“Tell thou the king and all his liars, that I
Have founded my Round Table in the North,
And whatsoever his own knights have sworn
My knights have sworn the counter to it”

Almesbury Abbey’s music is a tribute to Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, a cycle of twelve narrative poems, first published between 1859 and 1873, retelling the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. The first album was inspired by the tenth poem “Guinevere”, about the last years of Queen Guinevere in Almesbury convent. This new album was inspired by the 9th poem “the last tournament,” about what has been called in mockery the tournament of the Dead Innocence… Arthur and a few companions are away in the North, fighting the Red Knight and his court of lawless knights and harlots. Meanwhile in Camelot, a tournament is organized, the prize being a ruby necklace taken from an unknown dead child. All the rules of chivalry are broken and the tournament becomes a farce. Surely the beginning of the end for the Round Table. For the whole story www.gutenberg.org/files/610/610-h/610-h.htm#link2H_4_0002

Painting by Carlo Jacono, circa 1960.