Although he studied in Germany and received a Schönbergian grounding under the American composer Ross Lee Finney, his early fame was attributable to a radicalism that eschewed 'Europe' and most of its accredited musical disciplines. Rejoicing in the polyethnicity of America, he became a composer of renouvellement, inspired by primitive and exotic melodic and rhythmic techniques, favouring percussion ensembles rather than harmonic complexities, and revelling in ritualistic musics for solo voice, especially soprano. Works such as Echoes of Time and the River and Ancient Voices of Children, composed in the sixties and seventies, distil a poetic aura appropriate to their titles.