first two parts which is as far as I’ve checked.

Like RaptOr, I’m going to use your tab, plus the DVD, to get it down as ABC and eventually sheetmusic (which is what I find easiest to read). I hope to rope in Kim in Tulsa and Cees to check it too, as they’re both LOTR fans and will have access to the DVD to check the tune.

You’ve written it in the key of D, but the fingerings are actually correct on a C whistle. I started playing along with the film on a D, and got into difficulties. In the film, the tune starts on a G, and appears to be in 6/8 time.

I wonder if it’s a set dance or a slide, and maybe not an original composition which might explain why it didn’t make the album soundtrack? I’m just guessing here.

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Hi Sara! I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been on the Board much..but Martin alerted me to read this. We should get together sometime and let Ciara and Jordyn play!

I do have the DVD, and find that it’s the easiest for me to figure out notes I don’t have music for with my piano, so I’ll put it on and try to figure it out on the piano when I get a chance and see what I come up with. Great job figuring it out! I had forgotten about this fun little tune.

My favorite one from FOTR is the “Fellowship Theme.” Has anyone figured that one out yet?

I also love the “Riders of Rohan” theme from TTT.

Great music!

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I wonder if it would be in the sheet music. They’re selling the FOTR sheet music both on New Line Cinema’s LOTR site and on Amazon.com. I’d want to see a book like that before I bought it, though.

'Course, IMHO it’s a lot more fun to sit there and pick it out by ear. I’ll sit down w/my DVD tonight too.

Little John

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Martin, I’m thinking the tune might be more along the lines of what in Donegal would be called a ‘german’ or maybe a ‘barn dance’. I’m less familiar with these, but it rings that way to my ear. I don’t recall hearing the tune before, but that doesn’t mean much. :slight_smile:

Best,
N

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Thanks! :slight_smile: It would be WONDERFUL to have some sheet music done up for this, and a clearer recording would be really helpful. I’m still trying to figure out the ABC stuff, which is why I didn’t attempt to make up some proper sheet music. It’s great to have someone who knows ABC better to take a stab at it.

It’s sooo great to have this checked through. A couple dozen listens? :laughing: Yeah, that sounds familiar. More like a dozen dozen listens. Thank you for taking the time. Nice to know that it’s “so far so good” though I wouldn’t be surprised if you found mistakes later in the song TAB, when the music takes back seat to Bilbo’s troll story. :astonished:

Key of D… key of C… key of? I’m afraid the finer points of music still elude me. I guess what I meant is that the TAB fingering should work on any key whistle, but that the notes below the TAB are for if you were playing that fingering on a D whistle. Does that make sense? Ah… I confuse me to sometimes. :slight_smile:

Cees: Yes, we DO need to get together for a visit sometime. I know Jordyn just LOVES to have other kids to play with. Do you have my number? I’ll send you a private message. Aaawkkk! The “Riders of Rohan” theme! I finally got to watch TTT but it was late at night and I forgot to listen out for the music. Duh! But yes, the whole LOTR has wonderful music so far. Haven’t played with anything else much except the “Traveling Song” that Gandalf sings at the beginning and Bilbo sings as he leaves the Shire. Like you, I would be interested in knowing if anyone has picked out some of the other music.

Tried finding a soundtrack type recording or sheet music for this song but haven’t had any luck so far. I’d be really interested in knowing if it even exists… even knowing the real name of this tune as I doubt it’s actually called “Bilbo’s Birthday Song” but had to call it somthing other than “That One Song”. :stuck_out_tongue:

Happy Whistling!

:slight_smile: Sara

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Hi Sara,

What I meant here is, if you play your whistle along with the film, you’ll be best using a C whistle. I think you did this to get the fingerings as you’ve written them. Yes, you can play on any key of whistle using the fingerings, but only on a C whistle will it be in tune to the original source.

Nano: You may well be right, I was just guessing. Because the tune has 5 parts, it’s not your regular jig (I know there’s about a half dozen types of jig) which would only have two parts, 8 bars long, or 3 parts at most. The Hobbits seem to have an Irishey feel to them, though of course Tolkein would have been basing them on the English countryside that he knew.

I think it’ll be funny if we all get it sorted, and then someone like Peter of Bloomy says “Ah yes, that’s the tune we call ‘Birthday Bash with Fireworks’ or somesuch!”

Little John: I’ve got the soundtrack album, and this tune isn’t on it, so I suspect it wouldn’t be in the scorebook. 90% of the album is what I would call themes rather than tunes, great mood music for a film, but you won’t catch me humming it.

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Aha!! I know what kind of tune it was, now! A half-fling. :laughing:

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Hehe! Wow! You guessed right. I picked it out on a C whistle because so much of the song was in the second octave and the C was easier on the ears. That, and as Avanutria can tell you, I am partial to my C whistle. I’m surprised you could tell… I guess that just shows how much more I still have to learn about music, though right now I’m just thrilled to be able to get something resembling music out of my whistles. :stuck_out_tongue:

‘Birthday Bash with Fireworks’? A half-fling? :laughing: Okay, if you say so! :wink:

http://www.geocities.com/topazcanary/index.html

:slight_smile: Sara