During the months of March and April, I provided a series of five lectures for the Luzern presentation of Howard Shore's LOTR Cycle. Over the coming days I will be presenting the content of those lectures.

Today we will begin with the "Rhythm and Percussion" lecture, which was given onstage at the KKL with the participation of the fantastic 21st Century Orchestra percussion section. This was actually the second in the series of lectures, but for reasons which I'll explain later, I'll be presenting the series slightly out of order.

I've cleaned up the audio on this as much as possible. I'd like to think it provides an unpolished, fly-on-the-wall perspective, but frankly, some of it is a tad difficult to understand. Most is fine, of course, but please leave a note in the comments if I -- or others -- can help clarify.