The Early Music Legend

  5 April 2015 From the section Entertainment & Arts Image caption Alan Davey took over as controller of BBC Radio 3 in January The new boss of BBC Radio 3 says he plans to revive the classic 1970s series Pied Piper, which introduced young listeners to the world of music. Presented by David Munrow, the fondly-remembered show covered everything from medieval music to prog rock. Speaking to the Sunday Times , Radio 3 controller Alan Davey said he was keen to commission a modern version. "Young people are ­growing up with an open mind about various kinds of quite ­complex music," he said. "It's not classical music, but it's not pop music, either. The step into classical music would be quite easy for them if they were to encounter it in the right way." Davey took over from Roger Wright in January, and has been listening to archive tapes of Pied Piper, which ran for 655 episodes betwee...

Richard Jones noted renaissance viol maker had this to say in an interview. How did you come upon early music ? Who inspired you ? In the 1970s I went to Dumfries to see one of Ashley Hutchings' groups ? I think it was the Albion Band ? and there was this wonderful mixture of folk music and rock music. I was listening to Radio 3 one morning and one of the tunes they played I recognised from the Ashley Hutchings concert. The announcer said it was a dance from Susato,'La Morisque', played by The Early Music Consort of London directed by David Munrow. There was this sound of shawms and sackbuts, I thought it was stunning, there was a texture there that was far more exciting, more colourful than any of the smooth classical sound of trombones and oboes. I caught the early music bug and was so lucky. Within weeks of hearing that record I met a man in Edinburgh who was making a set of regals for Christopher Hogwood who played on that record, so very quickly I was drawn into this e...

13th January 2006. Early-music pioneer SOMEWHERE out in deepest space will be strange alien life-forms enjoying the polyphonic music of the Renaissance, courtesy of David Munrow and the Voyager space mission. In The Archive Hour: Mr Munrow, his study (Radio 4, last Saturday) we heard Munrow’s colleagues and admirers talk about this uniquely energetic musician and broadcaster, who introduced British audiences to the alien world of "early music". Influenced initially by the sounds and instruments of South America, Munrow explored a breadth of repertory that few ensembles would dare to tackle today, in an era of increased specialisation. Munrow and his players dabbled in folk, jazz, and contemporary music, and in his daily children’s show for Radio 3, The Pied Piper, he was as comfortable discussing Richard Strauss operas as he was demonstrating the crumhorn. All his projects had a sense of haphazard energy, which concealed the conscientious planning that went into them. ...