Author Topic: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.  (Read 5846 times)

piedpiper

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piedpiper

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Re: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2011, 09:25:27 AM »

I was informed that the lecture is free, and no tickets are necessary. Just turn up!


http://www.ram.ac.uk/events?event_id=437

sarahk

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Re: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2011, 02:05:04 AM »
Did any members of this forum attend Jeremy Summerly's lecture, The Pied Piper of Early Music, at RAM today?  If so, can someone please share some highlights of what Summerly said about David Munrow?  I would have gladly attended the lecture if the Atlantic did not unhappily separate me from London!

piedpiper

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Re: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2011, 02:21:38 PM »
When I first entered the lecture area at the Royal Academy of Music I instantly recognized the profile at a distance of Ed Bream who is writing a thesis on the DM, and the performance practices of the Early Music Consort. He told me that progress on it was "..very slow" unfortunately.
 
Anyway, I must confess there was quite an assortment of individuals who came. A veritable all, and sundry!!
 
 
The lecture itself was illustrated by extracts from Pied Piper, and music samples plus on screen projections from two PCs of some material from the RAM collection, and other sources mentioned here.
 
 
I did not take notes on the talk but here are some key points which were made by Mr. Summerly. However, I have tried to be reasonably accurate ......
 
a) Munrow had the ability via his radio broadcasts to make long deceased composers come alive. One also felt that he was talking directly to the listener.
 
b) Munrow helped popularise the recorder. However, a certain John  Paul Jones of Led Zepeelin fame arguably did the most to popularise this instrument. An extract to a Stairway to Heaven was played in which Jones recorder playing was featured.
 
c) Munrow did some work for the The Pentangle group, and a piece of their relevant music was played. I had not heard it before, and it was quite interesting.
 
d) It was claimed that Munrows reasoning processes were at time a little "unorthodox", and two examples on screen were given.
 
e) An extract from a recording with Shirley  Collins was played in which she recalled her contact with the Early Music Consort. She admitted to him that she could not read music, but Munrow claimed that it did not matter, and offered words of encouragement.
 
f) On screen at three, or four times, original publicity materials were shown demonstrating the high status that Munrows Pied Piper programme occupied in the Radio Times listing, and also the Royal Festival Hall performance.
 
g) At the end of the talk above I raised the question of the origin of the term Early Music. Mr. Summerly replied that he had never thought about it before. I suggested that evidence seems to suggest that Munrow might have invented it but this was dashed when I examined Roger Norringtons famous a book with Early Music in its title which was first published in circa 1963. However, a member of the audience claimed that the term goes back to 18th century to some  music  Academy.
 
h) I asked Mr. Summerly about the possibility of a biography. I had hoped he would take up the challenge but I think not.
 
i) Someone from the audience raised the question about the existence of the  Pied Piper radio programmes. Mr. Summerly claimed that many of them still existed, and others were possibly wiped. He made an interesting point about the Hobbit series which was apparently wiped, and it was only through a private recording by somone outside the BBC that it was saved for posterity. This reminds me of the early Dr. Who series.
 
j) Mr. Summerly also mentioned receiving the dvd (ie Early Musical Instruments) from Mr. David Griffiths site. I also announced to the audience a request for any anecdotal stories about DM which could be put on the forum. I said too that the dvd mention by Summerly could be bought on Mr. Griffith website. In other words, I was acting as an unoffical salesman!
 
 
 
PS. Mr. Summerly also seemed to mention something from one of my posts in which Michael Laird described how he came across Munrow.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Summerly
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
« Last Edit: February 23, 2011, 09:14:01 AM by piedpiper »

sarahk

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Re: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2011, 07:57:54 PM »
Hello, PiedPiper.  Thanks for sharing your summary of Summerly's lecture on David Munrow.  Your comments indicate that the lecture was fun and informative.

I hope you won't mind, but I have some follow-up questions.  Here goes:

Re: c) Munrow did some work for the The Pentangle group, and a piece of their relevant music was played.

Did Summerly name the work(s) on which Munrow had collaborated with The Pentangle?

Re: d) It was claimed that Munrows reasoning processes were at time a little "unorthodox", and two examples on screen were given.

Do you remember the two examples?  Can you please explain what Summerly meant when he said Munrow's reasoning was unorthodox?  Was he referring to Munrow's musical style; his thought processes, his personality, or something else?  And in what way was Munrow's reasoning unorthodox?

Re: h) I asked Mr. Summerly about the possibility of a biography. I had hoped he would take up the challenge but I think not.

Roger that!  :-)

Re:  i) Someone from the audience raised the question about the existence of the  Pied Piper radio programmes. Mr. Summerly claimed that many of them still existed, and others were possibly wiped. He made an interesting point about the Hobbit series which was apparently wiped, and it was only through a private recording by somone outside the BBC that it was saved for posterity.

46 episodes of Pied Piper are available at the British Library.  To hear them, you need to register yourself at the Library and request the episodes you want to hear.  Search for the episodes in the Library's catalogue, at http://searchbeta.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?tab=local_tab&mode=Advanced&scp.scps=scope%3a(BLCONTENT)&vid=BLVU1 (in the Advanced search page, enter Name: David Munrow and Title: Pied Piper).

Provided that you get prior copyright clearance, I think the Library can create CD-Rs of up to six episodes of your choice
on an on-demand (a.k.a., just-in-time) basis.  According to the Library's Sound Archive Transcription page (at
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/atyourdesk/transcription/transcriptionservice.html), the copying charge appears to be a heart-rending ?180 per hour (?45 minimum), excluding VAT, copyright fees, and (when applicable) overseas postage.

You can occasionally find parts of the Hobbit collection for sale on Amazon (see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobbit-Acclaimed-Radio-Dramatisation-Collection/dp/0563558326/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298576549&sr=8-1) or eBay (see
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hobbit-J-R-R-Tolkien-BBC-Radio-4-Tapes-x-4-/270709184275?pt=Children_s_Young_Adult_s_Fiction&hash=item3f07865713).
Note:  This is just a FYI; I'm not trying to endorse anything!

Sarah

piedpiper

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Re: Henry Wood Lecture on David Munrow, Feb 2011.
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2011, 09:50:12 AM »

Dear Sarahk,

           Thank you for your response. However, I would prefer you to call me by my name Robert Searle rather than piedpiper as this is just the user name. Unfortunately, I can hardly shed much light on the points you raise...

....I cannot recall whether Summerly gave a name to the Pantangle piece, or not. I do not think so.

.....Again, I cannot accurately recall what he said about DMs thinking processes. But I recall seeing on screen two extracts from a possible transcript of "two" Pied Piper programmes.

Apart from the British Library there might be another catalogue somewhere listing more Pied Piper programmes not listed in the former. It maybe your search did not reveal all entries. Maybe Summerly had some kind of inside information, and special help in finding "missing" programmes.


RS.