What is recorder musical instrument

Join Today Donate Now. Your Recorder Community. Connect with us:. About the Recorder Rather than a mere toy, an educational aid, or a simple musical instrument suitable only for amateurs, the recorder is a vehicle for serious musical expression demanding years of dedicated study.

It has a long and interesting history and can lay claim to an extensive and highly varied repertoire spanning eight centuries. It has always enjoyed a particularly rich representation in literature, drama, painting and sculpture. During the fifteenth century instrument makers began producing choirs or consorts of recorders and other instruments in various sizes. As the sixteenth century progressed, consort recorders were constructed with conical bores tapering gently towards the foot.

These recorders have a bold, rich timbre which is even in quality and dynamic level throughout their range. They are ideally suited to the performance of the polyphonic vocal and instrumental music of the late fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries, blending readily and in balance with each other in whole consorts or contrasting on equal terms with other renaissance instruments or voices.

During the late seventeenth century, the recorder was completely redesigned for use as a solo instrument. Where previously it had been made in one or two pieces it was now made in three allowing for more accurate boring. It was given a more pronounced taper than ever before and had a fully chromatic range of two octaves and ultimately two octaves and a fifth. It was voiced to produce an intense, reedy and penetrating tone of considerable carrying power and expressiveness.

Many splendid original examples of such instruments survive today in playing condition. Recorder Home Page: History. Last accessed 25 November At the mouthpiece, a wooden block called a fipple directs the air. Recorders were popular during the Baroque period — , when they formed part of consorts small groups of instruments.

They are made in a range of sizes, from the small, very high-pitched sopranino to the large and low-pitched bass. Most modern recorders have three sections, called joints, that fit together: the head, body, and foot. The treble, or alto, recorder is larger and produces a lower, mellower sound than the descant.

It is pitched in F. The descant, or soprano, recorder is often the first musical instrument children learn to play but it is a solo instrument in its own right. It is pitched in C.