Ramovš was born in Ljubljana, then the administrative centre of the Slovenian part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Afterwards, he studied in Siena under Vito Frazzi in 1941 and in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi and Alfredo Casella from 1941 to 1943.
From 1945, he worked as a librarian at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and was the director of its library from 1952 until 1987.
[1] Throughout his career, Ramovš wrote almost exclusively instrumental music, for which he found inspiration in the abstract world.
[2] His works from the 1960s and 70s employ serialism and other modernist techniques, including experiments bordering on graphic notation and use of indeterminacy.