Harry Bramma obit

Organist Harry Bramma has died

 

He was not on the list.

Former RSCM Director and director of music at Southwark Cathedral and All Saints Margaret Street has died aged 89

Organist and composer Harry Bramma has died at the age of 89.

Bramma was educated at Bradford Grammar School, where he studied organ with Melville Cook, organist of Leeds Parish Church, before studying theology and music at Oxford as organ scholar of Pembroke College. He graduated in 1958 and subsequently embarked on a teaching career before moving into cathedral music.

He was assistant organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1963, also becoming director of music at the King's School, Worcester in 1965. Bramma's students at the King's School included Nicholas Cleobury, Stephen Cleobury, Jonathan Darlington, Jonathan Nott, Adrian Partington and Geoffrey Webber.

 

He became organist and director of music at Southwark Cathedral in 1976, directed the RSCM from 1989 to 1998, and subsequently served as director of music at All Saints, Margaret Street from 1989-2004.

 

 Bramma's memoir Not Half Bad was published last year by the RSCM and in its Choir & Organ review, William McVicker said: 'The lovable, father-like figure of Harry Bramma is surely unique in the organ world. He may even represent the last bastion of Edwardian Romanticism'.