Quarter-tones
On Baroque Blockflutes (Recorders)

My alto and soprano recorders have long been my closest friends, along with the Naï (= Egyptian Flute). A rather long while ago, I managed to develop a set of added fingerings for the recorder, enabling me to play many of the quarter-tones needed for my/our Egyptian music. For certain pieces of music, the recorder is even a better choice than the Naï; this is particularly the case when the set of (nomally modal) modulations involve more than two quarter-tones. So, whereas any given size of the Naï can only play, say B-hb/E-hb or B-hb/F-h# or E-hb/A-hb ...etc., one and the same size of the recorder can play, and mix, all of those (as shown in the table below).

     The following fingerings are all playable on any baroque recorder. The models I use are Yamaha and Suzuki, but I know that many of the young people I tutored along the years use other makes and models with equal success.

Fingerings Table
Bass
~ 
Alto
~
Sopranino		 Tenor
~
Soprano		   Bass
~
Alto
~
Sopranino		 Tenor
~
Soprano
Low A half-flat
A half-flat		 Low E half-flat
E half-flat		 Middle G half-flat
G half-flat		 Middle D half-flat
D half-flat
Back Hole
Closed
Half-closed
Open
 



 




 
Low B half-flat
B half-flat		 Low F half-sharp
F half-sharp		 High A half-flat
A half-flat		 High E half-flat
E half-flat
Middle D half-flat
D half-flat		 Low A half-flat
A half-flat		 High B half-flat
B half-flat		 High F half-sharp
F half-sharp


Middle E half-flat
E half-flat		 Middle B half-flat
B half-flat		 High E half-flat
E half-flat		 High B half-flat
B half-flat
Middle F half-sharp
F half-sharp		 Middle C half-sharp
C half-sharp
 
 
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