KING DAVID. Musical/pop oratorio in two acts by Tim Rice, scored for soloists, large mixed chorus, and orchestra, originally written to commemorate the 3,000th anniversary of David’s capture of the city of Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:6–10) and staged in a concert version in Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre in 1997. Based on the books of Samuel, Chronicles, and Psalms, act 1 opens with a prologue (David, Bathsheba, Solomon, Joab, and a chorus) and recounts the stories of the anointing of David as king, Saul’s Madness (“The Enemy Within”) (1 Sam. 18–19), David’s slaying of Goliath (“Saul has slain his Thousands”) (1 Sam. 18:7), David’s flight to the hills (“Hunted Partridge on the Hill”) (1 Sam. 26:20), and the death of Saul (“The Death of Saul”; “How the Mighty are Fallen”) (2 Sam. 1:19–26). Act 2 opens with “This New Jerusalem” celebrating David’s kingship, “The Ark Brought to Jerusalem,” David’s separation from Michal (“Never Again”), and David’s love affair (“Warm Spring Night”) with Bathsheba (“When in Love”) (2 Sam. 11–12) and includes the death of Uriah and Absalom and the birth of Solomon. It concludes with the death of David (“David’s Final Hours”; “The Long Long Day”) and the new reign of Solomon (“This New Jerusalem”) (1 Kgs. 1–2).
KING DAVID. Oratorio in two parts by George Alexander Macfarren (1883), set to a libretto by Edwin George Monk and written for the Leeds Musical Festival of 1883. Part 1 opens in the tonality of B-flat major with a programmatic overture (no. 1) representing David’s early life with a “shepherd-boy” theme played by horns, trumpets to signify the call to battle, the harp to represent David’s music making before Saul, a rhythmic figure to signify Saul’s unrest, and sharp tonalities to represent Saul’s jealousy and death. David’s account of the procession of the Ark into Jerusalem, (1 Chron. 16:8–9, 32–34) is based on the melody of the Old 100th (no. 3), while a narration of David’s sin (2 Sam. 11) is sung a cappella by the chorus to the words “Spare us, Good Lord” taken from the litany of the English Church (no. 10). The prophet Nathan (1 Chron. 17; 2 Sam. 12; Ps. 51) figures in three of the numbers (nos. 6, 11, 12), and part 1 concludes with an account of God’s vengeance (Heb. 10:30; Pss. 31:9; 73:18). Poignant numbers in part 2 include a scene of battle (2 Sam. 18; Isa. 63:8–11; Deut. 32:10–11; Pss. 103:11; 7:6) where David repeatedly asks his servants, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” (no. 27), his lament following Absalom’s death, “O Absalom, my son” (2 Sam. 18–19), sung to harp and string accompaniment (no. 28), and the choral number in F minor, “The king weepeth,” with a plaintive melody, sung by David, “O Absalom, my son,” scored above the chorus (no. 29). Christological references abound, including David’s song “Who am I Lord?” (1 Chron. 17:16, 18, 19) with harp and string accompaniment (no. 7), followed by a choral fugue, “The Seed of David is great and is called the Son of the Highest” (Lk. 1:32–33), with an organ accompaniment in B-flat major (no. 8). The work concludes with David’s song of repentance scored in E-flat major, followed by a joyful chorus in B, “For the Son of Man has come in glory,” to recount heaven’s joy at the repentance of a sinner (Lk. 15:7, 10), the promise of salvation (Lk. 19:10), and the lesser doxology “Glory be to the Father.”
KING DAVID. Poem by Walter de la Mare set to music by several composers, including Herbert Howells, whose arrangement for voice and piano was published in A Garland for de la Mare (1923). Hauntingly beautiful and intensely expressive, this melancholic song in E-flat minor tells of David’s great sorrow, the cause of which was unknown to David but which recalls his grief at the death of Absalom (2 Sam. 18) and the death of Bathsheba’s first child (2 Sam. 12:14–31) if not also Ps. 51. A “hundred harps” failed to ease his melancholy; only a nightingale’s sorrow brought consolation.
KING DAVID’S DANCE. (“And David Danced before God with All His Might”). Work for wind ensemble by American composer Stephen Shewan from the album Parables of God and Man (2006). An infusion of jazz rhythms and pop idioms describes David’s exhilarating dance before the Lord (2 Sam. 6:14).
KING DAVID SONATA. Instrumental solo for harp by Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick from the album Illuminations (1998). It is in three parts, each calling to mind a setting for David’s harp playing: when he was a shepherd boy watching over his father’s sheep (1 Sam. 16:11), when he soothed King Saul with his harp playing (1 Sam. 16:14–23), and when he was king and accompanied himself singing the Psalms.
KING DAVID: THE MUSICAL. Musical by Canadian composer Eyal Bitton (1970). Based on episodes in the life of King David (Samuel and Chronicles), it includes an account of David’s slaying of Goliath (“Save us”), the fall of Jonathan and Saul in battle (“Fire, Fire”), the union of David and Bathsheba (“Secret Encounter”), and the death of their firstborn (“Sleep Little Child”). It also contains a setting of Ps. 23 (“The Lord is My Shepherd”).
KING HEROD AND THE COCK. Traditional ballad/carol arranged by Vaughan Williams and performed at the annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in Kings College, Cambridge, on Christmas Eve 1977. Based on a legend of St. Stephen, it tells how the birth of Christ was proved to Herod through the miracle of a roasted chicken that rose up out of a pie and proclaimed Christus natus est (“Christ is born”).
