In the 1960s and 70s we had the advent of a flood of interest in Medieval and Renaissance music, summed up by the term “early” music. David Munrow was a star in that firmament. All manner of groups were purchasing their sackbutts, shawms, rebecs, rackets, gemshorns, serpents, theorbos, harps, lutes and viols of all sorts. Music colleges were running courses, and there were early music festivals galore. The backbone of this was the musicologists’ ardent work digging out ancient manuscripts....

This essay respects my musical upbringing and celebrates the human voice. In the words of great William Byrd: ”Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learn to sing”. (Hopefully that can be interpreted to include everyone!) There is no doubt that contemporary styles of vocal production sound quite different to the voices of early twentieth century. Despite her global superstardom and the sparkling beauty of her voice, smidgens of the higher realms of Dame Nellie Melba”s...