Recorder - Name of The Instrument

Name of The Instrument

The instrument has been known by its modern name at least since the 14th century. Grove's Dictionary reports the earliest use of the word 'recorder' was in the household of the Earl of Derby (later to become King Henry IV) in 1388: fistula nomine Recordour. The name originates from the use of the word ricordare especiale, which means "remember" in Italian.

Up to the 18th century, the instrument was called flauto in Italian, the language used in writing music, whereas the instrument we today call the flute was called traverso. This has led to some pieces of music occasionally being mistakenly performed on the flauto traverso (transverse flute) rather than on the recorder.

Today, the recorder is known as flauto dolce in Italian (sweet flute), with equivalents in other languages, such as flauta doce in Portuguese and flauta dulce in Spanish. In those two languages, the name flauta is ambiguous, as it can mean any kind of transverse flutes, a recorder, or different other types of wind blown instruments, like the pan flute and some instruments used by the descendants of native peoples of the Central and South Americas (with varied degrees of influence of European instruments). In French the word flûte is similarly ambiguous (the French translation is "flûte à bec", literally "beaked flute"), and it is also called flauta de pico in Spanish, meaning the same. From the "Block", (fipple plug) in German the instrument is known as Blockflöte, while the modern flute is called Querflöte (literally from flauto traverso), Großeflöte (great flute) or simply Flöte. Naming in Dutch follows the same convention as in German, with blokfluit naming the recorder and dwarsfluit the flute.