Recent Posts

<< Apologies for the misinterpretation of NOM...but I did check it out on the internet  and I got a different answer. >>

Oh, I see.  No problem.

<< However, your rather "odd" communication could have been interpreted in "poor taste" especially as DM is not around! >>

Yes, you're right; only AFTER I'd read your first response yesterday, I realized that my first post can be interpreted as being in poor taste.  Oops.  I'd honestly meant well!  To my way of thinking, August 12 will always be David Munrow's birthday.  I think his birthday and life are worth remembering and celebrating.

Apologies for the misinterpretation of NOM...but I did check it out on the internet  and I got a different answer. However, your rather "odd" communication could have been interpreted in "poor taste" especially as DM is not around!

Erm ... NOM = no other message!

>> He came from a middle class family, and he was the only child... <<

He was born to two teachers (a London headmaster come U-Brum P.E. teacher and a U-Brum dance teacher), so perhaps it's not surprising he became a teacher himself!  I think of David Munrow to have been a teacher as much as he was a musician.  :-)

>> I recall reading a book on astrology, and birthdays. He was ofcourse a Leo, and it was claimed that anyone born under the date of the 12th August was someone who was likely to revive some old craft, or words to that effect. Per chance, this is was what DM did with early music......he revived it as never before in the 20th Century. <<

Fun food for thought.  Yes, it sounds as though what the author wrote was definitely applicable to David!

....Incidently, NOM apparently means NO OFFENCE MEANT....and none has been taken at least in my case!

Robert Searle (or Piedpiper!)

Sarahk,


Yes, the 12th August 1942 was the year of his birth. However, I recall reading an article yonks ago that he was not exactly born with a silver sopranino in his mouth!! He came from a middle class family, and he was the only child..Later, ofcourse he became a Cambridge Whizz Kid (term used by the same article) so to speak.

I recall reading a book on astrology, and birthdays. He was ofcourse a Leo, and it was claimed that anyone born under the date of the 12th August was someone who was likely to revive some old craft, or words to that effect. Per chance, this is was what DM did with early music......he revived it as never before in the 20th Century.

Perhaps, more bizarrely in more ways than one the 12th August is the aniversary of my "vision", or "lucid dream"  which inspired me to do some original thinking in the world of the esoteric. I include here my new blog which is developing apace with "new" material. It is admitedly a side interest to DM ofcourse!!! Details of my "vision" can be found if one looks at the article blog listing on the right.


http://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2010/08/introduction-to-blogger-robert-searle.html

NOM

Yes, DMs recording link on You Tube...




    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylacX3wzFMc


R.Searle

...The catalyst for the new trend was the increasing availability of medieval music, both as a result of the work of scholars and editors, such as those involved in Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century (1956-85) and of recording artists, notably David Munrow’s Early Music Consort of London, whose brilliant collection Music of the Gothic Era appeared in 1976....

Ref All the Ends of the Earth, Signum Classics

Alan Lumsden   has had a varied career as performer, conductor and teacher.  He was associated for many years with the late David Munrow’s Early Music Consort of London and with James Tyler’s London Early Music Group.  He has directed workshops for many of the Early Music Fora, the Canford Summer School of Music, the Benslow Music Trust as well as courses in America, Australia, New Zealand and many countries of Europe.  He has been artist-in-residence at Washington University, St. Louis, Professor in the early music department of the Royal College of Music and was for many years on the staff of the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he was coordinator of Renaissance music studies.  His publications include a large number of editions of early music and the baroque wind section in the Grove Handbook of Performance Practice.


Ref Gloucester Academy of Music 2010.

The following comes from Stereophile 1992.

The review tends to overdo DMs contribution to Early Music in respect to the specific recording below!! And ofcourse there are many groups emerging now which are doing fine work along with their musical leaders...

The (!) are purely my additions in the following text..



ECCO LA PRIMAVERA: Florentine Music of the 14th Century
Music by: Francesco Landini, Magister Piero, Antonio Zacharia da Terano, Giovanni da Firenze, Lorenzo di Firenze, Jacopo da Bologna, Anonymous
The Early Music Consort, David Munrow, dir.
Argo ZRG 642 (LP). AAA.
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The empty space left by David Munrow's tragic disappearance from ancient music studies and performances has never been filled (!). Listening to Ecco La Primavera, you can understand why. What the original Early Music Consort did is unrepeatable(!): their historic contributions to the excavation of medieval and renaissance music from the disastrous stereotypes (!)of the recent past. Ecco La Primavera is probably David Munrow's masterwork, and one of the best-sounding records ever made (!). The rediscovery and performance of the Italian music of the trecento is one of the most important cultural events of the late 20th century, and Munrow's care in solving philological problems shows a magic touch in the ability to preserve both musicological needs and musical pleasure. Small but complex timbres accompanied by delicious dissonances, great dynamic contrast, and a splendid attention to the subtle nuances in one of the best Decca/Argo recordings ever.
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