recorder (instrument)

The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as ''internal duct flutes'': flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition.

Recorders are made in various sizes with names and compasses roughly corresponding to various vocal ranges. The sizes most commonly in use today are the soprano (also known as descant, lowest note C₅), alto (also known as treble, lowest note F₄), tenor (lowest note C₄), and bass (lowest note F₃). Recorders were traditionally constructed from wood or ivory. Modern professional instruments are almost invariably of wood, often boxwood; student and scholastic recorders are commonly of molded plastic. The recorders' internal and external proportions vary, but the bore is generally reverse conical (i.e. tapering towards the foot) to cylindrical, and all recorder fingering systems make extensive use of forked fingerings.

The recorder is first documented in Europe in the Middle Ages, and continued to enjoy wide popularity in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, but was little used in the Classical and Romantic periods. It was revived in the 20th century as part of the historically informed performance movement, and became a popular amateur and educational instrument. Composers who have written for the recorder include Monteverdi, Lully, Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Bach, Hindemith, and Berio. There are many professional recorder players who demonstrate the full solo range of the instrument, and a large community of amateurs.For example, Eve O'Kelly describes how Frans Brüggen "achieved worldwide recognition as a recorder virtuoso" in her book ''The Recorder Today'', Cambridge University Press, 1990. . p. 62

The sound of the recorder is often described as clear and sweet, and has historically been associated with birds and shepherds. It is notable for its quick response and its corresponding ability to produce a wide variety of articulations. This ability, coupled with its open finger holes, allow it to produce a wide variety of tone colors and special effects. Acoustically, its tone is relatively pure and, when the edge is positioned in the center of the airjet, odd harmonics predominate in its sound (when the edge is decidedly off-center, an even distribution of harmonics occurs).

Name

The instrument has been known by its modern English name at least since the 14th century. David Lasocki reports the earliest use of "recorder" in the household accounts of the Earl of Derby (later King Henry IV) in 1388, which register (one pipe called 'Recordour').David Lasocki, "Recorder", §I. 1: Nomenclature, ''Grove Music Online'', edited by Deane Root, Oxford Music Online .

By the 15th century, the name had appeared in English literature. The earliest references are in John Lydgate's Temple of Glas ( 1430): ''.'' ('These little shepherds fluting all day long ... on these small recorders, on flutes.') and in Lydgate's Fall of Princes ( 1431–1438): '', / .'' ('Pan, god of Nature, with his pipes seven, / of recorders found first the melodies.')

Etymology

The instrument name ''recorder'' derives from the Latin (to call to mind, remember, recollect), by way of Middle French (before 1349; to remember, to learn by heart, repeat, relate, recite, play music) and its derivative MFr ( 1395; one who retells, a minstrel). The association between the various, seemingly disparate, meanings of ''recorder'' can be attributed to the role of the medieval '' jongleur'' in learning poems by heart and later reciting them, sometimes with musical accompaniment.

The English verb ''record'' (from Middle French , early 13th century) meant "to learn by heart, to commit to memory, to go over in one's mind, to recite", but it was not used in English to refer to playing music until the 16th century, when it gained the meaning "silently practicing a tune" or "sing or render in song" (both almost exclusively referring to songbirds), long after the recorder had been named. Thus, the recorder cannot have been named after the sound of birds. The name of the instrument is also uniquely English: in Middle French there is no equivalent noun sense of referring to a musical instrument.

Partridge indicates that the use of the instrument by led to its association with the verb: the minstrel's action, a recorder the minstrel's tool. The reason this instrument is known as the recorder, but not one of the other instruments played by the , is uncertain.

''Flute'' and ''recorder''

The introduction of the Baroque recorder to England by a group of French professionals in 1673 popularized the French name for the instrument, , or simply , a name previously (and subsequently) reserved for the transverse instrument. Until about 1695, the names ''recorder'' and ''flute'' overlapped, but from 1673 to the late 1720s in England, the word ''flute'' always meant recorder. In the 1720s, as the transverse flute overtook the recorder in popularity, English adopted the convention already present in other European languages of qualifying the word ''flute'', calling the recorder variously the "common flute", "common English-flute", or simply "English flute" while the transverse instrument was distinguished as the "German flute" or simply "flute". Until at least 1765, some writers still used ''flute'' to mean recorder.

Other languages

Until the mid 18th century, musical scores written in Italian refer to the instrument as , whereas the transverse instrument was called . This distinction, like the English switch from ''recorder'' to ''flute'', has caused confusion among modern editors, writers and performers.

Indeed, in most European languages, the first term for the recorder was the word for flute alone. In the present day, cognates of the word ''flute'', when used without qualifiers, remain ambiguous and may refer to either the recorder, the modern concert flute, or other non-western flutes. Starting in the 1530s, these languages began to add qualifiers to specify this particular flute.

Nomenclature

Since the 15th century, a variety of sizes of recorder have been documented, but a consistent terminology and notation for the different sizes was not formulated until the 20th century.

Modern recorders

Today, recorder sizes are named after the different vocal ranges. This is not, however, a reflection of sounding pitch, and serves primarily to denote the pitch relationships between the different instruments. Groups of recorders played together are referred to as "consorts". Recorders are also often referred to by their lowest sounding note: "recorder in F" refers to a recorder with lowest note F, in any octave.

The table in this section shows the standard names of modern recorders in F and C and their respective ranges. Music composed after the modern revival of the recorder most frequently uses soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders, although sopranino and great bass are also fairly common. Consorts of recorders are often referred to using the terminology of organ registers: 8′ (8 foot) pitch referring to a consort sounding as written, 4′ pitch a consort sounding an octave above written, and 16′ a consort sounding an octave below written. The combination of these consorts is also possible.

As a rule of thumb, the tessitura of a baroque recorder lies approximately one octave above the tessitura of the human voice type after which it is named. For example, the tessitura of a soprano voice is roughly C₄–C₆, while the tessitura of a soprano recorder is C₅–C₇.

Modern variations include standard British terminology, due to Arnold Dolmetsch, which refers to the recorder in C₅ (soprano) as the descant and the recorder in F₄ (alto) as the treble. As conventions and instruments vary, especially for larger and more uncommon instruments, it is often practical to state the recorder's lowest note along with its name to avoid confusion.

Notation

Modern recorder parts are notated in the key they sound in. Parts for alto, tenor and contrabass recorders are notated at pitch, while parts for sopranino, soprano, bass, and great bass are typically notated an octave below their sounding pitch. As a result, soprano and tenor recorders are notated identically; alto and sopranino are notated identically; and bass and contrabass recorders are notated identically. Octave clefs may be used to indicate the sounding pitch, but usage is inconsistent.

Rare sizes and notations include the garklein, which may be notated two octaves below its sounding pitch, and the sub-contrabass, which may be notated an octave above its sounding pitch.

Historical recorders

The earliest known document mentioning "a pipe called Recordour" dates from 1388.
Historically, recorders were used to play vocal music and parts written for other instruments, or for a general instrument. As a result, it was frequently the performers' responsibility to read parts not specifically intended for the instrument and to choose appropriate instruments. When such consorts consisted only of recorders, the pitch relationships between the parts were typically preserved, but when recorders were combined with other instruments, octave discrepancies were often ignored.

Recorder consorts in the 16th century were tuned in fifths and only occasionally employed tuning by octaves as seen in the modern C, F recorder consort. This means that consorts could be composed of instruments nominally in B, F, C, G, D, A and even E, although typically only three or four distinct sizes were used simultaneously. To use modern terminology, these recorders were treated as transposing instruments: consorts would be read identically to a consort made up of F₃, C₄, and G