Enya’s “May It Be”

 

May It Be is a song composed by Enya and written by Roma Ryan, for The Lord Of The Rings : The Fellowship Of The Ring, directed by Peter Jackson, released in the year 2001.

Nicky Ryan produced and arranged the music and vocals.

The orchestration was recorded in London, performed by the the London Voices and London Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Howard Shore. 

Composition wise this is a simple piece with very poignant and minimal orchestration, but with a lot of layers and depth.

It adds to the whole mystery of the song. 

This song represents Celtic music so beautifully. 

The Voices and the orchestration coexist really well.

This is one of the cleanest songs ever made.

One of the striking features of this song is the lyrics. This song’s lyrics are written in English and Quenya, which is a fictional Elvish language, created by J.R.R. Tolkien.

There are 2 phrases if Quenya in the song that are repeated a few times throughout the song. 

Mornië utúlië, which translates to “Darkness has come."

Mornië alantië which translates to  "Darkness has fallen”

The rest of the song is written in English. 

“May It Be”, recieved nominations for the Academy award for Best Original Song, The Golden Globe award for Best Orginal Song and The Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. 

Enya performed this song in the 74th Academy awards. 

This was also the first time Enya was nominated for the Academy awards. 

Disclaimer:

I DO NOT OWN THE IMAGE OR THE SONG. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS AND CREATORS.