On 27 October Hans Werner Henze died in Dresden, Germany. As he composer he was an important innovator who tried to give traditional styles a place in his works.

When he was 17 years old, in 1944, he was made prisoner of war by the British. In England he first heard modernist music, which was forbidden in Nazi Germany. After the war he was one of the first German composers to start composing in a serialistic style. However, he was never a radical atonalist. He also used Jazz, Music Hall, and other popular music.