His early music shows the influences of the Finn, Sibelius, and the Dane, Carl Nielsen. This period in his career could be described as "Late Romantic." Then, in the 1930s, he went into a "Neo-Classical" period during which he wrote what has been described as "elegant, smooth-flowing, humorous serenade music." His Sinfonietta for strings, of this period, won worldwide recognition at the 1934 music festival in Florence.