Hardback Ring Binder Cover - Last Post is based on part of an interview with Italian violinist Alfredo Campoli, which appeared in The Observer in 1975. In it, Campoli tells how, as an 11-year-old child prodigy, he gave concerts for soldiers who were injured during the First World War. Shocked, he thinks back to soldiers who lay dying right in front of his eyes, while he played the 'Ave Maria'.

A closer look at the tragic-comic aspect of this story has been the starting point for Last Post. The words (both the bass clarinetist and the pianist use their voice throughout the piece) are placed in a highly dramatic musical context. The exaggeration has a relative effect. The result is 'pathos with an ironic footnote'.