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Peter Graham (1952) (real name Jaroslav Šťastný), who works mainly in Brno, is one of the most original of Czech composers. His music reflects his passionate enthusiasm for eternal experimentation on a wide front. Since each of his pieces is the result of fascination with a new problem, his style is hard to define overall; in his output we will find Cageian indeterminate pieces, minimalist pieces, and pieces that superficially look rather traditional. On closer examination, we find that the author's strong and distinctive personality imprints them with more integrating features than might be apparent at first sight. One is his hostility to traditional performance styles and his effort to push performers towards creative and unconventional interpretations, which then gives even apparently simple scores a typical "Grahamesque" sound. Some works, in which a diatonic world and motoric rhythm predominate, also suggest more aesthetic connection with rock music and for example American minimalism than with anything from the European tradition
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