During his long career, he composed in almost all musical genres. His songs, choral pieces, arrangements of folk songs and early music, his incidental music, operas and operettas, orchestra and chamber pieces, and religious and secular cantatas are all characterised by an inexhaustibly rich inventiveness and profound professionalism. He was a man of broad intellectual horizons, a master to several generations of composers. His students include György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Emil Petrovics, Sándor Szokolay, Miklós Kocsár, Zsolt Durkó, Attila Bozay, Zoltán Jeney and László Vidovszky.