Roger Quilter

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Roger Quilter (November 1, 1877–September 21, 1953), was an English composer.

Born in Hove, Sussex, Quilter was a younger son of Sir Cuthbert Quilter, a baronet, who was a noted art collector. Roger was educated at Eton College, later becoming a fellow-student of Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott and H. Balfour Gardiner at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. His reputation in England rests largely on his songs and on his light music for orchestra, such as his Children's Overture, with its interwoven nursery rhyme tunes. He is noted as an influence on several English composers, including Peter Warlock.

Roger Quilter's output of songs, while small, added to the cannon of English art song that is still sung today. Among the most popular of these are "Love's Philosophy", "Come Away Death", "Weep You No More", and "By the Sea", as well as his setting of "O Mistress Mine".

Quilter enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with the tenor Gervase Elwes until the latter's death in 1921. A homosexual, he found it difficult to cope with some of the pressures which he felt were imposed upon him, and eventually deteriorated into mental illness after the loss of his nephew during the Second World War.

He died at his home in St John's Wood, London, a few months after celebrations to mark his 75th birthday.