Eighteenth century recorder fingerings (and even more so, those a century before) were not standardized and there are several charts from these periods offering different fingerings for particular notes. This is true, but it is not the whole story. You may have learned already that the modern 'English' fingering (sometimes called 'Dolmetsch' fingering because it was the system chosen by Arnold Dolmetsch in Haslemere, Surrey in 1919 when making his first modern reproduction treble/alto) differs from the fingerings used in the eighteenth century. While a huge number of mass-produced instruments may confirm rigidly to a"baroque" or "german" pattern, it's been my experience that the best instruments all have their individual quirks, and flexibility with regard to fingering is simply one of the basic skills of a serious recorder player.īefore examining particular sets of recorder fingerings we should say something about recorder fingerings and, particularly, baroque recorder fingerings. Defining this with any further restrictions would probably soon exclude instruments that are clearly recorders.Īs a player, one of my real joys has been discovering the optimal fingerings for each individual instrument and for the particular music to be played. A recorder would require, minimally, a fipple and - to distinguish it from the whistle family - seven principal fingerholes and a thumbhole as octave register opening. So while, the "baroque" pattern is indeed closer to that observed for most surviving instruments of the late baroque, the definition of the pattern as a standard for all recorders is itself as much a modern innovation as the attempt todefine the "german" fingering as a standard for German school music.įrom an organological viewpoint, the definition of a recorder is quite generous. One should also certainly consider the extended-range "Ganassi" fingerings and note that the last finger hole on one of the surviving "medieval recorders" appears to be a semi- rather than wholetone. At times, for example in surviving renaissance instruments, the pattern appears to be closer to that of "german" fingering at other times, the "baroque" pattern is more prevalent. Further, the historical evidence for recorders, in both surviving instruments and documents, shows a continuously evolving conception of the fingering (along with all other factors - bore and fipple dimensions, range and intonation, etc.). Boehm and Albert system clarinets are even more different from one another than are the so-called "baroque" and "german" recorder fingerings. I suggest some hesitation in defining the instrument by a single set of fingerings. Daniel Wolf, a composer based in Hungary, has some interesting comments on whether 'a fingering system can define what a recorder is'.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |