Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Funeral featured musician’s favourites
The life of a celebrated trombonist was remembered to the sound of his cherished instrument as loved ones gathered for his funeral.
Knowing he only had a short time to live, John Bowsher, who died last month aged 83, chose the music for the service at Barham Crematorium.
And so it was that the final drum rolls of Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary sounded as his coffin was carried up the aisle on Wednesday last week.
Later the congregation heard a few bars from the opening of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.
Mr Bowsher chose this because it was, he said, the first appearance in western music of muted trumpets.
He wrote: “Being in an orchestra, playing some of the greatest operatic, choral and symphonic music ever written, gave me immense pleasure and satisfaction and the chance to make many friends, especially Sylvia.
“Our eyes met during a performance of Verdi’s Othello in Oxford and I never thought of anyone else during all our life together.”
Mr Bowsher went on to achieve worldwide respect for his research into musical acoustics.
He was educated at Haberdashers Askes in north London and won an exhibition to Imperial College, where he gained a PHD in physics.
He won a Canadian government award, entitling him to spend two years at the National Research Council in Ottawa. While there he joined the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra as a professional trombonist.
On his return to England he worked for the acoustics division of the National Physical Laboratory, from where he was headhunted by Surrey University.
He married Sylvia, a cellist, in 1967 and they played for many years in the Chelsea Opera Group, conducted by Sir Colin Davis. At Surrey University Mr Bowsher created a musical acoustics research group and monitored many PHD students.
He worked for the European Union, was chief examiner for the Acoustics Institute and chaired its membership and education committees.
He gave the RWB Stephens Lecture in 1990 and became an honorary fellow of the Institute of Acoustics. In 2014 the institute gave him an award for distinguished service.
The couple came to live in Great Mongeham and later joined Canterbury Croquet Club and became keen players.
Mr Bowsher was a talented photographer and produced work for the village and the croquet club.
His funeral service consisted of a number of recordings of extracts of his favourite works and a live performance of Faure’s Apres un Reve, by cellist Charlie Martin, accompanied by Ben Jones.