English composer and writer, born in a lower-middle class background, he rose to a position at Oxford. Rubbra is best-known for his ten symphonies, some of the finest examples among the large English output of this century.

His music possesses an innate intellectual quality, without being overtly so. His idiom is thoroughly tonal in inspiration, and his orchestral textures are concerned with line over color. He was one of the many English composers of his generation to explore the vast repertory of Elizabethan music as inspiration for original composition. ~ Todd McComb (6/94)