American composer Lucia Dlugoszewski enjoyed a long career as a non-traditional composer of music for the dance, "underground" films and for theater productions utilizing instruments of her own make, or finding unique and new ways to compose for established instruments. In this respect Dlugoszewski has sometimes been "lumped in" with California microtonalist Harry Partch, but her music is very different, with an emphasis on dramatic effect and instrumental color for its own sake, rather than making conspicuous use of unusual scales or systems of tonal organization (though hidden use of mathematical concepts did play a significant part in her work.)