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Though his profile outside the United Kingdom was overshadowed somewhat by the illustrious careers of Walton, Tippett, and Britten, Sir Lennox Berkeley left an indelible mark on British music in the twentieth century. A student of Nadia Boulanger with an ear for songlike lyricism, Berkeley established a style that combined French melodic elegance with English triadic sonority and neo-Classical clarity.

Berkeley was born into an aristocratic family, but lost out on his inheritance because his birth had preceded his parents' marriage. He nonetheless enjoyed a relatively comfortable childhood and eventually arrived at Oxford, where he studied French. (This academic background lent his later songs on French texts a particularly elegant contour.) Ravel, upon examining some of Berkeley's student compositions, encouraged him to focus on musical studies and recommended him for study with Nadia Boulanger. Berkeley was well-suited to Boulanger's infamously methodic, craft-like approach, and thrived under her tutelage. Works such as his Serenade, Op. 12, and the Divertimento, Op. 18, which remain in the British orchestral repertoire, resonate with Boulanger's influence; Peter Dickinson has described the Finale of the latter piece as "a cross between Haydn and Poulenc." Berkeley's piano works and chamber pieces demonstrate a similar disposition. Also, during his time in Paris, he converted Catholicism, a decision that would infuse his later vocal and choral works, such as the Missa brevis, with a particular spiritual fervor. As a young composer he maintained his friendship with Ravel, and also made the acquaintance of Poulenc; in fact, much of his music betrays the influence of Les Six.

Berkeley was employed for a time as a programmer for the BBC during World War II, then in 1946 took a position at the Royal Academy of Music, where he remained on the faculty for over two decades and mentored a number of important figures in the subsequent generation, including Bennett, Maw, and, most familiar to non-Brits, John Tavener. Berkeley counted Britten among his closest friends, and, following Britten's revival of British opera, he wrote a number of operatic works as well, including the successful A Dinner Engagement. A subsequent opera, Faldon Park, remained incomplete in the composer's later life. In fact, his faculties gradually deteriorated over the course of several years preceding his death in 1989. His last years were spent, rather, receiving the honors due him; subsequent to his knighthood in 1974, he received numerous accolades and an honorary degree from the international musical community.

Norman René Del Mar was one of the most respected of British conductors, although he did not became a famous international name in his profession. He was also a noted scholar on the subject of music.

He studied violin, horn, and composition at London's Royal College of Music. His composition instructors were R.O. Morris and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He had conducting lessons with Constant Lambert. During World War II he saw service as a member of the Royal Air Force Central Band. He was also a member of the Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra and appeared as such when it toured the United States in 1944.

He worked as a composer, and arranger after the war, while conducting an amateur orchestra, which eventually grew into the Chelsea Symphony Orchestra. The group was famous for giving premieres of music, including works by Dohnányi, Richard Strauss, Hindemith, and Poulenc, and for presenting for the first time to British audiences little-known but important works that had been premiered in Europe during the preceding 15 years or so. This led him to become an assistant conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947.

In 1948, when the aging Richard Strauss came to England for a Strauss Festival, Del Mar made his professional debut in one of the concerts attended by the great composer. After that he frequently conducted at Sadler's Wells and English Opera Group performances. While building his professional career, he showed his continuing interest in student and amateur orchestras, and typically received fine results with them.

He became conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 1960, leaving it in 1965 in remarkably improved condition. He was also the chief conductor of the Göteborg (Gothenburg) Symphony Orchestra (1969 - 1973) and of the Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music (1973 - 1977).

He began devoting more time to teaching. In 1972 he was appointed an instructor of conducting at the Royal College of Music. He was principal guest conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (1982 - 1985) and artistic director of the Ã…rhus Symphony Orchestra (1985 - 1988).

Meanwhile, he had published critically acclaimed studies of Paul Hindemith (1957) and Richard Strauss (in three volumes, 1962, 1968, and 1972). He wrote an exceptionally valuable sets of essays on the interpretation of many of the major compositions in the standard orchestral repertory, and other books more oriented towards general readership.