Are there any orchestral pieces that render Ainulindalë?

Question

Although I knew vaguely about the Ainur and the time before Earth, I only just recently read Ainulindalë in The Silmarillion. While reading I couldn't escape the thought of a piece of music that symbolizes or portrays the Great Song.

Answer 1

No official version, and as far as I know Tolkien never felt compelled to attempt one. In honesty it doesn't make a lot of sense to take the Ainulindalë literally as a text; considering we're talking about the actions of non-embodied spirits palling around in the Netherspace, mentions of things like "voice" and "song" are more than likely just metaphors to describe events beyond our incarnate understanding.

Having said that, there are legion fan efforts on YouTube and elsewhere, including:

• A museScore user by the name of Jodie Foster scored a version for strings and woodwinds; while it's not as impressive to listen to, it's one of the more book-accurate versions I've seen

• Fan Stephan Krosecz made an audio-visual interpretation of the story

• One I'm personally fond of, though it's not remotely close to what's in my head when I read the story, is another audio-visual interpretation by composer Diego Mitre:

There are many others, and they're all quite interesting and very non-canon.

Answer 2

In addition to the other answer, this has just been posted:

Inspired by the very beginning of Ainulindalë (Music of Ainur) the first section of JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion, the video uses the enchanting and powerful description of Tolkien's myth of creation as a primary reference. Visually it emulates a musical rhythm whilst portraying cosmic growth and grand displays of light, and also alludes to the mentions of Themes, harmonies and the voices of the Ainur as mentioned in Tolkien's posthumous work.

And it's a very beautiful and harmonious piece, with nice visuals.