For Turkish composers then and for quite after a while afterwards, to write contemporary music meant to adopt European techniques and follow European models, though with a few adjustments accommodating local tastes and institutions. But gradually in the latter half of the century a tendency to become pathfinders and not just follow Western trends emerged among some composers whose Western orientation was influenced more by American than by European schools. This book describes, with representative examples in musical notation, a series of compositional techniques that were hallmarks of this broad development.