A few years ago, I discovered a recording of an elderly man recalling the time when, as a child, he met the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Shortly after World War I, Apollinaire sat the boy on his knee and sang a military tune, something like 'tatatata'. This five-second sample formed the basis of a composition I wrote in February 1998 for cellist Rene Berman. The sound fragment was stretched and compressed using a sampler, revealing unexpected musical qualities. The climax is reached when Apollinaire's voice emerges from a crackling old phonograph, reciting one of his most famous lines: "vienne la nuit, sonne l'heure."