Editing Myrrha (section)

===Music===
{{Listen|filename=Myrrha Gavotte 3.ogg|title=Myrrha Gavotte|description=A rendition of the piano reduction of Sousa's 1876 "Myrrha Gavotte".}}
In music, Myrrha was the subject of an 1876 band piece by [[John Philip Sousa]], ''Myrrha Gavotte''<ref name="Bierley236">{{Harvnb|Bierley|2001|p=236}}</ref> and in 1901, [[Maurice Ravel]] and [[André Caplet]] each wrote cantatas titled ''Myrrha''.<ref name="Ravel">{{cite web | url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/maurice-ravel-q7873/works/all | title = Maurice Ravel | access-date = 2011-01-26 | work = Allmusic}}</ref><ref name="Caplet">{{cite web | url = http://www.allmusic.com/artist/andr-caplet-q1091/works/all | title = André Caplet | access-date = 2011-01-26 | work = Allmusic}}</ref> Caplet finished first over Ravel who was third in the [[Prix de Rome]] competition. The competition required that the candidates jumped through a series of academic hoops before entering the final where they were to compose a cantata on a prescribed text.<ref name='Ravel criticism'>{{cite news | first = Andrew | last = Clements | title = Classical CD releases | date = 2001-03-23 | publisher = Guardian News and Media | url = https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/mar/23/shopping1?INTCMP=SRCH | work = [[The Guardian]] | access-date = 2011-03-15}}</ref> Though it was not the best musical piece, the jury praised Ravel's work for its "melodic charm" and "sincerity of dramatic sentiment".<ref name="Orenstein35-36">{{Harvnb|Orenstein|1991|pp=35–36}}</ref> Musical critic Andrew Clements writing for ''The Guardian'' commented on Ravel's failures at winning the competition: "Ravel's repeated failure to win the Prix de Rome, the most coveted prize for young composers in France at the turn of the 20th century, has become part of musical folklore."<ref name="Ravel criticism"/>

Italian composer [[Domenico Alaleona]]'s only opera, premiering in 1920, was entitled ''Mirra''. The libretto drew on the legend of Myrrha while the music was inspired by [[Claude Debussy]]'s ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1902) as well as [[Richard Strauss]]' ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' (1909). Suffering from being monotonic, the final showdown between father and daughter, the critics commented, was the only part really making an impact.<ref name="The Guardian 2005">{{cite news | first = Tim | last = Ashley | title = Alaleona: Mirra: Mazzola-Gavezzeni/ Gertseva/ Malagnini/ Ferrari/ Chorus and Orchestra of Radio France/ Valcuh | date = 2005-04-08 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/apr/08/classicalmusicandopera.shopping?INTCMP=SRCH | work = The Guardian | access-date = 2011-01-30}}</ref> ''Mirra'' remains Alaleona's most ambitious composition and though the music tended to be "eclectic and uneven", it showed "technical enterprise".<ref name="Oxfordmusiconlinealaleona">{{cite encyclopedia | last = C.G. Waterhouse | first = John | encyclopedia = Grove Music Online | title = Alaleona, Domenico | publisher = Oxford University Press}}</ref>

More recently, Kristen Kuster created a choral orchestration, ''Myrrha'', written in 2004 and first performed at [[Carnegie Hall]] in 2006. Kuster stated that the idea for ''Myrrha'' came when she was asked by the [[American Composers Orchestra]] to write a love-and-erotica themed concert. The concert was inspired by the myth of Myrrha in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' and includes excerpts from the volume that "move in and out of the music as though in a dream, or perhaps Myrrha’s memory of the events that shaped her fate," as described by Kuster.<ref name="Kuster ACO">{{cite web | url = http://www.americancomposers.org/kuster_interview.htm | title = Myrrha in the Making | access-date = 2011-01-26 | work = [[American Composers Orchestra]] | quote = move in and out of the music as though in a dream, or perhaps Myrrha’s memory of the events that shaped her fate}}</ref><ref name="Kuster NYT">{{cite news | first = Allan | last = Kozinn | title = New Music From American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall | date = 2006-05-05 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/arts/music/05comp.html?_r=1&sq=myrrha&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=8&adxnnlx=1296069217-wG1nDOmuInI1KJtQ08Q4GA | work = The New York Times | access-date = 2011-01-26}}</ref>