English composer, in his compositions he uses a traditional language open to parody and variation (in his attempt to use popular material and folkloric melodies) and to jazz innovations (he loved this kind of music and played in many groups as a double bass player). In his operas Night Music e All in a Row he made an attempt to compose accordy to dodecaphony and avant-garde.
(Barbara Bellettini: Breve Storia della Chitarra)

I began my musical life as a jazz guitarist with eighteen months of sporadic lessons (1934-36) from Terence Usher, an amateur guitarist and professional public relations officer to Manchester City Council. He gave me a sound technical grounding and a knowledge of basic musical theory, and encouraged me to improvise - for all of which I owe him a debt of gratitude. They were the only formal lessons in music I ever had. He was also interested in the classic guitar and this led naturally to my own growing interest in that instrument and in art music in general. As the processes of improvisation and composition are essentially the same - composition is improvisation, given the benefit of time to reconsider and refine the product. At first I wrote small pieces for thè jazz guitar, mostly 'portraits' of current girlfriends, but 1939 I had begun to write for the classic guitar; it developed naturally from there. Music remained an increasingly rewarding hobby, secondary to my professional life as a scientist, until I was almost fìfty years old, when it look over the whole of my working life and science ceased to play an active part in it. Improvised music originates in the mind and is ‘heard' in the inner ear, and this is a two-way process; what one hears becomes translatable into 'play-back' action and/or, given a knowledge of musical theory, comprehensible. It can provide a direct route to eclecticism - one may adopt what one chooses into one's own bloodstream, and bypass what one feels foreign to one’s own nature. For this reason I have never had one immediately identifiable style and have happily lived with a wide variety of idioms. By the same token, wise performers choose to play only what 'speaks to' their own natures. (John W. Duarte, 2001)

Compositore inglese, utlilizza, nelle sue composizioni, un linguaggio fedele alla tradizione che si apre però alla parodia e alla variazione (nel tentativo di utilizzare materiale popolare e melodie folcloristiche) e alle innovazioni del jazz (Duarte amava molto il genere e suonò in diverse formazioni come contrabbassista). Nelle opere Night Music e All in a Row, infine, si riscontra la volontà di saggiare il terreno della musica dodecafonica e d’avanguardia. (Barbara Bellettini: Breve Storia della Chitarra)