King Arthur in Music

By Richard Barber (editor),

Book cover of King Arthur in Music

Book description

A survey of the influence of the Arthurian legends on musical works.

King Arthur in Music is the first book to be devoted to the subject. The range of musical material is too wide for a single author to tackle satisfactorily, and the nine contributors to this volume are experts…

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Why read it?

1 author picked King Arthur in Music as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Even richer than the tradition of Arthurian films are musical adaptations of King Arthur, stretching back, at least, to the seventeenth century. As it says on the lid, this book explores how King Arthur has been approached in the wide realm of music. I love operas, musicals, and orchestral music, and Arthur is a consistent subject and theme.

Whether Camelot or Spamalot, putting Arthur’s story on stage or to music brings out aspects of his story that words or images alone cannot, and the musical Arthurs are some of the most nuanced versions of the man. I’ve returned to this…

From Murray's list on thinking about King Arthur.

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Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

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