As I start to write this I pick up my copy of the Pelican European Music in the Twentieth Century, edited by Howard Hartog (1962, but the original Routledge edition was 1957). It falls open – for the spine is hopelessly cracked from more than 40 years of constant use, and the pages are coming adrift – at page 257, and a familiar voice arises, discoursing on the most famous piece by Ravel.