The Essay: Renewing the Past: The BBC and Early Music 

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The Essay: Renewing the Past: The BBC and Early Music: 1970s, Into the Mainstream

1970s, Into the Mainstream

Renewing the Past: The BBC and Early Music

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Renewing the Past: The BBC and Early Music, 1970s, Into the Mainstream

Nicholas Kenyon explores early music at the BBC in the 1970s.

Nicholas Kenyon explores the rising popularity of early music in the 1970s and a new interest in performing that music in line with historical evidence.

The BBC has had a powerful influence on our musical taste, and in this BBC centenary year, Nicholas Kenyon, a former controller of Radio 3 and director of the Proms, delves into the archives to explore the BBC’s role in reviving the centuries of early music from before the 18th century. 

In his final essay, Kenyon looks at how in the early 1970s, the popularity of medieval and renaissance music increased hugely with the success of the Early Music Consort led by the dynamic David Munrow. He became a key figure in the BBC’s broadcasting on Radio 3 with his eclectic series of short programmes called Pied Piper, and his colleague Christopher Hogwood presented The Young Idea, similarly mixing new and old. Then the emphasis in the revival of early music shifted from simply rediscovering the music of the past and playing it on modern instruments, to reinventing the ways of playing that music in line with historical evidence. Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music led the way with many broadcasts, and recordings in period style were soon high in the charts with Pavarotti. Early music had entered the mainstream of our musical life.

Presented by Nicholas Kenyon
Produced by Melissa FitzGerald

The Essay: Renewing the Past: The BBC and Early Music

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Nicholas Kenyon explores the BBC's role in the early music revival of the last century.

Nicholas Kenyon, former controller of Radio 3 and director of the Proms, delves into the archives to explore the BBC's role in the early music revival from the 1920s to the 1970s.

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