No Composer Comes Fully-Formed into the world, and Peter Maxwell Davies is no exception; but many of the ideas and concepts on which his mature style rests are present in seminal form in the first published works. No compositions are available for general study before the Trumpet Sonata, op.l (1955), but those that have been seen by friends and colleagues are variously described as being ‘remarkably traditional’ and showing influences ‘such as Bartók’.

Debussy's Works offer numerous examples of what, with historical hindsight, could be called systemic thinking. Texture is built up from repetitions of various elements—melodic scraps, trills, runs, figures—in such a way that the traditional view of Debussy as a primarily harmonic composer has to be temporarily abandoned. The combinations that these repetitions produce have a connexion with the innovative harmonic practices for which Debussy is famous; but this should not blind us to the fact that the underlying thought is often, in the good sense of the word, repetitious—see Examples 1 and 2, for instance.

Thus Hugh Wood in this magazine, nearly a decade ago. At the time he was writing, one name whose re-emergence hadn't even been guessed at was that of Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979), who'd been living in New York for close on 40 years. The New Grove was about to reduce the scant paragraph she'd received in Grove 5 to a single sentence, barely mentioning that she wrote any music at all. Yet since some American broadcasts to mark her 90th birthday, the revival of interest in her works has been swift and strong. Several of them have been committed to record—the Viola Sonata and Piano Trio three times each!—and commentators have recognized, with unusual alacrity, another significant British figure from the inter-war years who wrote with impressive technical command, individual expression, and a refreshingly international outlook.

In an effort to discover a more personal style, free of Wagnerian overtones and more truly representative of English culture, Hoist took the curious step of studying the Rig Veda in considerable depth. The year was 1907, a time when others too were searching for different ideas. In America the young Henry Cowell, disillusioned with romantic harmonies, sought (about 1908) new rhythmic and melodic possibilities in Oriental music and studied it under Oriental teachers. The year 1908 was important for Schoenberg, then—with the support of his close friends—on the point of bursting the chromatic dam to release expressionistic torrents. Beset with similar stylistic problems, Hoist went instead to Luzac & Co, an orientalist bookseller, and bought the two volumes of Ralph Griffith's translations of The Hymns of the Rigveda, the most ancient literature in the world. Through these hymns he returned to the source of Indo-Aryan culture in the hope that a new type of music, free of former constraints, would be suggested to him.

Enrique Alberto Arias asks us to point out that in his article on Alexander Tcherepnin's Symphonies he was in error when he stated (p.28) that the Fourth Symphony was composed in 1959 and first performed in 1960 in London. It was in fact comissioncd by Charles Munch for the Boston Symphony and composed in Chicago in 1957; the first performance was with the Boston Symphony on 5 December 1958.

We take this opportunity of correcting proofing errors in Kenneth Campbell's review of Szymanowski in seiner Zeit which were not properly rectified as the issue went to press. Page 35, paragraph 2, line 1: for ‘of read ‘on’. Line 5, for ‘Witkicwcz’ read ‘Witkiewicz’, and line 15, for ‘Bonski’ read ‘Blonski’. On p.36, para 2, the square brackets should not appear around the quotation but around the names ‘Scriabin’ and ‘Szymanowski’. Four lines after the quotation, insert ‘clever’ before ‘pastiche’. We extend our apologies to Dr. Campbell.

With regard to Calum MacDonald's record review on pp.47–49, it has been pointed out that the Irish Free State was formed in 1922, not 1920; but the latter date is the one given on the record-sleeve, as Mr. MacDonald reported. He wishes, however, to correct two proofing errors and one oversight in the review; p.48, for ‘Hcfferman’ read ‘Heffernan’ and p.49, for ‘Eirann’ read ‘Eireann’. On both pages, for ‘Cathlccn ni Hovighlighan’ read ‘Caitilin ni Uallachain’ throughout.