Introduction

This book is the product of a conference held early in 1999 at University of Surrey Roehampton. The intention was to bring together composers and academics in a forum in which issues of musical style and language could be addressed in context. The conference formed part of the final day of a series of concerts featuring British music of the last decade, in which several first performances took place, and it was rounded off by a concert given by the Arditti String Quartet devoted to music by four of the composers featured in this book – Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, James Dillon and Jonathan Harvey.