Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986), composer, pianist, teacher and critic, was born into a poor but caring family in Northampton. Although having to leave school at fourteen, to work firstly in the boot and shoe trade and then on the railways, his musical talent was recognised and encouraged by his family and local teachers from an early age. In 1918, he organised a concert of the music of Cyril Scott and this led to Scott offering him formal lessons in composition. Scott then recommended him to Gustav Holst with whom Rubbra continued to study, first at University College, Reading and subsequently at The Royal College of Music. Here he also studied harmony and counterpoint with R.O. Morris and piano with Evelyn Howard-Jones.

After leaving the College in 1925, Rubbra played and composed extensively for the theatre and for ballet. He also began to build a career as a recitalist and chamber musician. In 1932 Rubbra married the violinist Antoinette Chaplin, to whom he dedicated his Second Violin Sonata, and with whom he had two sons, Francis and Benedict.

With the first performance of his Symphony no. 1 in 1937, Rubbra’s reputation as a leading composer of his generation became established and two more symphonies followed before the outbreak of the Second World War. Called up in 1941, Rubbra largely spent his army career with other classical musicians providing entertainment for the troops and, whilst in the army, he met the cellist William Pleeth who was to become both a firm friend and chamber music partner. For many years after the war they played together in the Rubbra-Gruenberg-Pleeth Piano Trio.

Rubbra had for a long time taken private students to supplement his income but in 1947 he was appointed Professor of Composition in the newly formed Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford and a member of Worcester College where he was later appointed a Fellow. Thus began a long association with the University which lasted until his retirement in 1968. Rubbra was a distinguished teacher and from 1962 to 1974 he also taught composition at the GuildhaIl School of Music and Drama in London.

As a composer, Rubbra contributed to all forms, although only briefly to opera. He composed eleven symphonies, which form the heart of his output, four concertos, and many chamber works. These include four string quartets, two piano trios, sonatas for violin, cello and oboe and an important series of works with recorder written for Carl Dolmetsch.

Rubbra’s strong interest in both Eastern and Western religious practice (He became a Roman Catholic in 1948) informed much of his writing but was most overt in his choral works. These include five mass settings, a set of Tenebrae responsories and many individual motets. He was also a founder member of the Asian Music Circle and the playing of the sarod player Ali Akhbar Khan influenced many of his later compositions, most notably the Piano Concerto of 1955 and the 'Pezzo Ostinato' for solo harp.

Following the breakdown of his marriage to Antoinette Chaplin, Rubbra married Colette Yardley in 1975. Finger-joint problems forced him to retire from the concert platform in the late 1960s but he continued to compose until his death on 14 Feb 1986.