[2] He briefly studied with Dr. Norman Sprankling before entering the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth in 1920, to study composition with Sir Walford Davies, one-time Master of the King's Music.
[3] In 1925 Harding was appointed as a violin and viola teacher at the university and conducted the junior orchestra.
In 1930 he moved to London to take up the principal viola position in the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult.
[5] On the advice of his doctor, Harding ceased playing the viola in 1988 but continued to compose until his death in September 1992.
[13] In March 1980 a Royal Academy of Music concert celebrated Harding's seventy-seventh birthday.