La course en tête (Bande originale du film)

This release marks fifty years since David Munrow tragically took his own life at the age of just 33. It was an immense loss for early music, a field that this tireless researcher and innovator had transformed throughout his brief but meteoric career - reviving forgotten scores, reintroducing historical instruments, and fundamentally renewing our perception of Medieval and Renaissance music. His openness and eclecticism led him to host radio programs that did much to democratize early music and bring it to a wider audience.

We also owe him several film and documentary soundtracks, including the superb La Course en tête by Joël Santoni. Presented out of competition at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and screened again at the 2025 edition, the film follows the exploits of the “Cannibal” Eddy Merckx at the height of his glory. The music of Praetorius, Susato, and Corelli - alongside Munrow’s own original passages - while seemingly anachronistic, proves perfectly suited to the Belgian champion’s hip swings and pedal strokes, lending him a heroic and timeless dimension.