Philip Armstrong

Writer of Fiction

Philip Armstrong has written twenty novels. Most are tied to his musical compositions; the music emerges from the writing, or vice versa.

His novel ‘Iphigenia's Necessitarian Cage’ was written in conjunction with the opera ‘Iphigenia in Weimar’, the orchestral work ‘Summer Nectar’, a work for dramatic soprano, male chorus, and orchestra ‘Songs of Athena’, and the video series ‘The Iphigenia Inquiry’. It is available at Amazon (see the link below).

Iphigenia

Iphigenia's Necessitarian Cage and the Horror of the Contingent is a response to the treatment of the Iphigenia myth by Euripides and Goethe, with an emphasis on examining the modality of predestination and of agency. The young man stood at the top of the Großer Beerberg as if a golden statue of ancient days. With bare feet fixed to the ground, the plaid trekker’s shirt cast casually aside, and the sun-bleached hair tied out of the way in a pony-tail, he drew his breath, raised the bell of his trumpet, and played his dramatic music. (Image: Tatiana Papamoschou as Iphigenia, 1977)

Theseus

Theseus and the Minotaur is a tragic drama in nine scenes (about 45 minutes in duration) suitable for high school students or young adult theatre. Theseus is a brave hero. He carries a great sword. He aspires to be King of Athens. Yet he is judged poorly for being the illegitimate son of the sovereign, and is labelled as unfit for kingship. He knows he can only achieve his dreams by undermining the legitimacy of the monarch and the political stability of the entire region, and by turning to treachery. (Image: The Deeds of Theseus, by the Codrus Painter, the British Museum)