I have been reading with interest some of the recent posts on recorder music - perhaps with too much interest as I have just impulsively bought a Moeck Student recorder on Ebay for £2 more than it would have cost in the shops! Very nice it is too, though (by comparison to my screechy infant school recorder of 30 years ago).

I have been particularly interested to read about the potential for chamber music recorder groups; My niece (aged 8) is coming to stay with my parents for a week over summer, and apparently she's quite keen on recorder. Her dad plays clarinet, and her mum and my wife both learnt recorder to a basic level at school. My daughter adores my niece and is likely to be up for "having a go" once she hears my niece playing.

I am beginning to realise my family string quartet hopes are a fairly long term project- I had a vague notion of conglomerating into some kind of chamber group with my sister's family but couldn't quite see the possibilities. It just strikes me that a recorder group might be do-able.

I would really welcome any thoughts on: beginner repertoire - is there a recommended website for recorder chamber music? Is there a period of music which suits recorder best? Is it best to go for all descant recorders or a range of voices? any other thoughts on the do-ability of recorder chamber music.

Many thanks

No, no, definitely NOT all descants! At the very least you should have trebles as well, for some variety of tone-colour. If there are, say, 6 of you, you'll definitely be wanting/needing to play pieces with tenor and bass parts too.

As for music, there's quite a lot published for recorder consorts - I'd suggest looking for suitable material in your local music shop. There are also loads of home-publishing ventures - Oriel Library, Paul Clark's 'The Clark Collection' and Alex Ayre Music Services to mention a few.

Good luck!

thanks jo clarinet!

those leads should keep me quiet for a little while (but probably won't!)

Is there an equivalent in recorder playing of a string quartet? Eg. is the tenor recorder in the same range as the viola, and the bass in the same range as the cello? Could you play simple string quartet music on two descants, a tenor and a bass? If so, where would the treble fit in? Is the whole style of music written for strings (eg easy Handel arrangements for string quartet like water music) ill fitted to the sound of the recorder?

I'm very much a novice at this, but the main problem I can see with string quartet music is the range of the instruments; recorders have a two-octave range or thereabouts. What I think would work, though, is vocal SATB music (or any combination of those voices). Perhaps one of the more experienced consort players will correct me if I'm wrong.

good thinking Andante in C

The Rosenberg Recorder Consort books are good with music for all standards and John Pitts' Recorder from the Beginning provides some good duets/trios to introduce ensemble playing to youngsters. Arranging music written for other instruments is not always straight forward as the recorder family's range needs to be considered - ie remember that the descant sounds an octave higher than written as does the bass whereas the tenor and alto play at pitch. This is why I always go for music written by or arranged by people who actually play and understand the instrument!

QUOTE (zoda @ Apr 9 2005, 08:43 PM)

Is there an equivalent in recorder playing of a string quartet?  Eg. is the tenor recorder in the same range as the viola,  and the bass in the same range as the cello?  Could you play simple string quartet music on two descants, a tenor and a bass?  If so,  where would the treble fit in?  Is the whole style of music written for strings (eg easy Handel arrangements for string quartet like water music) ill fitted to the sound of the recorder?

Simple string quartet music in first position would almost fit on two trebles, one tenor and one great bass in C. It would then sound an octave higher than the original. Experienced musicians might cope with the original parts, but that would involve all of them reading an octave higher and the lower players would have to cope with alto and bass clef, so beginner recorder players would need adapted parts. OTOH, no beginner is likely to be happy with a great bass.

Quite a lot of early music (1400-1650) has a fairly limited range and some of what doesn't (e.g. viol fantasias) is published in arrangements that can be played on recorders. A good place to start might be the Oriel Library, founded by Theo Wyatt and run since 1995 by his daughter. The link from this page to recorder publications puzzles me slightly, because in Theo's time there were hundreds of titles, including well-chosen arrangements of string music, most of which I cannot find on the web site. There are several other publishers specialising in music for recorder consort.

There is coniderable mileage in the idea of playing vocal music. On Saturday I played in recorder versions of three three-part ballets by Thomas Weelkes, including the well-known "Strike it up, tabor"; but the most appropriate music for vocal ensemble is probably late 16th C and early 17th C canzonas, notably those written for St Mark's, Venice, by its organists and maestri di capella, including the two Gabrielis.

I'm glad I wasn't too far off the track with vocal music, as I'm sure one of the pieces I played at the SRP meeting I went to recently was written for voices.

I'd thought through the descant and tenor lines, which would work, but the alto part would need putting up an octave. As I haven't played a bass recorder, would a bass line work as written in most cases?

(Just to clarify my earlier post, I thought I had said I was a novice in recorder consort playing, not in playing the recorder itself. That's what I meant to say )

hey, thanks guys.

I might order the Purcell incidental music from Dioclesian for recorder quartet - the combination of somebody I've heard off, and the words "easy" and "genius" being used to describe the same music seems quite tempting.
I suppose I'd better go and see what raspy old recorders are lying around on ebay first though.

I didn't know there was a composer called "Scheidt" - I don't think he would have pulled the crowds in in Manchester.

Ahhhh SCHEIDT. I remember playing the Scheidt Fantasia on Four Subjects for recorders with much fondness (not) during a tutoring session with the Dolmetsch Consort. I held my hand up to say I was having difficulty recognising the 4 subjects.....only for the tutor to kindly point out each one had a Roman numeral over the notes when each subject appeared. Like major cringe/humiliation (all the things I excel at naturally really)......I tell you, it really DID sound like a load of Scheidt too!

(Bagpuss yawns loudly and settles back down to sleep .... x)

Well, they're all here!

My brother in law brought a book of beginner duets by John Pitts which he plays with his daughter, but he and I ended up playing them in my parents' hallway long after my daughter and niece had given up and gone outside to play! My dad kept walking past with a pained look on his face. Having not played for nearly 30 years it was weird being able to muddle on (or not) pretty much where I left off. There's a really nice piece which has got a name I don't recognise, but it's that piece that goes "Wise men say, only fools rush in, but I can't help falling in love with you".

there's a John Pitts "from the beginning" book for trios and and one for quartets and I'm seriously tempted. I reckon recorder chamber music must be one of the most accessible, doable things given the mismatch you must often get between people's first choice instruments. For instance if I got the recorders in I'm sure I could play some of this stuff with my ex-flute playing bassoon and viola playing friends.

The recorder has got to be one of the most sociable of instruments. Although I haven't published any of my "Beginner" arrangements, I do have a catalogue of recorder chamber music (some of it with piano for school use) of varying degrees of difficulty - even a couple of pieces of Scheidt!

Willobie

Hi Willobie!

just dipped in to find 9 pages of posts, and shooting off again, but thanks for your post - I'm going to have a look at your website when I get a moment.

I got the book of trios yesterday - £4.95. They look fun. However I had a go on a tenor recorder in a music shop and was struck by how insubstantial the sound was for the fifty squid it cost. May well go for the trios for treble and two descants.

I believe Dolmetsch has published some consort music, as well.

I'm a fan of Dolmetsch, I constantly refer to the online method