Since the coming of age of early music performance, however, and, more particularly, the sheer availability of commercial recordings of a huge range of repertoire considered to be “early” (in practice now meaning anything from reconstructions of ancient Greek music to Schubert, Brahms and beyond) has meant that such repertoire has played a far greater part in the consciousness of composers. This means that one is exposed to the whole range of music rather than merely what one “ought” to know if one is going to be a composer. In many respects this is part of the ever-widening “plateau” of compositional possibilities available nowadays and merely makes the task more difficult; on the other hand, it is surely a positive thing that someone learning composition at a conservatory or a university now no longer has to take for granted that his technique should be founded on analysis of the “classics” (meaning selected Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, some Bach chorales and Lassus bicinia, followed by the entire 19th century as illustrated by the “big names”). Instead, he may discover that his development is closely bound up with isorhythmic techniques as found in De Vitry or Dunstable, or with the vocal colours of Victoria and other polyphonists, or the constructional devices found in Zelenka and Biber. The point is that he has a much wider field to examine (which of course entails a greater responsibility, principally towards his own voice as a composer) and a much vaster range of possibilities.

There are composers who have attempted to engage with what is sold in the record shops as “early music” but which is in fact part of a continuous tradition: any composer concerned with western chant will be aware of this, and a number of Eastern Orthodox composers also come into this category—John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, the Greek composer Michael Adamis, and the present writer. Each has sought in his own way to relate his music to that of his tradition (liturgical chant, whether Greek Byzantine, Russian or any other tradition) which, by virtue of present-day methods of packaging and sales, appears, when it is recorded, on the most inaccessible rack of the “chant” section just before “Albinoni” and “Anonymous.”