Harry Bramma dead at 89

Harry Wakefield Bramma, 89, died August 23 in Chislehurst, UK. Born November 11, 1936, in Shipley, UK, he was an organist and composer and an authority on Anglican church music. He attended Bradford Grammar School and took organ lessons from Melville Cook.

During studies of theology and music at Oxford University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958 and Master of Arts degree in 1960, he studied organ with Bernard Rose and served as organ scholar at Pembroke College. He then went into teaching as director of music at the King Edward VI School, Retford, from 1961 to 1963. That year, he became organist at Worcester Cathedral and taught at King’s School, Worcester. He recorded with the Worcester Cathedral Choir, both as conductor and organist.

In 1976 Bramma became organist and director of music at Southwark Cathedral, where he rebuilt the choir, performing on radio within two years. From 1989 until 1998 he served as director of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and as director of music at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London, from 1989 until 2004. After his retirement in 1998, he continued to perform recitals and write choral compositions for the church. The choir of All Saints, with organist Henry Parkes, issued a CD of his compositions in 2011. Bramma published his memoirs in 2025, Not Half Bad: A Lifetime of Musical Development and Other Stories.