The American composer who comes to study in Europe is a familiar figure. His aim is to get away from his older compatriots' petrified stylizations of European techniques—which somehow, in each generation, have never quite crystallized into a self-sufficient native tradition—and to discover for himself what is fresh and valid in the continent which still remains the fountain-head of musical creativity. But too often, he returns home a mere perfectly-finished product of the latest fashionable school—some years ago it was the Parisian boulangerie, today it is one of the serial or electronic workshops of Germany. Wise are the few who keep their heads and work out their own personal salvation.