Basil Ramsey, who has died aged 89, will best be remembered for his pioneering venture in starting the online music magazine Music & Vision in 1999 in partnership with Keith Bramich, who still runs it today. Through the internet they reached a new global readership for classical music and enlisted some of the foremost writers of the time as contributors.
They were soon overwhelmed with news and information and also included regular reviews of recordings with soundtracks attached. Before that Basil had extensive experience editing journals including the Musical Times and Choir & Organ.
But his career started with the long-established music publisher Novello, which he joined as a teaboy after leaving school. He was born in Chelmsford, Essex, the son of Alfred Ramsey, a signwriter, and his wife, Florence (nee Childs), and grew up in London, but was evacuated to a farm in Hertfordshire during the second world war.
He finally rose to become director of publications at Novello. All along he gave generous support to house composers and was influential in establishing the careers of figures such as John Joubert, John McCabe, and others, including myself. Basil represented a level of personal commitment from a publisher which is rare today and he also had a judicious sense of what designs would be effective on published scores.
After Basil left Novello in 1974, he set up a publishing company with his friend the renowned American film composer Bernard Herrmann, who was anxious to be recognised for his concert works and theatre pieces. Unfortunately, Herrmann died suddenly the following year and their venture collapsed.
Basil was a church organist and held posts at St Luke’s, Old Street, and St Giles, Cripplegate, in London. He was sympathetic to the needs of church musicians and helped to add to their repertoire. His own arrangement of the carol From Heaven Winging is often recorded.
Basil married Violet Simpson in 1952; she died in 1996. In the same year he had a disabling stroke, but continued his editorial work for 10 years from a wheelchair, typing with one finger. For some time staff from Choir & Organ would meet him every month at his house near Southend. But his final years, when he had dementia, were spent with his elder daughter’s family in east Yorkshire.
He is survived by two daughters, Roberta (Rob) and Carol, and a son, Peter.