Robert Still

Robert Still (10 June 1910 – 13 January 1971) was a wide-ranging English composer of tonal music, who made strong use of dissonance. He produced four symphonies and four string quartets. As a songwriter he set words by Byron, Keats and Shelley. Education Still was born in London on 10 June 1910 into a family with a strong interest in music. He was a descendant of John Still, bishop of Bath and Wells. Still was educated at Eton College (1923–29) and Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated in History and French, and then in music. He had a younger brother who died aged 16 and a sister who emigrated to Australia. At school and at university Still developed a lifelong interest in racquet sports, including real tennis, in which he won a university sporting blue. Both his father and grandfather were solicitors in a long-established London firm, and he had been intended for the law. He studied music at Oxford under Ernest Walker, Sir Hugh Allen and others, and then spent two years at the Royal College of Music under C. H. Kitson, Gordon Jacob and the organist Basil Allchin. He also studied under Wilfred Dunwell at Trinity College of Music (modern harmony and counterpoint) and later in