Jean-Michel Damase is a French composer and pianist who at a very young age began musical studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. At the age of 13 he enrolled in the Paris Conservatory and was awarded the premier prix in piano at the age of 15. While a teenager, Damase began composition studies at the Conservatory and by age 19 had won a coveted Prix de Rome for his cantata Et la belle se réveilla. In his mature years, Damase fell in love with writing for the ballet and has since produced many successful works with the choreographer Jean Anouilh. It is no coincidence that Damase wrote works for the harp, since his earliest musical influence was his mother, Micheline Kahn, a harpist to whom Maurice Ravel wrote his famous Introduction and Allegro.
This work is a set of variations on the English Folk Song Early One Morning. The tune has been a favorite of many as can be seen by arrangements by composers such as Benjamin Britten while also appearing as theme music for BBC news and in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
-- Kyle Blaha