David Munrow

David Munrow (August 12 1942 - May 15 1976) was a musician and early music historian. The son of a Birmingham University lecturer, he attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, until 1960.

In 1960 David Munrow went to Peru, teaching English under the British Council Overseas Voluntary Scheme. He returned with Bolivian flutes and other obscure instruments. Studying English at Cambridge University he noticed a crumhorn on a friend's wall and threw himself into independent study that climaxed in his book Instruments of the Middle Age and Renaissance (1976). From his starting position as a pianist, singer and bassoonist he taught himself many long-dead instruments. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as a bassoonist but soon played instruments of Shakespeare's time. By 1967 he was a lecturer at Leicester University and married to Gillian Reid. He teamed up with Christopher Hogwood to form the Early Music Consort. Beginning in 1968 he toured the world, unearthing obscure instruments in every country he visited. He commissioned reconstructions of instruments related to the cornett and racket. In 1970 two television programs made him a household name - The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R.

He was a man of manic energy. In his short life he released over 50 albums, many of them still in print. As well as his recordings with the Early Music Consort, he recorded with Musica Reservata, Alfred Deller and the King's Singers. He recorded Bach and Monteverdi many times but his widest influence was in the backwaters of the Gothic and Renaissance period. On BBC Radio 3 he presented "Pied Piper", a multi-ethnic, centuries-spanning spread of music from Monteverdi to ELO.

Munrow committed suicide in 1976, while suffering from depression.

Arguably, David Munrow did more than anyone else in the last century to popularize early music. This is his claim to fame, underlined by the fact that the committee that chose the music for the Voyager Golden Record selected one of his recordings to be sent on the Voyager space probes on an interstellar journey. Apart from his regular radio slot, and other programmes he also appeared on television most notably in Ancestral Voices (BBC 2), and Early Musical Instruments (ITV). Here, he introduced many people to a whole new world of audio experience. Sadly, these specific programmes were transmitted posthumously in 1976.

Discography

(Highly selective)

• Recordings with Musica Reservata
  • French Court Music of the Thirteenth Century (1967)
  • Music from the 100 Years War (1968)
  • Music from the Decameron (1969)
  • 16th Century Italian Dance Music (1970)
  • Music from the Court of Burgundy (1971)
• Recordings with The Early Music Consort, directed by David Munrow
  • Ecco la primavera - Florentine Music of the 14th Cent (1969)
  • Music of the Crusades (1970)
  • The Triumphs of Maximilian I (1970)
  • Music for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (1972)
  • The Art of Courtly Love (1973)
  • Praetorius - Dances and Motets (1973)
  • Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (1976)
  • Monteverdi's Contemporaries (1976)
  • Greensleeves to a Ground (1976)
  • Festival of Early Music - Music from 14th Century Florence, Music of the Crusades & The Triumphs of Maximilian (1976)
• The Young Tradition and Early Music Consort
  • Galleries (1968)
• The Round Table & David Munrow
  • Spinning Wheel (1969)
  • "Saturday Gigue/Scarborough Fair" (single) (1969)
• Shirley and Dolly Collins & the Early Music Consort of London
  • Anthems in Eden (1969)
• Royal Shakespeare Wind Band, directed by Guy Wolfenden
  • Music From Shakespeare's Time (1969)
• David Munrow, Gillian Reid, Christopher Hogwood
  • Pleasures of the court - Festival dance music by Susato & Morley (1971)
• David Munrow, Oliver Brookes, Robert Spencer, Christopher Hogwood
  • The amorous flute (1973)
• David Munrow solo or in various combinations
  • Telemann: Suite for Recorder and Orchestra, Concerti for Recorder and Orchestra by Sammartini and Handel
  • The Art of the Recorder (1975)
  • The Art of David Munrow (1971 - 1976)
• Music for radio, television and cinema
  • The Six Wives of Henry VIII (BBC TV) (1970)
  • Elizabeth R (BBC TV) (1970)
  • Zardoz (directed by John Boorman) (1973)
  • Tolkien's The Hobbit (BBC radio) (1973)
  • La Course en tête (1974)