Later in their careers, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams became famous for their unique creativity and modern expression, but the younger composers began their career drawing on influences from family and musical exposures. The compositions of Holst and Vaughan Williams from before World War I evolve as composers collect their life experiences and these influences can be heard in this early music. Yet the music of the young Holst and the young Vaughan Williams also presents highly original aspects which presage the genius of their later works. Although both musicians were heavily influenced by their upbringing, by popular composers, and even by each other, it was these same influences that ultimately led to their distinct individualities. Biographer Richard Capell says that music was Holst's "family language". His great-grandfather, grandfather, father and other members of his family were all musicians. Because family has the greatest influence that life can bring, his family led him to a lifelong attachment to the trombone, an instrument introduced to him as a child to combat asthma and which later became his most reliable source of income. (Capell, 1926). Vaughan Williams' childhood, on the other hand, was occupied largely by reading and education. He was encouraged to read appropriate literature of all kinds, including plays, poetry and prose, as well as the prayer book and the Bible. Materials less appropriate for a child, such as newspapers, were "available through Aunt Sophie's economically cut newspaper squares for the toilet", according to Vaughan Williams' wife, Ursula, writing about her husband . Although Vaughan Williams received music lessons from this aunt, unlike Holst, Vaughan Williams' family language was literature and middle of paper.......jstor.org/stable/944947---- -------Vaughan Williams' Choice by William KimmelMusic and Letters, Vol. 19, No. 2 (April 1938), pp. 132-142Published by: Oxford University Press------------Ralph Vaughan WilliamsMusic & Letters, Vol. 1, No. 2 (April 1920), pp. 78-86Published by: Oxford University Press-------------------Ralph Vaughan Williams and his choice of musicUrsula Vaughan WilliamsProceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 99, (1972 - 1973), pp. 81-89Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766156“Ralph Vaughan Williams. » International Dictionary of Opera. 2 flights. St. James Press, 1993. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, Michigan: Gale, 2010. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/servlet/. BioRC