Re: a provocative question

What a wonderful set of responses!  Thank you guys, keep them coming.
Interesting that the first people to reply were the professional
linguists.  Czhang, it would be superfluous for me to comment on your
amazing and very well-informed list, but I really think you hit the
nail on the head with Grainger for Tolkien.

Jan wrote:
>>>
Linking Tolkien to a composer is even more difficult. I don't think
Mozart works here, but it is not easy to find an alternative. After
all, Tolkien's musical equivalent ought to be a Romantic, whose music
is basically a priori, even though he allows himself to be influenced
by the exotic, and mellifluous. Therefore, I would hesitate between
Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, and Olivier Messiaen.
<<<

I admit my connections were a little glib.  I beg to disagree with
each of your JRRT ideas though :) ... Debussy and Messiaen are two of
my favourite composers, and neither would have occurred to me for
Tolkien.  I see what you mean about their individualism and a-priori-
ness, but actually I don't think of Tolkien's languages as being
particularly a priori.  OK, they're not directly derived from
natlangs, but he explicitly acknowledged his strong natlang
influences, while both French composers broke with tradition much more
radically than Tolkien did, IMHO.

On the other hand, you could say that Messiaen drew his inspiration
from nature, just as Tolkien did.  But Tolkien didn't have the luxury
of being able to inspect other people's conlangs as we do, so I'd
consider that his natlang influences are more closely analogous to
musical influences than to natural ones.

Another reason for my disagreeing with you is that I wanted to be
Messiaen. :))

looking forward to more of this thread,
Jonathan.

[reply to jonathan underscore knibb at hotmail dot com]
--
'O dear white children casual as birds,
Playing among the ruined languages...'
Auden/Britten, 'Hymn to St. Cecilia'