An American composer, he studied under Cowell and Schoenberg. He constructed numerous musical instruments, including modifications of existing ones. Among these, the "Touch Piano" involved inserting thumbtacks into the hammers of an upright piano, producing a percussive timbre. He received encouragement for his musical activities from many organizations, including grants from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim Fellowships, and Rockefeller Scholarships, and composed many commissioned works. Some of his commissioned works include songs based on his own texts in Esperanto. He also studied Korean court music and Chinese classical music, and composed works utilizing East Asian ethnic instruments. His accolades include the 20th Century Masterpiece Award presented by Stravinsky and the Fromm Award, and he also has a history of teaching music at universities and other institutions. In the 1980s, he held various positions such as the Darius Milhaud Professor of Music and the Mary Wood Bennett Professor at Mills College, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar. Furthermore, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an institution from which he had previously received a grant, and was awarded honorary doctorates from Mills College and California State University, Sacramento.

Additionally, he is credited with giving the first complete performance of Ives's Symphony No. 3 (1947).