Harry Judge It is doubly fortunate that a foreword is not an introduction. Since it is mercifully brief, it should not be expected to mention respectfully each of the distinguished contributions which constitute “the word” before which it modestly stands as herald. For the same reason it cannot be expected to constrain within one overarching framework contributions which are essentially varied in subject matter and method. The brief of a foreword-writer might indeed be compared to that of a musician commissioned to write an overture to an opera which he had not written. To write such a piece for a volume devoted to Eric Hoyle is nevertheless a privilege as well as a pleasure. Partly, of course, because this volume celebrates a long and dist- guished career devoted to the application of intelligence and (less assertively) theory to the improvement of practice. And partly because this abbreviated overture is privileged by being placed before a set of virtuoso performances throughout which consistent and coherent themes do insistently resonate. Those themes are the very same that distinguish Eric Hoyle’s own work.
