Theo Todman's Book Collection (Book-Paper Abstracts)

Introduction

• Henry VIII became King of England in 1509. In our history books we are told of his quarrels with the King of France and the Pope, but in this chapter we are going to discuss a brighter side of his life. The King was a fine musician. Not only did he compose songs and church music, but he was also a skilful performer on several instruments of the time. He could play the virginal, or piano of that day, the lute, the flute, and, more interesting to us, the recorder. He had a great collection of instruments, no less than seventy-six of them being recorders.
• Much of the music in the 16th century consisted of choral singing without accompaniment. There were no orchestras as we know them. The forerunners of the modern violins, called viols, were very popular, and combined in groups, or “chests,” very much like our modern string quartets. In a similar manner the different types of recorders combined to play together, and were known as “consorts of recorders.”
• Nearly one hundred years after Henry VIII ascended the throne, Shakespeare was writing his plays, and in one of them, “Hamlet,” he not only mentions the recorder but brings it on to the stage in full view of the audience, and makes his characters talk about it, its music, its construction, and how it is played. It is worthwhile to read through the whole of Act III, or, better still, to read the play from beginning to end. Shakespeare also mentions the recorder in Act V of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
• During the performance of his plays recorders were used to provide some of the incidental music, particularly when the scene was of a quiet, religious, or mournful type.
• Our third historical figure lived at the time of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London in 1665 and 1666. Perhaps many beautiful recorders, skilfully made by hand in the music-shops of the City, were destroyed. Even if this were the case we know from the writings of this man that such shops were soon going about their business as usual. Samuel Pepys became Clerk of the King’s ships in 1660, and he kept a diary from that year until 1669. It is still in existence and is valuable because of the fine picture it gives of London life and people in the years of the Restoration. Pepys heard some recorders at the theatre and was so pleased with their sweetness that he decided to learn to play one himself. Hence this entry in his diary:—
  April 8, 1668, “To Drumbleby’s, and did there talk a great deal about pipes, and did buy a recorder which I do intend to learn to play on, the sound of it being of all sounds in the world, most pleasing to me.”
• The Instruments of the Consort (Bass, Tenor, Treble and Descant)
• A few years after Pepys had made his entry in his diary, George Frederick Handel was born (1685). There is no need in this chapter to tell you how famous he became as a musician, for you will all be familiar with some of his music, his u Largo,” his “Water Music,” or his “Messiah.” Perhaps you have played some of these in your Percussion work. We are mentioning Handel in this chapter because he was one of the many famous composers who wrote music for the recorder. His Sonatas for the treble recorder are often performed nowadays, but the recorder is no longer used in his oratorios as he intended it to be. In “See the conquering hero comes” from “Judas Maccabeus,” he used the modern flute, but for the quieter “Wise men flattering may deceive you,” he found the recorder more suitable.
• Thus the recorder is connected with four great figures. In 1509 when the first of these ascended the English throne, recorders were becoming very popular in this country and on the continent. They were, of course, played very much before that time, and there is in existence a picture of a recorder player dating back to 1175. The period of their popularity, however, dates roughly from 1500 to 1700, and by the time Handel died, in 1759, interest in them was declining, and a hundred years later they were almost forgotten. The chief reason for their disappearance lies in the growth of the orchestra. The playing together of different types of instruments was almost unknown in the time of Henry VIII, but the modern orchestra was beginning to take shape by the time of Handel. It was found that the fuller tone of the modern flute combined better with other instruments than the quieter tone of the recorder. Thus for more than a century recorders were unknown and people forgot the art of making them. Now they have been rediscovered, and the instrument that you are learning is very similar to those which Henry VIII practised, Pepys admired, Shakespeare described in his plays, and Handel employed in his music. This present revival of recorder making and playing is chiefly due to the work of the late Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch₁, and we owe him a great debt for his research into the music and instruments of olden times.
• Hundreds of years ago, the word “flute” was used of any woodwind instrument. Nowadays it applies only to those instruments in which the sounds are produced by a jet of air hitting a sharp cutting edge. All woodwind instruments which produce notes by the vibration of reeds, such as the oboe, clarinet and bassoon cannot be called flutes. There are two main classes of flutes:—
  1. Transverse flutes
  2. Fipple flutes
• The transverse flute is sometimes known as the modern flute, the lip flute, or the German flute, and it is the one which is used in the modern orchestra. You can always pick it out because it is held across the player’s mouth. It is quite differently constructed from the recorder, having no mouthpiece and only a narrow wind-passage. The player’s lips act as the wind-passage, hence its name the lip flute. Other examples of this type of flute are the piccolo and fife.
• Fipple flutes are those which possess a fipple. A recorder is a fipple flute, and if you examine yours you will see that the wind-passage in the mouthpiece has been made small by a block of wood inserted in the end. This block is called a fipple (See photograph.) If you have made a bamboo pipe, you most prob- ably used a cork for a fipple. The flageolet and the tin whistle are other types of fipple flutes. The chief difference in these instruments lies in the number of finger holes used. The tin whistle has six, the simple bamboo pipe seven, and the recorder eight. It is interesting to note that the word recorder was used only in England. It is derived from an old English verb, “to record,” which meant “to sing like a bird.” On the Continent it was always known as a flute.
• The photograph on page 6 shows you the four principal sizes of the recorder which are played to-day. From right to left you see the descant, treble, tenor and bass instruments. The descant, treble and tenor have a range of more than two octaves, whilst the range of the bass is slightly less. The lowest note of the descant recorder, that is, the note played when all holes are covered, is the C above the middle C on the piano. The lowest note of the treble is the F above middle C. The tenor is one octave lower than the descant and so its lowest note is Middle C. The bass recorder is one octave lower than the treble and its lowest note, therefore, is the F below middle C on the piano. Music for the descant and bass recorders is written an octave lower than it sounds in order to avoid excessive use of “leger” lines.