Peter Branscombe

Peter John Branscombe (born 7 December 1929, Sittingbourne, Kent – 31 December 2008, St Andrews, Scotland) was an English academic in German studies, a musicologist, and a writer on Austrian cultural history.

Branscombe attended Dulwich College where he showed talent as cricket player. Having served his military service in Vienna, Austria, he studied literature at Worcester College, Oxford. There, he became acquainted with notable Austrian émigrés such as the composer Egon Wellesz and the musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch.

In 1959 Branscombe joined the University of St Andrews' faculty of German Studies, a post he kept until the end of his life. In 1979, he founded St Andrews' Institute for Austrian Studies, the only such research facility in the United Kingdom.

His interests included the popular theatre of the Biedermeier and the Viennese suburban theatre with authors like Raimund and Nestroy. He wrote works on Joseph Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. Over many years, he wrote reviews of concerts and recordings and contributed to The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the Wagner-Handbuch (Wagner Handbook) where he researched many forgotten composers of the 19th century. Branscombe also translated poems by Heinrich Heine and academic texts.

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