The pianist and composer Roger Sacheverell Coke was born in 1912, the son of an old Derbyshire family that traced its roots to the 15th century. Musically, Coke was a disciple of Rachmaninoff, feeling no kinship with the music either of the post-War European avant-garde or of his nearest British contemporary, Benjamin Britten. Instead, his unashamedly romantic musical style reflected his admiration for Bruckner, Mahler, Bax and Sibelius, as well as his sympathy with Russian music and culture generally, placing him outside the mainstream of British musical culture at that time.