Rudi Martinus van Dijk (27 March 1932 – 29 November 2003) was a Dutch and Canadian composer of orchestral, chamber and vocal music. In all Van Dijk's music, whichever of his stylistic trends it seems immediately to favour, the voice of a highly original creator is to be heard. 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,