History of the Recorder

The Recorder is a very old woodwind instrument that is from the ancient family called the internal duct flutes. In many European languages, the word for recorder was the same as the word for the flute. It has been traced back through paintings to as early as the 1300s. There are two stories of the earliest existing recorders, one found in the moat of a castle in Dordrecht, Holland and the other found in Gottingen Germany, both dated to the early 14th Century.

14th - 16th Century

During the Renaissance period, musical instruments were principally used in dance music and as accompaniment for voices. Played by kings and queens and country gentlemen as well as by the common man. No king it was said to be without their set of recorders, King Henry VIII of England was said to own a considerable collection of recorders and he composed music for the instrument.

It was used by major composers of the day (such as Bach, Purcell, Telemann, Vivaldi and Handel), and featured in the plays of Shakespeare, the recorder flourished. It was common to have groups of recorders of different sizes (known as consorts) to play together. These Renaissance recorders had a limited ranged of 1 1/2 octaves but produced a large sound and blended well together.

17th Century

The recorder reached a height in popularity during the 16th and 17th centuries when it became known as the ‘English Flute’. Several changes in the construction of Recorder took place in the seventeenth century, resulting in the type of instrument generally referred to as the Baroque Recorder which first appeared in France. It was narrower than the renaissance recorder with a greater musical range and a standardized pitch.

The Baroque recorder were constructed in three parts called joints: the head, middle and foot. The middle section had 7 finger-holes while the foot had only one. The innovations allowed Baroque Recorders to possess a tone which was regarded as "sweeter" than that of the earlier Renaissance instruments. This was achieved at the expense of a reduction in volume, particularly in the lowest notes, and a slightly reduced range.

18th Century

The flute was louder and had greater control over its pitch and tone whilst the recorder was seen to have a limited range of musical expression. During this time the orchestra grew larger and the recorder was not able to play loud enough to be heard. The recorder’s popularity declined.By the late 1700s, the popularity of the recorder declined, and many composers and instrumentalists began to favor the flute over the recorder.

20th Century

The Recorder was revived during the turn of the 20th century by a variety of different musical styles ranging from the avant-garde and theatrical to minimalist and microtonal. This happened mainly in the UK and Germany. Instrument makers started to make Recorders again and the techniques for playing them were rediscovered. It started being used to play medieval, renaissance and baroque music again. In Germany, the adoption of the Recorder by the Youth Movement as an instrument for playing folk tunes led to millions of Recorders being produced in the 1930s. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of quality Recorders available and of people able to play them.

During the 1900s, the Recorder began to regain some popularity among classical composers, Jazz, pop and rock musicians. Artists including The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin all featured the sounds of the Recorder in live performances and on albums. New techniques were developed to allow additional sonic possibilities from the Recorder, making the instrument more popular among experimental composers.