Spad-through-the-Arc d'Triomphe Rag
By Daisy on June 16, 2024 4:59 pm
My family has a long history with the Military.
My parents were in WW2-- Both of them! My Dad was a Black-Sheep(of the Black-Sheep squadron), and my Mom was a flight-line electrician for the F4U Corsair.
This piece is about my Grampa Bob (paternal), who was an airplane mechanic in France during WW1.
This piece starts out with a rag-time feel as young Bob, doing his normal jobs at the air field.
He was often asked to go up with the pilots to listen to the plane’s engine at altitude.
An arpeggio in the Cello characterizes a familiar pilot on November 11, 1918 who asked young Bob to do this, and he agreed of course.
As they became airborne and you can hear the single propeller as the Pizzicato in the Bass.
Then things a bit serious, as the piece accelerates to break neck speed during which the pilot quickly says he has advanced news (from a dignitary that he had been delivering from one place to another)that the war was over today!
The 11th month, the 11th day, and it was coming up very close on the 11th hour.
The pilot then calmly said that at 11 O’clock he was going to fly this Spad through the Arc d’Triomphe in celebration that the war was over!
Young Bob didn’t have much time to be scared and just held on for dear life as the pilot headed straight for the Arc d’Triomphe and somehow(!) made it through the other side.
You hear the Spad go through the Arc d’Triomple with 2 violin glissandi, and then the flutes depict the airplane swooping joyfully around Paris!
Later young Bob measured the distance and found that there was a scant 12 inches clearance from the wingtips to the wall of the Arc. They had just made it.
The war was indeed over, and young Bob and many from his outfit climbed up on the opera house stage in Paris and sang the French national anthem- hence the quote!
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CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)