KING OF KINGS, THE. Silent black-and-white epic film, with Technicolor inserts, written by Jeanie Macpherson and directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille (1927), telling the story of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. The score by Hugo Riesenfeld was composed for the rerelease in 1928 with added sound effects, including a crash of thunder and the roar of crowds. Nicholas Ray’s 1961 version with Orson Wells as narrator begins with the Nativity. The music was by Miklós Rózsa, who also arranged choruses from the King of Kings and Ben-Hur for choral performance and organ on the album The Twelve Choruses recorded by Winchester Cathedral Chamber Choir (2014).
KING SAUL. Oratorio in four acts for SATB soloists, chorus, and orchestra by Hubert Parry (1894), premiered in Birmingham on 3 October 1894. Based on events in the life of Saul (Bar) (1 Sam. 9–33), it highlights David’s love affair with Michal (S) (Song 2:8, 10–12, 16; 3:2, 20; 5:10–12; 6:3, 5, 10–12, 15; 7:5, 13; 8:6–8; Rev. 3:20) and her song of Triumph (“Arise and Sing ye Daughters of Israel”). Act 2 describes Saul’s visit to the Witch of Endor (S) and his death on the battlefield, followed by David’s lament (2 Sam. 1), accompanied by Michal and the chorus. Parry excluded Jonathan from the oratorio but scored a vocal part for the evil spirit (A) (1 Sam. 16–18, 19), who appears in every act, taunting him, inciting him to jealous outbursts over David’s slaying of Goliath (“Saul! art thou King indeed? Say the night of thee but thousands?”) and David’s relationship with Michal (“Doth thy power decline even in thine own house?”), and instructing him to go to the Witch of Endor since God had forsaken him (“Thou enquirest of him but he giveth thee no answer”). Parry contrasts the person of Saul at the beginning of the oratorio when his spirit soared “on wings of delight” with the man at the end who was enslaved by the taunts of an evil spirit unto death. The oratorio concludes with the chorus “Weep ye for the Slain, Weep ye for Saul.”
KING SOLOMON. Work in three movements for chorus, narrator, and orchestra by Sir Granville Bantock composed for the coronation of George VI in 1937. It opens with a Processional (Ps. 21), featuring a fanfare and an extended orchestral march, followed by King Solomon’s Request for Wisdom (2 Chron. 1) and the stately choral hymn “Praise Ye the Lord” (Ps. 148). Thirteen years earlier, Arthur Bliss composed incidental music with the same title for a play by Ira Remsen (F. 86, 1924).
KINGDOM, THE. Oratorio in five scenes for SATB soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra by Elgar (op. 51), premiered at the Birmingham Festival in 1906. Based on a compilation of biblical texts and the Didache and reusing themes from Elgar’s Apostles, the work is set in Jerusalem and describes the activities of the Apostles and the “Holy Women” following Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1). After an orchestral prelude depicting Jerusalem, scene 1, “In the Upper Room,” opens with Peter (B), John (T), the two “Holy Women,” the Blessed Virgin (S), and Mary Magdalene (A) quoting Jesus’ words from the Gospels and other texts (1 Chron. 12:18; Isa. 63:8; Wisd. 18:15; Ps. 107:2; Sir. 25:2; Ps. 113:1; Joel 2:26; Acts 1:16, 20, 24, 26; 2 Chron. 29:11; Mal. 2:1; 3:1). Scene 2 takes place on “The Morn of Pentecost,” with the two Marys reminiscing on Jesus’ healing miracles (Sir. 47:9, 10; Acts 3:2; Job 6:14; Ps. 102:19; 2 Chron. 35:16; Ps. 122:1) and the narrator (T) describing the descent of the Holy Spirit and the speaking in tongues (Acts 2; Sir. 39:6; Isa. 12:2; Ps. 104:3, 4; Jer. 1:9; Amos 3:8; Prov. 31:5; Isa. 28:11; Jer. 23:29, 9; Zech. 12:10; 13:1; Jas. 1:18; Acts 3:13). Scene 4, “The Sign of Healing,” set “At the Beautiful Gate,” opens with an interlude, the healing of the lame man by Peter, and “The Arrest” of the two apostles (Acts 3; Mal. 4:2) and concludes with a beautiful nocturnal interlude, “The Sun Goeth Down,” sung by Mary as a reflection on everything she has witnessed (Ps. 104:19, 20; 77:6; 63:6; Dan. 4:3; Isa. 4:2; 45:7; Ps. 42:8). Scene 5, “In Fellowship,” returns to “The Upper Room,” where Peter and John recount their arrest and interrogation and together receive Holy Communion (Didache; Ps. 118:15; Acts 4; Joel 2:26; Mt. 6:9–13; Rom. 8:15; Isa. 63:16).
KOL NIDRE. (“All Vows”). A piece for solo cello and orchestra by Max Bruch (op. 47), composed in Liverpool and published in Berlin in 1881. Entitled “Adagio on Two Hebrew Melodies for Cello and Orchestra with Harp,” it begins with a setting of the Aramaic prayer known as Kol Nidre, which is chanted on the eve of Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”) (cf. Num. 14:20; 15:26). The other melody comes from a setting by Isaac Nathan of Byron’s paraphrase of Ps. 137 in Hebrew Melodies (1815). The work consists of a series of variations in which the cello imitates the voice of the Jewish cantor. There is a choral setting of the Kol Nidre prayer by Arnold Schoenberg (op. 39 1938), arranged for organ solo by Leonard Stein (1992), and it also featured in film versions of The Jazz Singer, where it was sung by Al Jolson (1927), Jerry Lewis (1959), and Neil Diamond (1980), as well as on the album Release of an Oath by the American rock band Electric Prunes (1968).