Paradise Lost in Popular Culture - in Music

In Music

• Milton's Paradise Lost was, apart from straight quotations of biblical texts, the basis on which the libretto for Joseph Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation) was built, by, among others, Baron van Swieten.
• In the late 1970s, the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki wrote an opera based on Paradise Lost.
• The American choral and orchestral composer Eric Whitacre composed an "Electronica Opera" entitled Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings inspired by this text.
• A musical adaptation of Paradise Lost was written by Ben Birney and Rob Seitelman and was performed in New York City in March 2006. This sung-through musical augmented the main story of Paradise Lost with the addition of the character 'Sophia' who represented the feminine divine. It explored her relationship to the events of the Milton poem and offered explanation as to her virtual elimination from Canonic text.
• The British metal band Cradle of Filth was inspired by Paradise Lost and wrote the concept album Damnation and a Day which takes place over the fall and eventual rise of Lucifer.
• British metal and dark rock band, Paradise Lost, takes its name directly from the poem's title.
• Norwegian metal band Dimmu Borgir quote Paradise Lost in the song "Architecture of a Genocidal Nature" in their album Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, released in 2001.
• North American progressive metal band Symphony X's 2007 album (and track #5 within) is named Paradise Lost and is themed after it.
• The Swedish metal band Morgana Lefay's song Paradise Lost from their album The Secret Doctrine is based upon the poem.
• The Austrian/French gothic band Elend's Officium Tenebrarum trilogy is based upon Paradise Lost.
• Australian underground progressive metal band Saeturnum wrote their song Eruption based around the fall of Lucifer and the temptation of man, heavily inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost.
• German power metal band Blind Guardian based the song Control the Divine from the album At the Edge of Time
• The band Hollywood Undead based a song on the poem, their song S.C.A.V.A also appears to be based on the poem.
• Dr Chair's 2001 album Witter and Beard has a track entitled Paradise Lost.
• Nick Cave's song Song of Joy, mensions Paradise lost and qoutes from it.