Meet the Recorder
Medieval Period--to 1400
Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
The Medieval Recorder--includes earliest known recorder, the Doldrecht recorder from Holland.
Renaissance, 1450-1600
Description of Renaissance Music
Recorder Developments
By 1500s, Jean Hottetere (France) designed a recorder (flutea bec) in three pieces for better tuning
Other names for recorder:
- flute douce (sweet flute) in France
- flauto dolce in Italy
- Block-flote in Germany
By 1600s, the recorder family was developed
World Events
Renaissance as "rebirth"
Michelangelo and Sistine Chapel
Invention of Printing Press
Great Wall of China constructed
Columbus sailed to America
Shakespeare
Baroque (1600-1750)
Charlotte Barber-Condini, BBC 2012 Young Musician Finalist
Maklyan's Classical and Recorder MIDI
Recorder Developments
Composers who included recorder music
- Bach
- Important recorder soloes in some cantatas and Brandenburg Concerti No. 2 and 4
- Handel
- Telemann
World Events
Mayflower to America
Galileo, invention of the telescope
Newton, theory of gravity
Russian Emperor, Peter the Great
Development of the violin
- Antonio Stradivari, important violin maker
After 1750
Recorder Development
Recorders lost importance, nearly disappeared in Spain and France
Folk Recorders:
- Norwegian recorder
- Txistu, 3-holed pipe played while drumming
- Basque Txistu: 2 Melodies
Modern
Recorder Orchestra of New York
Tango for Elise by Canon Recorder Ensemble
Recorder Developments
Renewed interest in recorders
Arnold Dolmetsch, recorder maker
Recorders in societies and school music
World Woodwinds/Historical
Neanderthal Flute, nearly 80,000 years old
Bone Flutes 32,000 years old (paleolithic period)
Chinese flutes, 9000 years old
Pan-flute, Hawaii
References:
Apple, Willi (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia (1997). Grolier Interactive Inc.
Lloyd, Norman (1968). The Golden Encyclopedia of Music. New York: Golden Press.