Throughout its short, but chequered history, South Africa has been a land of extremes and contrasts. Racially, socially, geographically and climatically everything seems rather exaggerated—there is a lack of what is usually called “the golden midway.” The population is divided into Coloureds and Whites; there is more extreme wealth and extreme poverty than in most other countries; parts of South Africa are wonderfully fertile, others arid desert; and the climate varies between tropical heat and sometimes fierce cold. And so it has been with the creation of music, and the performance of the work of contemporary composers from other countries. Until about fifteen years ago, South Africans were all but unaware that they had any composers in their midst and whenever anything composed later than, say, the year 1900 was performed, audiences stayed away in large numbers. Then, suddenly, things changed. Promising South African composers began to be discovered with an almost indiscriminate rapidity and a spirit of adventure started to creep into concert programmes.