Kevin Sutton asks for a catalogue of 10 compositions since Britten's War Requiem (1962) that are as significant, well constructed and original as said same: Here's a baker's dozen of Shostakovich compositions for a start: 1. Symphony No. 13 (1962) 2. Symphony No. 14 (1969) 3. Symphony No. 15 (1971) 4. Violin Sonata, Op. 134 (1968) 5. Viola Sonata, Op. 147 (1974) 6. Violin Concerto No. 2 (1967) 7. String Quartet No. 9 (1964) 8. String Quartet No. 10 (1964) 9. String Quartet No. 11 (1966) 10. String Quartet No. 12 (1967) 11. String Quartet No. 13 (1970) 12. String Quartet No. 14 (1971) 13. String Quartet No. 15 (1974) It is also my opinion that numerous lists of at least 10 compositions worthy of comparison to the War Requiem in the manner prescribed above could be constructed from individual composers such as Robert Simpson, Sir Michael Tippett, Britten himself, Lutoslawski, Takemitsu to name just a few. Perhaps this means that for some I am grotesquely underrating the War Requiem, but I can live with that. I do not myself believe that an individual work need be composed on the same scale of duration and instrumentation etc to meet the above criteria of quality control. In more general terms, however, I can appreciate and understand Kevin Sutton's points as they relate to the pretensions of the "performance art" that he seemed to be describing in his original post. When I paint a Rhinoceros, or a landscape, somewhat impressionistically, these things are nevertheless clearly recognisable as such, though not slavishly photographic. There is in the visual art of painting a minimum skill in visualisation, mixing colour and simple draughtsmanship that is surely at least equivalent to the minimum level of various musical skills required for the art of composition if it is not to become fatally flawed by sheer pretension and deliberate naivety. Geoffrey Gaskell