1. Walter Damrosch (1862–1950), conductor of the New York Philharmonic Society, composed the song especially for the baritone David Bispham, who sang it with great success on his tours throughout America.

2. The story is true. Having recorded a number of Barrack-Room Ballads (including ‘Danny Deever’, ‘Boots’, ‘On the road to Mandelay’ and ‘Gunga Din’) for EMI, Owen Brannigan received from a listener the official records from the Museum of the Royal Leicester Regiment, and wrote in the liner notes: ‘The man Kipling called “Danny Deever” was No. 2638 Private [name supplied], who was hanged at 8.15 a.m. on January 19th, 1887, with all the rights and horrors of a military execution – facing his regiment and dying on the scaffold at Lucknow, Bengal, East India, for his wilful murder of Lance Sergeant William Carmody.’

1. Grainger’s cycle consists of eleven movements, five for choir alone, while the remaining six have instrumental accompaniment. The Jungle Book has also inspired music by Charles Koechlin, whose symphonic poem occupied him from 1899 to 1950, and who set three Kipling poems in his Op. 18; and also by Miklós Rózsa, who wrote the music for Alexander Korda’s 1942 film of The Jungle Book.

2. ‘The Inuit’ is Grainger’s own title (Kipling’s poem had none) and he wrote of this song: ‘The urge behind this poem is the very strongest and most pronounced root emotion of my life: the love of savagery, the belief that savages are sweeter and more peaceable and artistic than civilised people, the belief that primitiveness is purity and civilisation filthy corruption, the agony of seeing civilisation advance and pass its blighting hand over the world.’

3. an Arctic whale.