Hi everyone!

We have such a special treat for all of you today: a twenty-four minute early preview of some of the songs from S. J. Tucker's "The Music of Valdemar" album.

At first we were going to put the video at the end, but then we realized it would be more fun to let you listen while you read!

As many of you know, Misty was writing filk lyrics long before she became a novelist. Her songs have been a part of the books from the very beginning, printed in the back of each novel and speaking to the legends, emotions, and experiences of the people inhabiting her worlds.

It was inevitable that many of these songs would be set to music. Numerous albums were released over the following decades, which have become a beloved part of the fandom.

But the rights to those albums were held by multiple creators. Some of those creators are still with us, but time has taken its toll over forty years and others have passed on. The result is that rights to the old music are now impossible to recover.

"The Music of Valdemar" is a multi-year project by Mercedes Lackey, S. J. Tucker (Sooj), and Ben Dobyns to write and record new music with clear rights, so that Misty's original lyrics can live on in a new form.

HOW IS THE MUSIC DEVELOPED?

Misty's core vision is to present the music as an in-world artifact, asking Sooj and Ben to imagine how each the songs might sound in taverns, homes, and palaces across Velgarth, from the lullabies of the Holderkin to the ballads played on My Lady.

Their work has been supported by a number of fans, who have provided in-depth notes and research on real-world influences and their ties to Rethwellan, Menmellith, Karse, and other musical traditions. There's also been a lively discussion about whether gryphons would have electronic guitars, because they're so heavy metal. (They wouldn't.)

From there, Ben created a first round of compositions in a Valdemar folk style, drawing heavily on pentatonic Appalachian modalities. They then met with Sooj for a week-long working session to develop a process for writing, arranging, and recording the rest of the music. This session introduced more complex "synthetic" modes to represent particular regional sounds, which drift in and out of the pieces, as illustrated in the "super locrian" phrase that begins "Laws" (below). From there, Sooj and Ben have collaborated remotely to bring each piece to life, using a combination of scratch recordings and lead sheets.

Those lead sheets will appear in the music section of Deluxe Heralds as well!

Here's an example of an in-progress lead sheet:

HOW IS THE MUSIC PRODUCED?

Sooj starts by taking the time to "become friends" with the song, finding where and how it speaks to her. From there, she creates an arrangement and practices until she's ready for the recording studio. Ginger Doss, the music producer, records the studio sessions, layering in instruments and vocals. Those recordings go back to Ben and Misty for review, then when everyone has signed off Ginger proceeds to mastering.


WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE SONGS?

They're in progress! "An Arrow in Flight" is at first review stage, for example, and "Laws" is at mastering.

One particular two-part epic is the most complicated of the bunch and will be recorded last, since Ben is still composing, but most everything else is in some stage of learning and production.


WHAT ABOUT PHYSICAL COPIES?

Once the digital album is completed and released to backers, Sooj will begin work on a public release on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Bandcamp. We're hopeful that CDs will be available via the S.J. Tucker Bandcamp at that time!


WHEN WILL IT BE RELEASED?

When it's done! We started work on this project during the Grandmaster campaign, which raised some, but not all, of the funds that we needed to record a complete album. This campaign completes the necessary funding!

We'll release songs to backers as they're completed, but we're not setting a specific time for the album release. Very generally, each song has taken 1-2 months... and we're pretty intent on doing a LOT of songs.