Recorder - Types of Recorders

Types of Recorders

Recorders are made in a variety of sizes and each has its own register. They are most often tuned in C or F, meaning their lowest note possible is a C or an F. However, instruments in D, B-flat, G, and E-flat were not uncommon historically and are still found today, especially the alto recorder in G, commonly used in Renaissance ensembles, and the tenor recorder in D, which is called a "voice-flute." The table shows the recorders in common use, though the large ones are very rare.

The recorder most often used for solo music is the treble recorder (known as alto in the USA), and when the recorder is specified without further qualification, it is this size that is meant. The descant (known as the soprano in the USA) also has an important repertoire of solo music (not just school music) and there is a little for tenor and bass recorders. Classroom instructors most commonly use the descant. The largest recorders, larger than the bass recorder, are less often used, since they are expensive and their sizes (the contrabass in F is about 2 metres tall) make them hard to handle. An experimental 'piccolino' has also been produced which plays a fourth above the garklein. Although it might be considered that the garklein is already too small for adult-sized fingers to play easily and that the even smaller piccolino is simply not practical, the fact that the holes for each finger are side by side and not in a linear sequence make it quite possible to play.

For recorder ensemble playing, the descant/soprano, treble/alto, tenor and bass are most common – many players can play all four sizes. Great basses and contrabasses are always welcome but are more expensive. The sopranino does not blend as well and is used primarily in recorder orchestras and for concerto playing. The larger recorders have great enough distances between the finger holes that most people's hands can not reach them all. So, instruments larger than the tenor have keys to enable the player to cover the holes or to provide better tonal response; this is also true of the tenor itself, over the last hole, and much more rarely the alto. In addition, the largest recorders are so long that the player cannot simultaneously reach the finger holes with the hands and reach the mouthpiece with the lips. So, instruments larger than the bass (and some bass recorders too) may use a bocal or crook, a thin metal tube, to conduct the player's breath to the windway, or they may be constructed in sections that fold the recorder into a shape that brings the windway back into place.

Today, high-quality recorders are made from a range of hardwoods: maple, pear wood, rosewood, grenadilla, or boxwood with a block of red cedar wood. Plastic recorders are produced in large quantities. Plastics are cheaper and require less maintenance and quality plastic recorders (especially Aulos and Yamaha) are equal to or better than lower-end wooden instruments. Beginners' instruments, the sort usually found in children's ensembles, are plastic and can be purchased quite cheaply.

Most modern recorders are based on instruments from the Baroque period, although some specialist makers produce replicas of the earlier Renaissance style of instrument. These latter instruments have a wider, less tapered bore and typically possess a less reedy, more blending tone more suited to consort playing.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Peter Harlan (de) developed a recorder which allowed for apparently simpler fingering, called the German fingering. A recorder designed for German fingering has a hole five which is smaller than hole four, whereas baroque and neo-baroque recorders have a hole four which is smaller than hole five. The immediate difference in fingering is for F and B♭ which on a neo-baroque instrument must be fingered 0 123 4–67. With German fingering, this is becomes a simpler 0 123 4 – – –. Unfortunately, however, this causes many other chromatic notes to be too badly out of tune to be usable. German fingering became popular in Europe, especially Germany, in the 1930s, but rapidly became obsolete in the 1950s as the recorder began to be treated more seriously and the limitations of German fingering became more widely appreciated. Despite this, many recorder makers continue to produce German fingered instruments today, essentially for beginner use only.

Some newer designs of recorder are now being produced. Larger recorders built like organ pipes with square cross-sections are cheaper than the normal designs if, perhaps, not so elegant. Another area is the development of instruments with a greater dynamic range and more powerful bottom notes. These modern designs make it easier to be heard when playing concerti. Finally, recorders with a downward extension of a semitone are becoming available; such instruments can play a full three octaves in tune. The tenor is especially popular, since its range becomes that of the modern flute; Frans Brüggen has publicly performed such flute works as Density 21.5 by Edgard Varèse on an extended tenor recorder.