Meet the Recorder
Recorders date back to the Middle Ages in Europe.
Take a look
at a world map and
see if you can find Europe at
The Middle
Ages (or medieval period)
lasted until about 1400.
You might know this as about
the time
of the legendary Robin Hood.
You can learn about and hear
some interesting medieval instruments
at the Guide to Medieval and Renaissance
Instruments,
but don't forget to
By the 16th century,
a family of recorders had been
developed
from treble (high) to bass
(low).
Take a look at the family of
recorders
from the Renaissance Consort
here.
Recorder
music was an important part of the Renaissance period.
Renaissance means
"rebirth."
This was a time of many new ideas to be born.
Michelangelo
was an important artist of this time.
You may have learned about his
beautiful paintings
on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel in Rome.
This is also
about the time the
first printing press was invented--
Can you imagine a time
when there weren't computers
or even typewriters???
Before the printing press, books were hand written,
so there weren't very many.
Can you imagine no books.........?
The Great
Wall of China was built and
Columbus made his voyage to America at this time.
Learn about
the recorder and
other instruments of this period:
Wind Instruments of the Renaissance
In the 1500s
and 1600s,
the recorder was used in orchestras.
Shakespeare
referred to the recorder
in some of his plays.
See the Friends' Recorder Consort in costumes
from the time of Shakespeare
Wealthy households in
Shakespeare's time had
"chests" or "nests" of 5 to 25 recorders.
See and hear
the recorder and other Renaissance instruments
at the
Renaissance Consort.
In the middle
1500s, the recorder was improved
by the same man who invented the oboe and bassoon, Jean
Hotteterre.
He designed the recorder in three pieces so it could be tuned easily.
His instrument was called:
flutea bec
(mouthpiece flute)
flute douce (sweet flute) in France
flauto dolce in Italy
Block-flote in Germany
During the
Baroque period (1600-1750),
Bach, Handel, and Telemann wrote music for the recorder.
Bach gave the recorder
important soloes in some of his cantatas
and in the Brandenburg
Concertos No. 2 and 4.
Listen to some Bach music at:
Makoyan's Classical and Recorder MIDI
After about 1750, recorders were no longer important.
They almost
disappeared except in some areas of Spain and France.
A relative of
the recorder was a three-hole pipe
played by the pipe-and-drummer at village dances.
He played the
pipe with his left hand
while playing the drum with his
right hand.
Could you do that?
See a picture and learn about this kind of recorder at txistuaz
Learn about a
Norwegian recorder
at the Recorder Player's Page
In the 20th century, recorders came back to life.
An Englishman, Arnold Dolmetsch
became interested
in playing old music on
original instruments.
He began making recorders.
Many people began to play them,
schools started classes,
and recorder societies have
been formed.
See and
hear students playing in the
Blythe Bridge Recorder Festival,
United Kingdom
Modern
composers have written music for the recorder.
Music lovers even have arranged recorder music
to publish on the Internet.
You can
listen to more beautiful recorder music
at Makoyan's Classical Guitar and MIDI
Top
Other related sites:
Mr.
Dowling's Renaissance Page
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.
Page
Created: 10/25/00
Last Update: 07/20/03