[2] After some early lessons from William Lloyd Webber he went on to study composition under Herbert Howells and violin under Isolde Menges at the Royal College of Music in London.
Along with his dancer wife Pat Clover he was closely involved with Les Ballets Nègres, a mostly black dance group founded in 1946 by Berto Pasuka and Richie Riley.
His first work for full orchestra, the overture Bosworth Field (1951) was followed by the symphonic poem Gabble Retchit (The Harlething) and the Two Rhythmic Pieces in 1952.
[1] Paul Conway detects a Spanish influence in the final movement, "at times recalling de Falla and the Ravel of Rhapsodie Espagnole".
Chamber music was also an important part of his output, including ten string quartets spanning his whole career - from No 1 in 1942 to No 10 (op 140) dating from 1997.
The fanfare which forms the first six bars of Salzedo's Divertimento for three trumpets and three trombones, opus 49 (1959), was used as the theme tune for the Open University's educational programmes on BBC television and radio from the 1970s to the 1990s.
[12] Beecham's widow Shirley claimed that Salzedo orchestrated the 1959 recording of Handel's Messiah for modern full orchestra, usually credited to Sir Eugene Goossens.