Nationality: English

BBorn in London, Jan 28, 1944
Died in Dorset, Nov 12, 2013

• Tavener studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Lennox Berkeley. 
• Tavener’s early style is deeply influenced by Messiaen and late Stravinsky (especially Stravinsky’s religious works). After his conversion to the Orthodox Church in the late 1970s, Orthodox liturgical music became a strong influence in his compositions. 
• Fun fact: Tavener’s early experimental cantata The Whale caught the interest of the Beatles, and it was recorded on their Apple record label. ¹

Sources

1.  Ivan Moody, “Tavener, Sir John,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 30, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000027569. 

Born in Down Ampney, Gloucs., Oct 12, 1872
Died in London, Aug 26, 1958²

“[Vaughan Williams] was a composer of great originality who was nevertheless perennially curious about the music of others.”³

Biography from the Vaughan Williams Society

Born in Lincoln, May 4th, 1909
Died in Tintagel, Oct 10th, 1969

• Gilbert Vinter was a composer, conductor, bassoonist, and educator. He was best known for his works for brass and military band.
• As a child, Vinter worked his way up to head chorister at Lincoln Cathedral. He subsequently studied bassoon and composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
  • Vinter would also later teach at the institution.⁴

Biography from the Lincoln School (where Vinter was an alumnus)

Born in Oldham, March 29, 1902
Died in Ischia, March 8, 1983⁵

Biography from Boosey & Hawkes

Born in Chatham, June 1, 1903
Died in Bournemouth, May 1, 1946

• Percy Whitlock was an English organist and composer, best known during his lifetime as a recitalist and broadcaster.
• As a student at the Royal College of Music, Whitlock studied composition under Ralph Vaughan Williams and organ under Henry Ley.
• Whitlock was assistant organist at Rochester Cathedral between 1921 and 1930, followed by music director of St. Stephen’s in Bournemouth. In 1932, Whitlock became organist at Bournemouth’s Municipal Pavilion, where he played until his death.⁶
• As a composer, Whitlock’s works largely consist of church and organ music, with a handful of orchestral pieces, including a symphony for organ and orchestra.

Characteristically, [Whitlock] has that all too uncommon knack of writing memorable tunes, melodies that are perpetually evolving, undergoing transformation, and are supported by a harmonic and contrapuntal idiom that had infiltrated the national scene at the turn of the century.⁷