An Autobiographical Sketch

Childhood and a desire to compose

I am a Londoner, born on 9 March 1943 in Walthamstow and brought up in nearby Leytonstone. The proximity of Epping Forest, however, gave me as a child the sense of access to the Essex countryside, which became more important when as a teenager I became intensely interested in natural history.

My parents were both from lower middle/working class backgrounds. Not having had higher education themselves, they were anxious that my brother Colin and I should - and they succeeded, as after attending the local primary school we both won scholarships at the age of eleven to a minor public school, Bancroft's School in Woodford. My mother also arranged for us to have piano lessons; I learned from the age of seven and was thought of as a promising pianist, though when I was thirteen I gave up and spent the next few years listening only to the new rock and roll music, much to my parents' horror.

But when I was sixteen, I rediscovered classical music and particularly orchestral music which I heard on the radio: this so excited me that I decided I must compose, and when at Christmas 1959 I bought a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, I started to write a symphony of my own. It took me a year to complete, and then I began another. Colin had also started composing and as there was no music master at our school we were each other's only teachers for a number of years. People often ask me what it is like to have a brother who is a composer and the obvious reply is that I can't imagine what it's like not to have one.

Higher education, early work in music, and finding a voice

I am a Londoner, born on 9 March 1943 in Walthamstow and brought up in nearby Leytonstone. The proximity of Epping Forest, however, gave me as a child the sense of access to the Essex countryside, which became more important when as a teenager I became intensely interested in natural history.

My parents were both from lower middle/working class backgrounds. Not having had higher education themselves, they were anxious that my brother Colin and I should - and they succeeded, as after attending the local primary school we both won scholarships at the age of eleven to a minor public school, Bancroft's School in Woodford. My mother also arranged for us to have piano lessons; I learned from the age of seven and was thought of as a promising pianist, though when I was thirteen I gave up and spent the next few years listening only to the new rock and roll music, much to my parents' horror.

But when I was sixteen, I rediscovered classical music and particularly orchestral music which I heard on the radio: this so excited me that I decided I must compose, and when at Christmas 1959 I bought a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, I started to write a symphony of my own. It took me a year to complete, and then I began another. Colin had also started composing and as there was no music master at our school we were each other's only teachers for a number of years. People often ask me what it is like to have a brother who is a composer and the obvious reply is that I can't imagine what it's like not to have one.

Early works and performances

I am a Londoner, born on 9 March 1943 in Walthamstow and brought up in nearby Leytonstone. The proximity of Epping Forest, however, gave me as a child the sense of access to the Essex countryside, which became more important when as a teenager I became intensely interested in natural history.

My parents were both from lower middle/working class backgrounds. Not having had higher education themselves, they were anxious that my brother Colin and I should - and they succeeded, as after attending the local primary school we both won scholarships at the age of eleven to a minor public school, Bancroft's School in Woodford. My mother also arranged for us to have piano lessons; I learned from the age of seven and was thought of as a promising pianist, though when I was thirteen I gave up and spent the next few years listening only to the new rock and roll music, much to my parents' horror.

But when I was sixteen, I rediscovered classical music and particularly orchestral music which I heard on the radio: this so excited me that I decided I must compose, and when at Christmas 1959 I bought a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, I started to write a symphony of my own. It took me a year to complete, and then I began another. Colin had also started composing and as there was no music master at our school we were each other's only teachers for a number of years. People often ask me what it is like to have a brother who is a composer and the obvious reply is that I can't imagine what it's like not to have one.