In The Wellspring acclaimed novelist and dramatist Barney Norris
conducts a conversation with his father, the pianist and composer
David Owen Norris - 'quite possibly the most interesting pianist in
the world' (Toronto Globe and Mail) and 'a famous thinker/philosopher of
the keyboard' (Seattle Times) - about the nature of creativity, of
Englishness, and of the changing world.
Divided into three parts - 'Listening', 'Playing' and 'Writing' -The
Wellspring is the first book to explore David Owen Norris's fifty-year
career and discover how his background (non-metropolitan, C of E,
literary) influenced his choices and his music. The book becomes a study
of the relationship between his Englishness and his work, of his
inheritance and how it is projected forward into new compositions and
new performance. In the process the reader encounters a fascinating
world of concerts, prizes, collaborations, and inspirations, in which
Norris, always open to the different, has lived. This variety includes
Norris's devotion to Parry and Elgar, his musical discoveries made
playing the square piano of the nineteenth century, and the
opportunities resulting from the pressurized world of competitions.
In addition to exploring the career of this renowned musician, the
father-son conversation also reveals Barney Norris's experience of
working in English theatre over the last ten years and of his practice
as a novelist with a growing reputation. Their combined experience, in
two fields, in two different generations, provides a thought-provoking
discussion of how a place and a culture inform artistic work, and how
England and Englishness have evolved during the past half century.
