The Deller centenary

Abstract

We may well regret that many significant early music pioneers were too ‘early’ for their own good, at least as regards their long-term reputations: missing out on the wider audiences that easier travel and good agents could have provided; playing pre-authentic instruments (Landowska); or working with primitive recording technology (Dolmetsch). Alfred Deller, the centenary of whose birth falls on 31 May this year, was fairly fortunate in the first and the third of these, and actually in the second too, being a singer. Had he lived longer there is no doubt his impact would have continued to grow but, like Thurston Dart (1921–71), that productive overlap with the bright young things of the rising HIP generation was mostly denied him. Perhaps more significantly, his early recordings were made for a record company that is no longer with us, and most younger listeners have little idea of the scope and variety...