[Thor Joachim Haga]

It also depends greatly on what is meant by “originality”. Let’s look at the extremes: Obviously, a composer who is totally un-original, bereft of any ideas of his own, one who just copies what others have done without adding anything to it, whose music and style is just an imitation of somebody else’s music and style, it not ever going to be considered a great, or even good composer.

Hmmm. I’m not sure I agree. It takes a LOT of dedication to study an idiom or style so intricately that you can replicate it. It takes a lot of understanding of music in general, and what you want to replicate even more. There’s an art form to that that should not be dismissed.