The music of Peter Maxwell Davies has recently undergone a remarkable rebirth—a transformation all the more remarkable for taking place in a country (England, if anyone is unsure) where the breath of life rarely enters most composers' works from the start. There is widespread confusion among English critics and writers about music as to what constitutes originality in music, a confusion most succinctly and ludicrously summarised by Mr. Ernest Tomlinson in the first part of his article ‘Light Music in the Modern World’ (Composer, Spring 1967). Mr. Tomlinson's article was primarily about light music, but at this point, as I understand him, he was writing generally about all modern music: