Munrow and the Hurdy Gurdy..

The Hurdy Gurdy (2)
David Munrow with Gillian Munrow on the hurdy gurdy 
8.5" x 11" (cropped), ink and watercolor on paper, 2012






....I have a fairly large collection of medieval and early renaissance music and I felt it had to be represented this year. I chose a track from the double record set Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance by The Early Music Consort of London that I've played quite a few times this past year. The Consort's leader David Munrow is a remarkable chapter in the history of recorded old music. He was a scholar, a gifted, mostly self taught musician, wrote several books, and recorded over 50 albums in a very short career (Munrow committed suicide in 1976 at the age of 33.) Music from the middle ages barely has any musical notation so the performers of such early music rely on written accounts of performances, previous recordings of the material, associations with similar, later, and better documented music, but most of all their personal creativity and interpretive abilities. As far as my humble musical expertise can evaluate these criteria David Munrow belongs to the best.








Ref Link  http://berrystop100.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/hurdy-gurdy-2.html

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