 Sources, as Béla Bartók noted, are much less important in framing a composer's achievement than the use he makes of them.The discriminating ear that makes Van Dijk's orchestral music at once beguiling and immediately recognisable as a personal expression is also to be discerned on the smaller sound-scale of his chamber compositions.And one of Van Dijk's most notable characteristics - a purposeful firmness of the bass line - imbues his music in all genres with an unfailing sense of logical and expressive direction, even in the context of a highly inflected harmonic chromaticism.