General Lavine - excentric, No. 6 from the second book of piano Préludes, reflects the composer's fascination with clowns and music hall performers and is the only piece in the two volumes dedicated to a living person. 'General Lavine - excentric ', (Debussy's own spelling), or 'The Man Who has Soldiered All His Life' as Lavine called himself, would have been seen by Debussy in Paris at the Marigny Theatre in 1910 and probably later in 1912. The score is marked 'in the style and movement of a cake-walk' and following its fanfare-like opening, Debussy uses many varied and bizarre musical gestures to mimic the absurd appearance and slapstick comedy of Lavine, including a discreet quotation from the popular minstrel tune, 'Camptown Races'.

This arrangement was specially made for the album 'Preludes, Rags and Cakewalks' (MPR 005), performed by The Symphonic Brass of London conducted by Eric Crees. All of the transcriptions are new and original, making this a world premiere recording.