the collaborators were the composer of light music Edward Hughes and the poet Peter Westmore (Oxford 1966). It was followed by Michael Hurd's Rooster Rag, a 13-minute pop cantata for narrator and unison voices that was commissioned and first performed in May 1975 at the Cookham Festival. The main chorus is of six hens, and there are the solo characters of Chanticleer, Pertelote and Mr Fox for stage versions. The choice of title was influenced by the popular "Chanticleer Rag" of 1910. However, the original cover illustration for that (based on a costume design by Coquelin) and the words make it clear that its inspiration was Edmond Rostand's drama Chantecler about a cock that believed the sun would not rise unless it crowed first. Several other works claim to be inspired by Chaucer's tale but, like Rostand's play and the 1990 cartoon feature film Rock-a-Doodle based on it, have little connection with the original Renart Cycle version beyond using the name Chanticleer, or variants of it. See also Foxes in popular culture References Fables The Canterbury Tales Reynard cycle Literary duos Fictional chickens Literature featuring anthropomorphic foxes