Friedrich Cerha

While his works from the immediate post-war years initially reflect his preoccupation with neoclassicism, Cerha's output in the 1950s shows reactions to the music of the ‘Second Viennese School’ and a critical engagement with serial techniques. Around 1960, he was one of the first composers to create a sound world completely free of traditional formulations. Since then, his unmistakably unique musical language has once again incorporated elements from various traditions and non-European models (polyrhythmics, polymetrics). The works of his later years in particular organically blend many of these experiences, creating a convincingly cohesive synthesis.

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