Great composition cut short by European (5)
I believe the answer is:
large
'great' is the definition.
(I know that great can be written as large)
'composition cut short by european' is the wordplay.
'composition' becomes 'largo' (largo is a kind of musical composition).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'by european' becomes 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU. I am not sure about the 'by' bit.).
'largo' with its final letter removed is 'larg'.
'larg'+'e'='LARGE'
(Other definitions for large that I've seen before include "Bulky" , "Chunky" , "Stout" , "Huge" , "Of great size" .)