Archive

Remembering David Munrow (1942-76)

The composer, Professor Peter Dickinson, remembers the charismatic early music pioneer and recorder virtuoso David Munrow, for whom he wrote new works. […]

In Early Music, how famous is “famous enough”?

Following on from my last post on Mary Potts, the forgotten harpsichord teacher of many, including Christopher Hogwood and Colin Tilney (who, like Professor Peter Williams, went on to study with Gustav Leonhardt), I’ve been looking into who else, from Mary’s circle, is remembered – or not. […]

The forgotten harpsichord teacher of Christopher Hogwood & Colin Tilney

 

Mary Potts and her beloved Shudi harpsichord in about 1950 © Estate of Mary Potts 2012

I didn’t really know that much about Mrs Mary Potts (1905 – 1982) when she was my harpsichord teacher in Cambridge, so I googled her name (in 2005) expecting to find a complete biography. She had, […]

E.H. Fellowes, the scholar and performer who “found” the English composer, John Dowland, and rediscovered the lute song. Part 3 of 4

Edmund aged 7

Fellowes’ life and legacy

Aided in the churchy sphere by Professor Sir Percy Buck, who was one of his oldest friends (and a teacher of Mary Potts at the RCM), Edmund Fellowes brought about a revolution, albeit a gentle one: he both changed the way in which choral and other […]

How famous is scholar, conductor and harpsichordist Thurston Dart, 40 years on? Part 2

With the death of Dart’s close personal friend and executor William Oxenbury, Gustav Leonhardt is now probably the only person alive who knew Dart, but not as a teacher. They were apparently well acquainted and served together on the jury at the harpsichord competition at Bruges.

Their approach to Froberger seems quite similar in […]

How famous is scholar, conductor and harpsichordist Thurston Dart, 40 years on?   Part 1 

Music Faculty, King’s College, University of London, 1968. Reproduced by kind permission of King’s College London. Professor Thurston Dart (holding the serpent) was at the time King Edward Professor of Music and established the faculty in 1964.

The composer Michael Nyman well-known for his collaboration on Peter Greenaway’s films, is described on […]

The Early Music revival, does anyone still care?

Early Music (i.e. music up to around 1800) started to become more widely popular after World War II. This blog will primarily be about the pioneers who re-discovered this repertoire and started playing it on original instruments, or modern copies, in the authentic style, which is now often called historically informed performance, or HIP for […]