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This important new volume appears at a time when fresh interest is being shown in the symphonies, tone-poems and other music of one of the major composers of this century. This is the first study of Sibelius by an English writer since Gerald Abraham's symposium published shortly after the war. There are many reasons for this new look at the man who made so solid a contribution to music in general, and especially to the symphony. Robert Layton examines Sibelius's work in the light of recent research and, in addition to the major symphonies, he discusses the early Kullervo symphony (for the first time in English), the chamber works and the songs. 'Sibelius', he writes, 'possessed in the most highly developed from the essential prerequisite of a great symphonist - the ability to conceive music organically. In all seven symphonies the long sustained paragraphs grow naturally one from the other, the main thematic elements informed by a sense of unity and a feeling of inevitability. And it is not surprising that Sibelius's are the most "symphonic" poems in the literature of music. In them he mobilizes all the artistic discipline of the symphonie along with a much greater freedom of poetic fancy.' The author, Robert Layton, read music at Oxford, studying the history of music under Egon Wellesz and composition with Edmund Rubbra. He lived in Scandinavia for some time and published a critical study of the Swedish composer, Franz Berwald (1796-1868), which appeared in Stockholm in 1956 and in London in 1959. He is at present in charge of music talks for the B.B.C. Third Programme. (Inside cover)