Hailed by George Antheil as “one of the greatest inventors and musical iconoclasts of our time” and by others as the pre-cursor of impressionism in music, Ernest Fanelli composed his Tableaux symphoniques on Théophile Gautier’s 19th century novel The Romance of the Mummy, a typical example of orientalism in the arts of the time. With its hints of later works by Debussy, Respighi, Bartók and Stravinsky, Tableaux is perhaps the first example of French music where sound and instrumental colour are the principal means of musical expression, casting aside traditional romantic tone-painting. Bourgault-Ducoudray’s beautifully orchestrated oriental rhapsody incorporates Cambodian melodies.