Featured Maker Interview • Kunath

In another Featured Maker interview for Recorder31, we are pleased to speak to a pioneering maker based in Germany.

The Kunath company began life in a small garage with founder Jo Kunath producing Cornamusen. Over the years, the company has expanded and now specialises in the manufacture of high-quality recorders including the Paetzold and Fehr brands, along with other bespoke models.

We caught up with Jo while he was on the way to visit the UK for the Recorder Summer School.

The Early Music Shop: Kunath’s work combines traditional recorder-making methods with groundbreaking designs and manufacturing methods. How important is it to create innovative new models alongside the more ‘classic’ designs?

Jo Kunath: We think this is very important. However, this is not because we are driven by the need to constantly innovate, but because we want to compensate for and improve inadequacies in traditional manufacturing methods or designs. The starting point for the solutions is always our customers' comments, such as "the instrument is much too heavy for me" or something similar. And then we start looking for solutions.

EMS: Your Recorder Podcast is a great listen and has recently been translated into English by Estelle Langthorne.  Can you share more about how and when this project started and explain the importance of this form of communication for your company?

JK: The German Blockfloetenpodcast.eu has been around since January 2020 and was also created from conversations with customers. When you keep hearing "You know so much about the recorder..." then the first reaction is: "That must be the case, because I'm a recorder maker" the second reaction is, "how can I then make this knowledge available to people when they have time to take it out?" And one answer is a podcast. But since more people speak English than German, and we have an excellent person on our team in Estelle, who studied recorder playing and has been making recorders for a few years now, it was clear that she should be our English mouthpiece. With recorderpodcast.com she has started to translate some of my German episodes, but I am sure that she will soon create her own episodes, which I will then transfer to the German podcast. I really like her style, and the independence with which she uses the studio impresses us all very much. We both wouldn't want to do without this kind of customer communication.

Click here to listen to The Recorder Podcast, presented by Estelle Langthorne.

EMS: The Paetzold by Kunath range has been greatly advanced by the use of 3D printed “Resona” materials alongside the wooden models. What appeals to you about the Paetzold design and approach, and how did your collaboration with Herbert Paetzold come about?

JK: The Paetzold basses have the ability to produce sounds that other (bass) recorders do not have. This is due to the ingenious construction of the headjoint developed by Herbert.

This is why the leading recorder orchestras prefer the Paetzold basses. On the other hand, the legally protected key mechanism makes the Paetzold instruments unrivaledly pleasant to play. That's why we developed the tenor. With its full key mechanism, it is the solution for many players who want to play a tenor painlessly and with pleasure.

The collaboration with Herbert began when my son Sibo said that he wanted to learn the profession of recorder maker and then joined my small workshop. As Herbert was already very old at the time, I asked him if he would like to sell us his company. The rest is history.

EMS: The Paetzold Sub-Sub Great Bass is one of the lowest-pitched recorders in the world, and comes with an inbuilt microphone to amplify the deepest frequencies. What were the challenges you faced when constructing this instrument?

JK: If you want to create something special, you have to be prepared to take special paths. In developing the sub-sub-bass, we took many new paths - for recorder making - some of which had already been tried and tested in organ building for years. For example, the electromagnetic keys on the foot joint. When normal key levers become too large and too long, they are no longer reliable. Neither during playing nor during transportation, nor during assembly and disassembly. It is therefore important to choose a reliable variant. Or the pressure of the body made of RESONA. If we made the instrument out of wood, the transportation of the instrument alone would be an Olympic discipline - and no thoroughbred musician wants that. Otherwise he would have become an athlete. The microphone rounds things off. The player only stimulates the instrument with his own air. The amplifier takes care of the volume. Very pleasant.

EMS: Fehr recorders have been manufactured by Kunath since 2018.  What sets these recorders apart from the rest of your range? Would you ever consider expanding your use of 3D printing into the Fehr instruments?

JK: Fehr is the forefather of recorder making. Hans Conrad Fehr was the first to produce instruments of outstanding quality in series. Many have tried to copy his ideas, but copies remain copies, and when the FEHR company was offered to us for continuation, it was clear that we would like to include "the original of recorder making" in our portfolio. 

Can I imagine 3D-printed Fehr recorders? If the need arises, then yes. I don't see it at the moment.