I have a new interest in wood recorders, especillay the tenor and base recorders. I have read that recorders are fully chromatic. Can some one confirm and tell me if ALL of the members for the recorder family are chromatic ? I know that each member is usually constructed in a particular key, but I am not sure if I will be able to play in all of the keys that I want.
On 2002-11-04 16:28, Carl_M wrote:
I have a new interest in wood recorders, especillay the tenor and base recorders. I have read that recorders are fully chromatic. Can some one confirm and tell me if ALL of the members for the recorder family are chromatic ? … but I am not sure if I will be able to play in all of the keys that I want.
Keyless recorders are fully chromatic. On some tenor and bass recorders the lowest tone hole (which would normally be a doubled hole for the C-sharp or the F-sharp) for the right hand has a key to ease the reach, which removes the chromatic note in between.
Note though that this doesn’t mean recorders are equally easy to play in all keys. They are not bad from about four flats to about three sharps; past that, things get dicey fast.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Thanks for the information James. I took a tour of your website too…nice.
I have a passion for Irish/Scottish slow airs and tunes from the Shetland Isles. The keys I simply must be able to play in are D,C,G,A. Most pieces I can easily transpose to these keys if necessary using software.
Carl,
You may want to also post this query over on the whistle board. There are a lot of recorder tooters over there.
Cheers,
Doc
After a few hours of surfing on the web, I finally fell upon a website for the Recorder Shop. They are at http://www.recordershop.com . It so happens that they are only about 25 minutes drive from me…what luck ! I called them and they answered a number of questions for me. Their shop is open by appointment and so I made one for Saturday. They will be giving me a demonstration of the various models they carry in tenor/bass/great bass. So I hope to get properly educated in the world of recorders this weekend 
Carl,
(oops, lemme try this again)
Carl,
You may also want to check out http://www.vonhuene.com . I had an episode of recorder acquisition disorder a few years ago and dealing with the von Huene Workshop was a pleasure.
On 2002-11-04 16:28, Carl_M wrote:
I have a new interest in wood recorders, especillay the tenor and base recorders.
On 2002-11-04 16:49, peeplj wrote:On some tenor and bass recorders the lowest tone hole (which would normally be a doubled hole for the C-sharp or the F-sharp) for the right hand has a key to ease the reach, which removes the chromatic note in between.
A great many of the newer ones have double keys for this bottom hole. Since 1996 (incidentally, the year I got mine), Yamaha has used a double key on its popular Rotenburg ABS resin tenor recorder. These tenors are good instruments, with a curved windway, and I have no problems with clogging. I also have an ivory-colored Yamaha ABS resin alto, which is not as good as the tenor. It has serious clogging tendencies, and hasn’t got a curved windway.
Other than to say that I prefer a wooden one to the plastic, I’d say the alto recorder would be a good choice. The alto recorder was a popular solo and orchestra instrument. It has a mellow tone, in a useful range, and its finger spacing is more comfortable than most tenors, and thus makes it easier to do fast fingerwork on it.
To ask the inevitable bigotted
question, have you considered
playing these tunes on flutes
or whistles? I confess I
prefer the sound of these
to that of recorders, especially
for the music it seems you
like.
On 2003-02-15 14:38, jim stone wrote:
To ask the inevitable bigotted
question, have you considered
playing these tunes on flutes
or whistles? I confess I
prefer the sound of these
to that of recorders, especially
for the music it seems you
like.
I have, and back again. Tunes on a recorder take on a different sound, and add a new element. Besides, I’d rather listen to an alto recorder than a whistle any day – not so for flute, which reigns supreme
And recorders, as said earlier, are chromatic, which avoids the odd-key problems of the whistle or keyless flute.
Bottom line, of course, they are different instruments entirely and should be appreciated in that way.
Recorders are made in one of two keys: C and F,depending on the pitch (size) of the recorder.
There are three recorders whose bell note is C: Soprano,Tenor and Great Bass.
There are four whose bell note is F: Sopranino, Alto and Bass and Sub-Bass.
Soprano and Alto are the most popular sizes.
I’m going to quote you some prices from the price list of Collins and William Historic Woodwinds of Lakeville,CT (Website http://www.leecollins.com. Email lee@leecollins.com). These are some of the inexpensive ones … just to give you an idea.
SOPRANINO
Adler, Maple $78
SOPRANO
Two piece plastic Zen-On Soprano $12
Three Piece Plastic Zen-On Soprano $24
Moeck Plastic Soprano (Flauto 1) $43
Aura Pearwood Soprano $50
ALTO
Zen-On standard plastic Alto $32
Adler standard Maple Alto $110
TENOR
Adler Pearwood Superbal Tenor $150
Zen-On Maple w/ single low key $285
BASS
Heinrich Pearwood
w/bocal & single key $1325
Zen0n Cherry direct blow $1350
GREAT BASS
Moeck Sycamore Flauto Rondo
Triple Key $2559
SUB-BASS
Moeck Maple Rennaiscance Concert $5615
(Note: Only instrument of
this type listed)
These are the lowest prices for each type.
Most expensive listed for each tupe are Sopranino -$575; Soprano - $1973: Alto - $3252; Tenor - $3500; Bass - $3252’ and Great Bass - 3861.
So you can see there is quite a range and a lot of models in between the two extremes.
Mal
But playing recorder gives
one hairy fingerpads.
Don’t ask me how I know.