Recorder

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a fipple. It is distinguished from other members of the family by having eight finger holes and a tapered bore.

The recorder was popular from mediaeval times but declined in the eighteenth century in favor of orchestral woodwind instruments, such as the flute, which have greater chromatic range and louder volume. The recorder was revived in the twentieth century, partly in the pursuit of authentic performance of early music, but also because of its suitability as a simple instrument for teaching music and its appeal to amateur players.

In German the recorder is called the Blockflöte (Block Flute), in French the flûte à bec (Billed Flute), and in Italian the flauto dolce (Sweet Flute). The English name may come from a Middle English use of the word record, meaning, "to practice a piece of music" [1], [2].

How the instrument is played

Click here to hear a soprano (descant) recorder being played

The recorder is held outwards from the player's lips (rather than to the side, like the "transverse" flute). The player's breath is constrained by a wooden "fipple" or "block" (A), in the mouthpiece of the instrument, so as to travel along a duct (B) called the "windway". Exiting from the windway, the breath is directed against a hard edge (C), called the " labium", which agitates a column of air, the length of which (and the pitch of the note produced) is modified by finger holes in the front and back of the instrument. Because of the fixed position of the windway with respect to the labium, there is no need to form an embouchure with the lips. On the other hand the shape and size of the recorder player's mouth cavity has a discernable effect on the timbre, tone and response of the recorder—indeed, much of the skill of recorder playing is concerned with using the parts of the mouth (as well as the diaphragm) to shape and control the stream of air entering the recorder.

The range of a recorder is about two octaves. A skilled player can extend this and can typically play chromatically over two octaves and a fifth, with the possible exception of the note two octaves and one semitone above the lowest note. This note is either absent or can only be played by covering the end of the instrument, typically by using one's upper leg or a special bell key. The note is only occasionally found in pre-20th-century music, but it has become standard in modern music. Use of other notes in the 3rd octave is becoming more common, although the breath support required for notes higher than the two octaves and a fifth usually results in a shrieking tone.

The lowest chromatic scale degrees—the minor second and minor third above the lowest note—are played by covering only a part of a hole, a technique known as "half-holing." Some instruments are constructed with double holes to facilitate the playing of these notes. Other chromatic scale degrees are played by so-called "fork" fingerings, uncovering one hole and covering one or more of the ones below it. Fork fingerings have a different tonal character from the diatonic notes, giving the recorder its characteristic woody and somewhat uneven sound.

Most of the notes in the second octave and above are produced by partially closing the thumbhole on the back of the recorder, a technique known as 'pinching'. The placement of the thumb is crucial to the sound of these notes, and varies as the notes increase in pitch, making the boring of a double hole for the thumb unviable.

History

Fipple flutes have a long history: an example of an Iron Age specimen, made from a sheep bone, exists in Leeds City Museum.

The true recorders are distinguished from other fipple flutes by having eight finger holes; seven on the front of the instrument and one, for the left hand thumb, on the back, and having a slightly tapered bore, with its widest end at the mouthpiece. It is thought that these instruments evolved in the 14th or 15th century, but this is a matter of some debate, as the evidence is largely from the depiction of instruments in paintings. The earliest surviving instrument was discovered in a castle moat in Dordrecht, the Netherlands in 1940, and has been dated to the early 15th century. It is, however, in very poor condition. There is an incomplete set of recorders in Nuremberg which date from the 16th century and are still in a playable condition.

The recorder achieved great popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries. For example, at Henry VIII's death in 1547, an inventory of his possessions included 78 recorders. There are also numerous references to the instrument in contemporary literature (eg Shakespeare, Pepys and Milton). Several changes in the construction of recorders took place in the seventeenth century, resulting in the type of instrument generally referred to as baroque recorders, as opposed to the earlier renaissance recorders. These innovations allowed baroque recorders to play two full chromatic octaves of notes, and to possess a tone which was regarded as "sweeter" than that of the earlier instruments.

