To begin with, I should like to make it quite clear that in this paper I have not attempted to give a catalogue, description or summary of contemporary composers and their works, but rather to state a particular point of view from which they may be regarded. I have confined myself rigorously to this one point of view, and perhaps some will think that I have laid undue emphasis on various issues arising from it. However, I shall not be sorry if certain utterances which may appear to you to be too sweeping and dogmatic provoke considerable opposition afterwards, in the discussion for which we have here such admirable opportunities.