PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS: 
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
Elliot del Borgo
American composer and conductor Elliot del Borgo was born in Port Chester, New York, on 27 October 1938. He studied at the State University of New York, Temple University and Philadelphia Conservatory.
His first instrument was the trumpet, but his love of percussion shows through in his music.
His several hundred compositions, generally eclectic and vigorous in their harmonic and rhythmic style, include music for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and he was professor of music at the Crane School of Music.
Del Borgo died on 30 May 2013, aged seventy-four.