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David Munrow

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

David Munrow was a British musician and historian of early music. He was born in 1942 in Birmingham and studied English at Cambridge. There he began to play instruments from South America, which he had brought back after a year in Peru. Professor Thurston Dart encouraged him to investigate the connection between those folk instruments and the old European instruments. Munrow played bassoon and piano and sang, and taught himself to play a whole collection of medieval and Renaissance instruments.

Music and breakthrough

Together with Christopher Hogwood he founded the Early Music Consort of London, a group of specialists who played on replica instruments. His great breakthrough came with the music for the television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which aroused worldwide interest in Renaissance music and instruments. He also wrote music for films, such as Ken Russell's The Devils in 1971 and Zardoz in 1974. On BBC Radio 3 he presented 655 episodes of the programme Pied Piper, which ranged from Monteverdi to the Electric Light Orchestra. He made more than fifty records, with an emphasis on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Influence

Munrow died in 1976, at the age of 33, leaving behind a large collection of instruments. Probably no one in the second half of the twentieth century did more to make early music popular in Britain. A recording by his ensemble was chosen for the Voyager Golden Record, the gold disc that went into space.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to The Fairie Round as performed by his Early Music Consort, the piece that went into space with Voyager. Notice the dance character and the sound of the old instruments.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists