Recorder - Makers

Makers

The evolution of the Renaissance recorder into the Baroque instrument is generally attributed to the Hotteterre family, in France. They developed the ideas of a more tapered bore, bringing the finger-holes of the lowermost hand closer together, allowing greater range, and enabling the construction of instruments in several jointed sections. The last innovation allowed more accurate shaping of each section and also offered the player minor tuning adjustments, by slightly pulling out one of the sections to lengthen the instrument.

The French innovations were taken to London by Pierre Bressan, a set of whose instruments survive in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, as do other examples in various American, European and Japanese museums and private collections. Bressan's contemporary, Thomas Stanesby, was born in Derbyshire but became an instrument maker in London. He and his son (Thomas Stanesby junior) were the other important British-based recorder-makers of the early eighteenth century.

In continental Europe, the Denner family of Nuremberg were the most celebrated makers of this period.

Many modern recorders are based on the dimensions and construction of surviving instruments produced by Bressan, the Stanesbys or the Denner family. Well-known larger contemporary makers of recorders include Angel (South Korea), Aulos (Japan), Moeck (Germany), Dolmetsch (England), Mollenhauer (Germany), Fehr, Huber, Küng (Switzerland) and Yamaha (Japan). Smaller workshops include names such as Takeyama, Von Huene, Rohmer, Adrian Brown, Prescott, Marvin, Cranmore, Amman, Beaudin, Blezinger, Boudreau, Netsch, Coomber, Grinter, Ehlert.