Christopher Monk with serpent 1986 greyscale

Christopher Monk (28 December 1921 – 17 July 1991) was an English

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...

specialist, performer, and musical instrument maker. He was prominent in the mid-20th century revival of interest in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

period

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

s, particularly the

cornett The cornett (, ) is a lip-reed wind instrument that dates from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, popular from 1500 to 1650. Although smaller and larger sizes were made in both straight and curved forms, surviving cornetts are most ...

and serpent, and was involved in the

historically informed performance Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of Western classical music, classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of ...

movement.

Education

Monk graduated in history from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and studied

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

under George Eskdale.

Career

While teaching in schools he constructed his first

in 1955, and went on to pioneer building replicas and performing on them. He mastered the

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

cornett parts of Italian Renaissance composer

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

's choral work, the '' Vespers of 1610'', which were regarded at the time as impossible to play. In the 1960s he became interested in the serpent, its shape appealing to his sense of humour. In 1967, he formed the London Serpent Trio, with English players Andrew van der Beek and Alan Lumsden, performing new works and historical arrangements, both serious and whimsical, throughout Europe and North America. In 1968 he devised a method of making cornetts out of a wood-resin

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

, which was considerably cheaper than carving them from wooden pieces and bonding them with leather. Thousands were made in this way, which helped to increase the interest and availability of the instruments. He set up Christopher Monk Instruments where he and instrument maker Keith Rodgers continued to manufacture cornetts, and serpents from walnut wood and leather. After his death in 1991, the workshop passed to his long-time collaborator and friend, English cornettist Jeremy West. In 1995 the Historic Brass Society created The Christopher Monk Award in his honour, to recognize people "who have made significant and life-long contributions to study and/or performance in the field of brass history".

References

Bibliography

* * English musical instrument makers 1921 births 1991 deaths {{UK-music-bio-stub