The Early Music Legend

  Guest Blogger: Peter Dickinson   is a composer, writer and pianist and an Emeritus Professor of two universities – Keele and London. See   here   for more details. ‘My wife and I first met David and Gill Munrow in Cambridge in about 1965. It was summer and we were all in the garden at 54 Bateman Street, the home of Mary Potts, whose late husband was L. J. Potts, the literary critic and English don at Queens’ College. Mary Potts had a very special role in the early music revival which has not been acknowledged [other than in this  Semibrevity blog post ]. A mere mention of her more distinguished pupils, who included  Christopher Hogwood , Colin Tilney and Peter Williams, is enough to indicate that she ought to be better known now. She knew harpsichordists of international reputation such as Gustav Leonhardt, Raphael Puyana and Kenneth Gilbert. Her own performances were on a more modest scale but she played in and around Cambridge for over fifty years. At M...

Semibrevity is an important blog on the early pioneers of Early Music. See http://www.semibrevity.com/2016/04/nikolaus-harnoncourt-and-gustav-leonhardt-a-musical-friendship-of-more-than-60-years/ Guest Blogger: Peter Dickinson is a composer, writer and pianist and an Emeritus Professor of two universities – Keele and London. See here for more details. ‘My wife and I first met David and Gill Munrow in Cambridge in about 1965. It was summer and we were all in the garden at 54 Bateman Street, the home of Mary Potts, whose late husband was L. J. Potts, the literary critic and English don at Queens’ College. Mary Potts had a very special role in the early music revival which has not been acknowledged [other than in this Semibrevity blog post ]. A mere mention of her more distinguished pupils, who included Christopher Hogwood , Colin Tilney and Peter Williams, is enough to indicate that she ought to be better known now. She knew harpsichordists of international reputation such as ...

Peter Dickinson Publisher: Novello & Co A Memory of David Munrow (1977) Work Notes Wordless vocal lines Publisher Novello & Co Ltd Category Solo Voice(s) and up to 6 players Year Composed 1977 Duration 5 Minutes Soloist 2 Countertenors Programme Note Peter Dickinson A Memory of David Munrow (1977) Peter Dickinson wrote two works specially for David Munrow to perform and worked closely with him. Translations, for recorder, viola da gamba and harpsichord, dates from 1971, and Recorder Music, a virtuoso solo piece, from 1973. Munrow gave many performances of both pieces, and Recorder Music was included in The Art of the Recorder (EMI Records). A Memory of David Munrow was written for a BBC concert in Manchester at which Munrow was due to play, but he died tragically several months earlier. Thus the music is not a celebration of what he stood for, which might be appropriate now, but an elegy under the impact of shock. The se...

Peter Dickinson : Translations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- commissioned by David Munrow, Oliver Brookes & Christopher Hogwood Publisher Novello & Co Ltd Category Works for 2-6 Players Year Composed 1971 Duration 15 Minutes Orchestration rec.vadg.hpd Availability Hire  Explain this... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Programme Note This work, in a single movement, was commissioned by David Munrow, Oliver Brookes and Christopher Hogwood for first performance at a concert at the Purcell Room on 20th February 1971. Its starting point was a series of chords playable on the treble recorder with an extra one played on a stopped descant. The expressive range of the instrument is thus extended and modern techniques of sul pont, col legno and others are applied to the gamba. I collaborated with the players in investigating these possibilities and found this most reward...