FANTASY TRIPTYCH


1. Le Tombeau d'Arthur Benjamin
2. Mr Bolt goes for a ride in his motor car and Monsieur Ravel turns in his grave
3. The War March of the Ostriches

The three movements have sardonic titles which go some way towards explaining the music. Ravel wrote "Le Tombeau de Couperin" and Arthur Benjamin wrote a piece called "Le Tombeau de Ravel", so I thought it was time for the chain to continue. Hidden away in the bass line towards the end of the movement is a brief reference to Benjamin's Jamaican Rumba, whose rhythmic character pervades much of the writing.

The reference to Ravel in the second movement is only partly explained by this. The movement is dedicated to an old schoolmaster friend who was a somewhat impatient motorist and whose favourite composer happened to be Ravel. The angry central outburst was inspired by his particularly violent reaction to a minor traffic jam

A title for the finale eluded me until the amusing antics of a group of ostriches at Bristol Zoo came to the rescue.