Gordon Jacob, a native of London, was educated at the Royal College of Music, and from 1926 on was a teacher of counterpoint, orchestration, and composition at the college until his retirement in 1966. Jacob ranks as one of the foremost contributors of original wind ensemble literature. Tribute to Canterbury is a three-movement suite, dedicated to the great cathedral in Canterbury, England, with each movement freely based upon Johann Sebastian Bach's magnifcent chorale Ein' Feste Burg ist Unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God).