Page "Ainulindalë" Paragraph 7

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Melkor is introduced, and the Ainur begin their Chorus.

The first Ainu to be named in the histories, Melkor (‘ Arises in Might ’) is described as the most powerful of the Ainur and as knowing much of Ilúvatar ’ s thoughts, including something of each of the primary themes that prefigure the other Ainur.

He develops impatience with the schoolish process of thematic elaboration: like a precocious child, Melkor begins thinking of certain musical ideas and themes as being ‘ all his own ’, and he feels compelled to develop them apace.

Melkor even harbours the desire to externally manifest his ideas ( private ideas, as he thinks them ) and to become a creator of beings himself.

When the choir of the Ainur finally embark on the fully collaborative elaboration of Ilúvatar ’ s grand plan, Melkor participates with all the others, yet he stands forth and inserts his very different thematic adornments, which disrupts the harmony.

One reason his music is so different is that he ’ s spent too much time ' alone ,' so his themes appear to have a singular, rather than contextual, origin.

The ‘ battle ’ in the choir of the Ainur rages back and forth with the ‘ pro-Ilúvatar ’ Music described as " deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came.

" ( Silmarillion p 17 ).

Melkor ’ s music, on the other hand, is said to have been " loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated … And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice … " ( Ibid.

) But, despite Melkor ’ s best efforts to mar and utterly overthrow the Great Music, his discordant music ’ s " most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.

" ( Ibid.

The Book of Lost Tales – Vol 1, “ One was very great and deep and beautiful, but it was mingled with an unquenchable sorrow, while the other was now grown to unity and a system of its own, but was loud and vain and arrogant, braying triumphantly against the other as it thought to drown it, yet ever, as it essayed to clash most fearsomely, finding itself but in some manner supplementing or harmonizing with its rival .” p 54. also compare The Lost Road and Other Writings | The Lost Road “ The other had grown now to a unity and system, yet an imperfect one, save insofar as derived still from the eldest theme of Ilúvatar …” p 158.