Re: "I agree I mean you can get a decent recorder for $15 in any music shop where as you can a decent flute for $700. Hmmm......bit of a diffenerence [sic].

Leprachaun"

You can get an INdecent soprano recorder for $15; you can`t get a reasonably good one for $15. Furthermore, a good alto recorder will cost considerably more than a good soprano recorder. A good tenor recorder will cost considerably more than a good alto recorder. A good bass recorder is a major investment.

A recorder, by the way, is a KIND of flute. Another name for the recorder is fipple flute.

Yes, there are alto and bass Boehm transverse flutes, but these are relatively more rare than alto, tenor, and bass recorders. The recorder has always been a consort instrument and remains one to this day.

Have any of you guys evr played in a quartet with the descant and treble? Well i have and i`m in a band with the recorder. It sound fantastic and i get payed to play,
P.S. I love the trombone and the flute but i still prefer recorder and cello.

Ok this post if 4 stef. I am 18 and i can play all the types of recorder. Don`t make out like theyre for babies ok?

Replying to Skydancer, u r absolutely right! If you can play an intrument and notes come out, it`s a "proper" instrument. Also half the people here dont know anything about recorder and need to shrink the size of theyre big heads and get used to the fact that they might not like someone else`s music.

My, what a lot of heat this subject generated! An interesting piece of information - there is (or was when I lived there) a recorder orchestra in Chicago. You had to be pretty good to get into it, and they played fantastic things. Telemann wrote a lot of music for the recorder, as did Henry VIII (he was batty about the recorder and recorder music). Many other composers have written for the recorder.

The reason the recorder is chosen for pupils learning music in schools is not only the price of the instrument but the fact that it doesn`t take a lot of wind to blow. Thus students can concentrate on learning to read music, learning fingerings, etc., rather than trying to get up the wind to blow a bigger instrument.

Re: "An interesting piece of information - there is (or was when I lived there) a recorder orchestra in Chicago."

How many members? Pretty much all reputable music schools and conservatories have university level recorder consorts.

Re: "Telemann wrote a lot of music for the recorder, as did Henry VIII (he was batty about the recorder and recorder music). Many other composers have written for the recorder."

Including J.S. Bach, of course, but also including modern composers such as Ned Rorem.

Re: "The reason the recorder is chosen for pupils learning music in schools...."

And this no doubt is the thing that confuses a lot of people. The recorder CAN be useful in early (in both senses--never mind) music instruction, but it`s still intrinsically a serious instrument with an illustrious past and a viable future.

The only reason the recorder is no longer used in bands and orchestras is that the tone is too quiet to be of use; and it does not have a very wide range. Even the quietest of modern wind instruments drowns it out. The fact that it is simplest of the wind instruments to play only means that one can use it for things which are more complex than what can be accomplished on another instrument. Once a certain proficiency is acheived, the style and spirit of someone`s performance is of greater importance than the technical difficulty of the piece of music.

During the Renaissance, when chamber music was the norm, the recorder enjoyed great popularity. The quiet tone didn`t matter, and it was perfect for both ballads and formal music. In addition, when sound amplification was unknown, the recorder was perfect for accompanying singers, especially when those singers were children, with softer voices than that of a fully-trained adult.

That historical fame is the reason I`m learning to play the recorder. Many people who are interested in playing historical music, especially, as I said, that composed during the Renaissance, will learn so-called "substandard" instruments such as the recorder or the ocarina. When properly used, these instruments have their own unique beauty.

Re: "[The recorder] does not have a very wide range."

It has approximately the range of an orchestral trumpet (Nota bene: I`m not talking Maynard Ferguson here).

Re: "During the Renaissance, when chamber music was the norm, the recorder enjoyed great popularity."

Also during the Baroque era.

Re: "Many people who are interested in playing historical music, especially, as I said, that composed during the Renaissance, will learn so-called `substandard` instruments such as the recorder or the ocarina."

Please. I really don`t think the recorder deserves to be lumped in with the ocarina. It is much more reasonable to associate it with the harpsichord and lute, neither of which are "substandard" and both of which were revived in the twentieth-century.

That`s why I put "substandard" in quotation marks... I don`t believe it is, myself.

If you ever heard someone play the ocarina well, you`ll know it sounds downright beautiful; it`s just not well-known.

Re: "If you ever heard someone play the ocarina well, you`ll know it sounds downright beautiful; it`s just not well-known."

I actually own an ocarina (and a few diatonic harmonicas and a Jew`s harp). Whether it can sound beautiful or not is beside the point. It does not have a chromatic compass. It does not have a classical performance tradition. To compare it to the recorder is to insult the recorder.

`kay. I can agree with that.

well i hope you don`t mind but i am now going to start to have a little rant of my own. just because the recorder is a little bit how can i put this? over-shadowed by your other `proper` instrumemnts it does not mean that it is crap. i have been playing the reorder for years and years. at the moment i am 13 and i am making plans to take grade 8 AND PASS IT.

as for you lepricorn or however you spell it, go shag a tree ok?

ps. don`t bother asking for this to be removed cos i really don`t care. ur posts are jsut as insulting and dream crushing to me.

pps. james, learn how to spell trombone is one word

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina.

The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple. It is distinguished from other members of the family by having holes for seven fingers.The bore of the recorder can be cylindrical or tapered in various ways.

The recorder was popular from mediaeval times but declined in the eighteenth century in favour of orchestral woodwind instruments, such as the flute and possibly the clarinet, which have greater chromatic range and louder volume.

During its heyday, the recorder was traditionally associated with birds, shepherds, miraculous events, funerals, marriages and amorous scenes. Images of recorders can be found in literature and artwork associated with all these. Purcell, Bach, Telemann and Vivaldi used the recorder to suggest shepherds and birds, and the pattern continued into the 20th Century.

The recorder was revived in the twentieth century, partly in the pursuit of authentic performance of early music, but also because of its suitability as a simple instrument for teaching music and its appeal to amateur players. Today, it is often thought of as a child's instrument, but there are many excellent virtuostic players who can demonstrate the instrument's full potential as a solo instrument. The sound of the recorder is remarkably clear and sweet, partly because of the lack of upper harmonics in the sound.

if people think recorders sound bad then thats just cos they cen't play them. i'm 15 and am playing at grade 6 and personally think they are great. and if anyone says their are no famous players then there are. have they ever heard of the amsterdam stardust quartet, red priest, rachel beckett ect.?

I hve to agree. Without the recorder I would have never learnt the oboe or the piano. It showed me how to read music. I also learnt how practise improved playing. If your going to dis' it go away from 8notes and learn how to sew or sumthing.