Local composer draws inspiration from work of Rudyard Kipling for ‘The Jungle Book in Song’

Most everyone knows the story of man-cub Mowgli, whether from having read Rudyard Kipling’s novel “The Jungle Book” or watching the Disney animated movie it inspired.

Composer Ethan McGrath says that like most people he was familiar with the Disney film and had not read all of Kipling’s writing until recently after hearing some of the book’s poems read out of context from the full work.

“That got me interested in reading both volumes of ‘The Jungle Book.’ There’s a lot more to what Kipling wrote in ‘The Jungle Book’ than what most people realize,” he says.

In fact, there are two volumes to the well-known Kipling work. The first is a collection of stories about Mowgli and animals such as Baloo the bear and Shere Khan the tiger. The second is a book of fables that includes five more stories about Mowgli. Each chapter contains a story followed by a poem.