22 Facts About David Munrow

David John Munrow was a British musician and early music historian.

David Munrow's mother, Hilda Ivy Munrow, was a dance teacher and his father, Albert Davis "Dave" Munrow, was a lecturer and physical education instructor who wrote a book on the subject.

David Munrow excelled academically and was noted for his treble voice.

David Munrow was lent a bassoon and returned it in about a fortnight, able to play it remarkably well.

In 1960, David Munrow took a gap year and went to Peru to teach English at Markham College in Lima under the British Council student teacher scheme.

David Munrow reached Lima by train from Sao Paulo and later spent some time touring Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Chile, immersing himself in the traditional music of Latin America and collecting folk instruments.

David Munrow returned to Britain with a number of Bolivian flutes and other obscure instruments.

David Munrow joined the Royal Shakespeare Company Windband as a bassoonist but soon played instruments of Shakespeare's time under the encouragement of music director Guy Wolfenden.

David Munrow taught early woodwind instruments at King's College London, where his mentor, Thurston Dart, had recently been appointed head of the new music department.

David Munrow commissioned reconstructions of instruments related to the cornett and rackett from, amongst others, Christopher Monk and Otto Steinkopf.

David Munrow scored the feature film adaptation of the former, Henry VIII and His Six Wives, in 1972.

David Munrow was a loyal and enthusiastic customer of the Early Music Shop, having helped the founder, Richard Wood, create the business's name, and travelling immediately to the music store to be re-equipped with a variety of historical instruments after losing his entire collection in a theft.

David Munrow recorded Bach and Monteverdi many times, but his widest influence was in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

David Munrow's three-record set with The Early Music Consort of London, The Art of the Netherlands, issued in 1976, was particularly influential in popularising the genre.

David Munrow had dealings notably with Pentangle, the Young Tradition and Shirley and Dolly Collins.

David Munrow wrote one book entitled Instruments of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

In 1976, David Munrow hanged himself while in a state of depression; the recent deaths of his father and father-in-law, to whom he dedicated his sole book, are thought to have contributed to his decision to take his own life.

David Munrow had attempted suicide by drug overdose the previous year.

David Munrow's death was widely seen as a tragic loss to the early music movement.

David Munrow perhaps did more than anyone else in the second half of the 20th century to popularise early music in Britain, despite a career lasting barely 10 years.

David Munrow left behind him not only his recordings but a large collection of musical instruments.

Information about the life and work of David Munrow can be found in obituaries about him in 1976, and in the following sources: a detailed piece in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by Christopher Hogwood; The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; The Art of David Munrow, a record set with a biography by Arthur Johnson, the producer of Pied Piper; and on the old vinyl sleeve of the Renaissance Suite.