Musics from other worlds (subtitle: 'listen to an idiot)
David Fanshawe - "African Sanctus" "...and so you stay among yourselves listening to Peruvian groups with bagpipes that only four cats listen to and that even their relatives won't buy!" (quote)
HERE I AM! PRESENT! I, the pompous know-it-all, frequenter of the most malodorous and hidden niches, who "will never be part of a majority," as that guy said in that film… I propose that you listen to some of the most unimaginable stuff that has come my way over the years. You, take my advice, lose yourself for 5 minutes listening (reading, watching, eating, smelling...) to the same things you already know how they are; if you don't take risks, it simply happens that your brain atrophies.
19) David Fanshawe
Stories that should be told, David Fanshawe. When he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music, no one remembered that his studies had been interrupted due to dyslexia, which prevented him from reading a musical score, and that, for this reason, he hadn't been able to achieve the title of choirmaster. It was a family friend (a French baroness... a real story from another time) who recognized the boy's talent, who was self-taught in piano, and decided to educate him herself, pushing him to the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with John Lambert and won a scholarship in 1965. But, in addition to his passion for Music, David had another great love: traveling.
Before even finishing his studies, David hitchhiked to the Middle East and there fell in love with Arabic music. He continued to travel and record those sounds and music that very few knew in Europe. In the following years, David traveled up the Nile, crossing Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya until he reached Lake Victoria, after about 3 years. He had with him a small stereo recorder with which he invited local musicians to play for him. Upon his return to the UK in '72, he used those hundreds of hours of recordings to compose what became his most famous work: "African Sanctus," which he dedicated to his first wife, Judith Croasdell, earning him fame and prestige (at least around his area…)
But his most ambitious project was to recover the music and oral traditions of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. He set out in 1978 and traveled for over 10 years collecting thousands of hours of recordings. The work was supposed to be titled "Pacific Song" or something like that but, a stroke took him away at only 68 years old, preventing him from completing the work.
Read carefully:
1972! Long before World Music became a trend. Fanshawe's work is not only ahead of its time; it is also something completely different: a true – and moving – attempt at "syncretism" between music and cultures. A Sacred Music work that, through Music, would break down barriers in the pursuit of that Spirit that pervades the