In the 18th century, rather confusingly, the instrument was often referred to simply as Flute (Flauto) — the transverse form was separately referred to as Traverso. It was for the recorder that J.S. Bach wrote the 4th Brandenburg concerto in G major (though Thurston Dart mistakenly suggested that it was intended for flageolets at a higher pitch, and in a recording under Neville Marriner using Dart's editions it was played an octave higher than usual on sopranino recorders). In fact Bach scored this work for two "flauti d'echo", or echo flutes, an example of which survives in Leipzig to this day. It consisted of two recorders in f' connected together by leather flanges: one instrument was voiced to play softly, the other loudly. Vivaldi wrote three concertos for the "flautino", an instrument first thought to be the piccolo. It is now generally accepted, however, that the instrument intended was the sopranino recorder.

The instrument went into decline after the 18th century, being used for about the last time as an other-worldly sound by Gluck in his opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Nonetheless there were probably more works (ca 800) written for the recorder during the 19th century than in all the preceding centuries: the instrument simply sprouted keys and changed its name, being known as the csakan or "flute douce". Although it was revived at the beginning of the 20th century by German scholar/performers and in Britain by Arnold Dolmetsch and others, even in the early 20th century it was uncommon enough that Stravinsky thought it to be a kind of clarinet, which is not surprising since the early clarinet was, in a sense, derived from the recorder, at least in its outward appearance. Subsequent to its rediscovery (notwithstanding the fact that recorders continued to be made and played throughout the 19th and early 20th century) it became very popular in schools, since it is inexpensive, easy to play at some level, is pre-tuned, and is not too strident in even the most musically-inept hands. It is however incorrect to assume that mastery is similarly easy — like other instruments, it requires talent and study to play it at an advanced level.

An influential figure in the revival of the recorder, as a serious concert instrument, in the latter part of the twentieth century was David Munrow, and his 1975 double album The Art of the Recorder remains as an important anthology of recorder music through the ages.

Modern composers of great stature have written for the recorder, including Paul Hindemith, Luciano Berio, John Tavener, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob, and Edmund Rubbra. It is also occasionally used in popular music, including that of groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.

Some modern music calls for the recorder to produce unusual noises, rhythms and effects, by such techniques as overblowing. David Murphy's 2002 composition Bavardage is an example.

Types of Recorder

Recorders are most often tuned in C and F, though instruments in D, G, and Eb were not uncommon historically and are still found today, especially the tenor in D, known as a voice flute. The size most frequently used in classroom instruction is the soprano in C (in Britain also known as the descant) which has a lowest note of c'. Above this are the sopranino in F and the gar klein Flötlein ("really small flute") or "garklein" in C, with a lowest note of c". An experimental 'piccolino' has also been produced in f", but the garklein is already too small for adult-sized fingers to play easily. Below the soprano are the alto in F (in Britain also known as the treble), tenor in C, and bass in F. Lower instruments in C and F also exist: bass in C (in Britain also known as the great bass), contrabass in F, subcontrabass in C, and sub-subcontrabass or octo-contrabass in F, but these are more rare. They are also difficult to handle: the contrabass in F is about 2 meters tall. The soprano and the alto are the most common solo instruments in the recorder family.

Today, high-quality recorders are made from a range of different hardwoods, such as oiled pear wood, rosewood or boxwood with a fipple of redcedar wood. However, many recorders are made of plastic, which is cheaper, is resistant to damage from condensation, and does not require re-oiling. While higher-end professional instruments are almost always wooden, many plastic recorders currently being produced are equal to or better than lower-end wooden instruments. Beginners' instruments, the sort usually found in children's ensembles, are also made of plastic and can be purchased quite cheaply.

Most modern recorders are based on instruments from the baroque period, although some specialist makers produce replicas of the earlier renaissance style of instrument. These latter instruments have a wider, less tapered bore and typically possess a loud and strident tone.

The Social Recorder

The recorder is a very social instrument. Many amateurs prefer to play in large groups or in one-to-a-part chamber groups, and there is a wide variety of music for such groupings including a lot of modern works. Groups of different sized instruments help to compensate for the limited note range.

One of the most interesting developments over the last 30 years has been the development of recorder orchestras. They can have up to 60, or more, players and use up to 8 or 9 sizes of instrument. In addition to arrangements a lot of new music, including symphonies, have been written. There are recorder orchestras in Germany, Holland, Japan, The United States and in the UK which has about 8 or 9 including a National Youth Recorder Orchestra.