Born in 1872, Vaughan-Williams came from an affluent middle-class background - he was related to Josiah Wedgewood (of pottery fame) and to Charles Darwin. After studying at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge, he had further study with Max Bruch in Berlin, and went to Ravel for a few lessons. He also spent time researching Elizabethan music, and English folk music, which he absorbed and transformed into a new basis for 20th century English music.

He was what is known as a late developer, in that little of what he wrote before the age of 35 survives. The last four of his seven symphonies were written after the age of 70. Most composers don't know the meaning of the word "retirement"!

His incidental music for a production of Aristophanes' play The Wasps dates from 1909, the same year as his first symphony ("A Sea Symphony').