Malipiero wrote four works in "homage" in 1920 and submitted them as a group to his publisher. World War I was not over, but a spirit of disillusion hung over the continent of Europe. Younger artists in particular were prepared to make a clean break and to mock attitudes of the past.

Malipiero's publisher decided to issue three of the "Omaggi" as a group. These are all trivial or sardonic in their subject matter. The fourth, by contrast, was a genuine homage, being Malipiero's contribution to a memorial volume paying tribute to the recently-deceased Claude Debussy.

The three more comical homages are : "To a parrot," "To an elephant," and "To an idiot." It is definitely established that at this time Malipiero was familiar with British composer Lord Berner's Trois petites marches funèbres, a similarly sardonic "tribute" to "a statesman," "a canary" and "a rich aunt."

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi