 However, other theorists were not as explicit and careful as Avison with their terminology, nor as ready to jettison imitation, which the eighteenth century considered essential to the fine arts. Moreover, it had been customary since the Camerata’s time to construe expression as dependent on imitation (see Palisca 2006: chapter 10). Thus, a number of authors adopted conservative positions, defending a qualified concept of musical imitation, or simply accepting that music’s imitative capacities are limited. In the second half of the century, imitation gradually took on a more peripheral role, and philosophers started to focus on alternative sources of value for music as an art, from formal structure to emotional arousal.