Ask any person what was the first musical instrument he played and he will probably say the recorder. The principal type of European flute from the 16th to the mid-18th century was the recorder (an end blown flute). The instrument fell into disuse near the end of the 18th century but enjoyed a revival in the 20th century. It is usually made of wood and had seven finger holes and one thumbhole. Its whistle mouthpiece made it easier to play than the transverse flute and it produced a soft sweet tone. Often the two lowest holes are arranged as a pair, so that when one id left open it produces the semitone above the note made when both are covered. The upper register, at the octave, is obtained by "pinching" the thumbhole. Larger recorders may have one or more keys.
Click the picture above to hear the Hornpipe from Händel's Water Music, played by the Hampshire Recorder Sinfonia (an all-recorder orchestra!).
Four sizes of recorders are now in common use: descant (soprano) in C, treble (alto) in F, tenor in C, and bass in F. The bass has a crook like a bassoon to bring the finger holes within reach. Other less commonly used recorders include the gar klein Flotlien in C, sopranino in F, great bass in C and the contrabass in F. The treble and tenor recorders sound at written pitch; the sopranino and descant, an octave higher; the bass, the music for which is written in the bass staff, also sounds an octave higher. Some modern recorders are made of plastic, but serious performers prefer wooden instruments.
The oldest surviving more or less complete instrument, the Dordrecht Recorder dates from as early as the mid-thirteenth century. By 1500, the recorder had acquired its present form with seven finder holes and a thumbhole and recorders were played in chamber music in families from sopranino to great bass. During the late seventeenth century, the recorder was completely redesigned for use as a solo instrument. The workshop of the Parisian builder Jean Hotteterre introduced construction in three joints, or sections, with a more pronounced downward taper to the bore. Most orchestral music dating from 1600 to 1750 is scored for the recorder, referred to simply as the flute, in contrast to the transverse flute, which displaced the recorder about 1750.
In particular, the recorder enjoys immense popularity in Japan at both amateur and professional level. It was introduced in 1929 when a Japanese graduate of the University of Cambridge brought some recorders home. There is an extensive repertoire of music for the instrument by Japanese composers and a number of Japanese makers of the recorder including Yuzuru Fukushima, Kunito Kinoshita, Yamaha, Zen-On and Jun Tsukada.
The first instruction books for the recorder were written by German theorist Sebastian Virdung (1511) and the Italian instrumentalist Silvestro Ganassi (1535). The Baroque repertory is almost exclusively for treble recorder, notable pieces include the Brandenburg Concertos No. 2 and No. 4 by J.S. Bach and many sonatas by German composer Georg Philipp Telemann.
