His colleague Stanley Sadie noted that "Although only a fraction of his research has been published, the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his generosity towards fellow scholars have made him an important participant in late 20th-century musicology.

[1] His father James Noble was the son of South African missionaries, while his mother Avis "came from Cornish farming stock".

[2] His interests gradually broadened to also include 16th and 17th-century Venetian music and particularly the life and work of Josquin des Prez.

[2] The musicologist Stanley Sadie commented that "the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his generosity towards fellow scholars have made him an important participant in late 20th-century musicology".

[2] He first began writing for Gramophone and speaking for the BBC Third Programme, with a "melodious and refined voice that was one of his most attractive characteristics".