In the 1960s Vytautas Montvila (1935–2003) was one of the most active modernizers of the Lithuanian music. He oscillated between the novel international techniques in composition, such as micropolyphony, aleatory, serialism, sonorosim, pointillism and the archaic regional ethnic music, specifically sutartinės (ancient polyphonic chants). The elements of Lithuanian folk music have infiltrated his work on the different levels. They served as inspiration for the tone sequences, their peculiar sound influenced the sonorities in his sonatas, and the melodic splits served as basis for the construction of thick polyphonic layers in his symphonic triptych Poems of Vilnius (Gothic, Choruses, and Festive). All the above paved his creative trajectory towards the neofolklorism domain and was a way of paying homage to the past of ethnic culture.
