Perle received his Ph.D. at New York University and enjoyed a distinguished career as a composer and professor of composition at many universities throughout the U.S.A. His main focus was creating a systematic approach to 12-tone composition that creates new chords, modes, and keys. He strove to keep his compositions simple, opting for musical complexity within a comprehensible and clear framework. He stressed the development of a few ideas within one piece. His influences included Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, and Perle was the author of the definitive work on the subject of serial procedures, Serial Composition and Atonality. ~ Lynn Vought, Rovi