Denis ApIvor (1916-2004) is typically associated with the small circle of British composers that emerged in London during the mid-1930s, which also included names like Humphrey Searle and Elisabeth Lutyens (contemporaries of Walton, Tippett and Britten).

He was one of the first British composers to explore modernist composition techniques (particularly serialism) in the early post-war period, preparing the ground for the more radical experiments of such groups as the Manchester School during the 1960s.

An anaesthetist by profession, ApIvor retained a distance from the music establishment for much of his career, composing without recourse to the musical dictates of the time. His stylistic decisions were in and out of step with developments in British music, making his compositions difficult to categorize or contextualize, yet at the same time highly individual and often innovative.

 

Biography taken from: https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections/collection/714