Magnum Opus

Cartoon illustrating a poem. Produced for the International Year of Disabled People, the film relates the story of a musical note that has not been drawn correctly in the conductor’s score (‘a semi-breve with two left feet’). The conductor cancels the performance. The musical note is ridiculed by crowds in the street (‘a large crowd gathered in the street to stare at the semi-breve’s two left feet, half the city’s population stared and laughed at his weird gyrations’). The orchestra rallies round led by the bassoon and asks the composer to ‘change his tune’. Money is raised for a wheelchair. The musical note is rehabilitated and takes its place in the score (‘instead of needing sympathy, he played his part in the symphony’).