Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-01-31 19:58
Sandra -
I play as much recorder as I do clarinet -- sometimes more. A recorder depends on the voicing rather than a reed and embouchure, so the quality of the instrument is much more important for recorder than it is for clarinet. With a good mouthpiece, an experienced clarinetist can sound good on almost any instrument, but not even the best player can sound good on a lousy recorder.
The instrument to start with is the alto (in F -- pitched halfway between a flute and a piccolo). It's the great solo instrument. Kids start with soprano, but only because they have small hands. Almost all the best solo music is for alto.
With all respect to Hiroshi, diz and Robert, for a serious player, no machine-made recorder is good enough. Skip over Moeck, Mollenhauer, etc. and go to artist makers who do most of their work by hand.
I strongly advise you to start (rather than end up) with the von Huene Workshop, http://www.vonhuene.com/ . They stock Moeck, Mollenhauer and various other machine-makde recorders at good prices, but you need their own wonderful, fairly expensive instruments. Their basic "Rippert" baroque alto recorder at A=440 is $1,300, and it's worth every penny. I have seven of their recorders, from soprano through great bass, and each is a joy to play. An alternative is an alto from Tom Prescott http://www.prescottworkshop.com/ or Jean-Luc Boudreau http://www.boudreau-flutes.ca/ . I recently got a Boudreau alto that I like very much, and Tom is a great maker.
Don't be deceived, by the way, by the claim that the Moeck Rottenburg recorders were "designed by von Huene." There's simply no comparison.
If you want to play solos or trio sonatas with excellent players, you will need an alto at A=415, a half step below modern pitch. There's a lot of difference between 440 and 415, and except for Michala Petri, all professional players work at 415. There are many fine makers of altos at 415. Probably the place to start is von Huene's Stanesby model at $1,700, which has a strong voice and plays well in all registers. I played several of them at the von Huene workshop recently, and all were excellent.
If you're VERY serious, you'll want different instruments for music of different nations, since the tessitura and the tone colors are different.
German music (Bach, Telemann) call for a bright-voiced recorder that plays easily up high, such as those made by the same Denner family that made the first clarinets. Von Huene makes an excellent Denner copy at $1,700. Tom Prescott makes an equally fine one at $1,695, and Boudreau makes good ones, too. My Denner was made by Michael Grinter in Australia http://www.castlemaine.net.au/~grinter/recorder.htm , but he has a five-year waiting list. The late Frederick Morgan was a great maker, but you have to find someone willing to sell one of his instruments, which doesn't happen often, and Morgan was an intuitive maker who produced some duds.
French music calls for a dark, creamy sound, strong in the low register. French pitch was A=392, a full step below modern pitch. Although it's not listed on the site, von Huene makes a wonderful Shearer copy at 392, at around $2,000. I have a Prescott Bressan copy that I love. His price is $1,695, with "corps de rechange" (interchangeable center joints) to permit playing at 415 or other pitches, at $425 each. I've never played Grinter's Bressan copy, but people I trust have nothing but praise for them. I recently played a gorgeous 392 Bizey copy at Boudreau's workshop.
To do serious recorder consort playing, you'll need a soprano (in C -- same pitch as a piccolo), an alto (in F), a tenor (in C -- same pitch as a flute) and a bass (in F), all at A=440.
Baroque sopranos are too shrill -- even von Huene's. The instrument to start with is their Ganassi model, which is a transitional instrument with the full baroque range but a tolerable sound and plenty of power at the bottom end. The one-piece model is $700, but go for the two-piece at $1,000. Prescott also makes a fine Ganassi soprano.
For an alto, get a von Huene Rippert, a Prescott or a Boudreau, which you can also use for solo playing. The next step is a Ganassi/transitional alto from von Huene or Prescott. (I have a wonderful Prescott, and von Huene has recently made a significant improvement in their transitional alto.)
For a tenor, it's von Huene, and maybe Prescott, period. Nothing else is even close. No machine-made tenor is even borderline acceptable. Grit your teeth, get on the waiting list and save up the $2,100 or so they get for it. You'll use it for the rest of your life, getting joy from it every time you pick it up.
Bass is a problem. Von Huene made a single run years ago that was incomparable, but you can't get one. The von Huene workshop sells some usable basses by Moeck and Yamaha -- strong but unrefined -- not great, but the best available. You should buy through them, though, since the quality is variable, and they will send you a good one. (They're very good about sending instruments out on approval.)
Eventually you will want a great-bass (in C). I even have a contrabass (in F). Moeck, Yamaha or Paetzold are the ones to try. Get them through von Huene.
For VERY serious consort playing, you'll need renaissance recorders. I prefer Tom Prescott's instruments, but they use a different set of fingerings and are in mean-tone tuning. The von Huene renaissance recorders are excellent, but I prefer Prescott's. For the EXTREMELY serious, there's Bob Marvin, who makes entire consorts pitched at A=460.
Eventually, you will want a sixth flute (soprano in D), a fourth flute (soprano in Bb) (Boudreau makes an excellent one) and a voice flute (tenor in D) (all, of course, at 415). Von Huene makes a marvelous Terton soprano at 415 and a "Loeki" tenor at 415 that may be even better. I played one at his workshop last December that was as good a recorder as I've ever touched, but I couldn't justify laying out over $2,000 for a low-pitch tenor. By the time you want these, you will know the players and makers well enough that you can pick for yourself, deciding the model, wood, fingering and tuning you want.
Best regards. When you come to New York, lets do some recorder.
Ken Shaw
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