First, the essential biographical information. Born in London on 26 July 1934, Anthony Gilbert was a relative latecomer to composition. Not until he was 19 did he start to study part time at Trinity College and not until he was 23, by which time he was working as a translator and interpreter at the London offices of the Société des Fonderies de Pont-à-Mousson of Nancy, did he begin to study composition, largely as a private pupil, with Anthony Milner, Mátyás Seiber and Alexander Goehr. It is a mark of Gilbert's determination that for the next ten years, while working in a variety of both non-musical (warehouseman and accounts clerk) and musical jobs (free-lance copyist, proof-reader and arranger) for Schotts, and full-time Music and Record Library Assistant at the City of Westminster Public Library, he not only devoted his summer holidays to studying at Dartington and Wardour Castle (with, amongst other teachers, Nono and Berio) but also found time to produce a whole series of works, including an unpublished Elegy for Piano, a Duo for violin and viola, the Piano Sonata No.1, Serenade, the Missa Brevis and the Sinfonia.