Edmund Rubbra was born at Northampton in 1901. He left school at fourteen, began to work for his living as a clerk, and devoted his spare time to composing and playing the piano. Then Cyril Scott got to know of his work and gave him a lesson every fortnight. The result was that at the age of nineteen Rubbra won a scholarship at Reading University where he studied composition with Holst and piano with Howard-Jones. After a year Rubbra won a three-year scholarship for composition at the Royal College of Music. Rubbra has since toured Italy as a pianist and given recitals in Paris. Furthermore, he has distinguished himself as a composer of chamber music and songs of rare sensitiveness and individuality.