Today marks Day 31 and the final day of Recorder31 2022 and we would like to take this opportunity to look back at what we've been up to over the course of the past 31 days...
With performances, articles, interviews, competitions, new releases, offers, Q&As and more, there has been something for all, and don't forget that you can still catch up on the entire month on our Recorder31 2022 blog which will remain available even once the month is over.
We would also like to thank everybody who has contributed to help make our third instalment of Recorder31 such a triumph – from artists to educators, competition entrants to prize sponsors, authors of fascinating blogs & articles and the recorder community worldwide for joining us in this year's celebrations.
Despite Recorder31 coming to a close, the recorder should — of course — be celebrated all year round! Click here to discover our Recorder31 2022 Spotify Playlist, launched earlier in the month, which we have added new tracks to today and will be continuously updating with our favourite recorder tracks throughout the year. You can also listen to this playlist below.
Thank you for joining us at Recorder31 2022. See you next year!
We are already busy planning next year's festivities and would be extremely grateful to hear your feedback on Recorder31 2022. Please click here to contact Alfie and provide any thoughts and suggestions that you may have.
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As we near the end of August and Recorder31, the start of the academic year is almost upon us, so we’ve put together a collection of everything you could possibly need for the year ahead!
Whether you are needing a new instrument to return to school with, a teacher needing a class set of recorders, or you aren't returning to school but are feeling inspired to take up the recorder, we are here to help!
We also offer bespoke discounts for schools, teachers and music hubs on our Triebert range of recorders. Contact us to discuss your requirements, whether it be a classroom package, recorder and tutor book packs, or a recorder consort!
Click here to browse our Recorder31 Back to School Collection
]]>For Day 29 of Recorder31, we are showcasing the fantastic range of recorder resources produced by renowned player, educator and conductor Helen Hooker — from the extensive 'minus one' Recorder Consort playalong library to the fortnightly Score Lines blog covering everything from technique, inspiration, interviews, recorder playlists and much more!
As a bonus Recorder31 treat, you can also use the discount code RECORDER31 to save 15% on everything from Helen's online store until the end of September!
Click here to visit Helen's website and find out more.
]]>Welcome to our PitchPoint Recorder31 2022 Special Edition.
In this bumper episode, join Mary-Jannet Leith and harpsichordist Thomas Allery and explore the influential recorder music of G. P. Telemann! As part of this episode, you can also enjoy a brand new recording of two movements from TWV 42:g9 taken from Ensemble Hesperi's recent City Music Foundation concert in the Great Hall at Barts Heritage.
Enjoy!
Click here to browse all PitchPoint episodes
]]>Read on to find out more about The Threshold and click here to pre-order your copy now. We've got ours!
For those who may recognise Finn, he is also our recorder specialist and can be contacted at finn@earlymusicshop.com.
Pool’s Hole is the first single from contemporary folk musician Finn Collinson’s forthcoming second album. The track, a groovy, mid-tempo instrumental, features Finn’s trademark recorder style weaving around virtuosic oboe, guitar and percussion from his multi-talented band.
The first tune, Pool’s Hole, is taken from the 11th edition of Playford’s Dancing Master. Published in 1690, this seminal collection of dance tunes has long provided inspiration for Finn and his contemporaries on the English folk circuit.
Meanwhile, the second tune, Gavotta, originates from a similar time period, but a very different musical idiom. Composed by Italian Baroque musician Martino Bitti, and published by John Walsh in London in 1711, the tune is in fact adapted from a classical violin sonata. However, Finn and his band masterfully rework the tune, so that you’d never believe it didn’t originate in the folk tradition.
“I love how easy it is to combine tunes from such different backgrounds,” Finn explains, “and the fact they were originally published so close together in time means there are similarities in phrasing and melodic direction. As a recorder player, I’m fascinated by music of the Baroque era and often wonder what musicians of the time would make of my modern folk reinterpretations.”
Forged in his native East Anglia but heavily inspired by his four years living and studying in London, Finn’s new album The Threshold (released 7th October) is a meeting point of old and new, rural and urban, traditional and contemporary. His first release in three years, this music pushes boundaries, challenging listeners to consider repertoire and instruments in new and exciting settings. Demonstrating a diverse subject matter across ten tracks, Finn’s distinctive tune style ties together the material, with a respectful eye on the past but a strong grounding in the present.
Widely regarded as one of the foremost recorder players on the English folk circuit, Finn Collinson has been steadily gaining a strong reputation for his energetic and creative performances. Building on the success of his 2019 debut album Call To Mind, described as ‘a work of true quality’ (FATEA) and ‘a deeply rewarding display of musical storytelling’ (EDS), the new album sees Finn deepen his flourishing relationship with the contemporary folk genre.
To mark the Recorder31 Finale Weekend and the UK Bank Holiday Weekend, we're offering extensive discounts on over 100 recorders from the smallest garklein to the largest sub-great bass!
All selected recorders are available for immediate despatch and waiting to be played!
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about any of our instruments.
It's time to buy your new recorder – but what should you look/listen for? What kind, which wood? How do you pick one from the masses? How do you test it out? What if it's second hand?
Today at Recorder31, discover Sarah Jeffery's top tips for What to look for when choosing your new recorder. Find out more in the video below...
If you haven't already, make sure to check out the rest of Sarah's videos on the Sarah Jeffery / Team Recorder YouTube channel. Essential viewing for all recorder players and enthusiasts!
]]>For Day 25 of Recorder31, we are joined by recorder player Lizzie Knatt to explore the fascinating world of working with composers to create New music for old instruments. Read on to find out more...
Lizzie Knatt
Performing contemporary music and working with composers to create new music for the recorder has been an increasing interest of mine over the past few years. As recorder players we have to be inventive, creating our own projects and seeking out opportunities, and what better way than to collaborate with composers to expand our repertoire at the same time?
This year, I’ve been lucky enough to premiere nine new works for recorders, both as a soloist and with other instruments. This has led to some interesting ensemble combinations – recorder, alto saxophone, electric guitar and baritone voice being a particularly memorable one – and many exciting new experiences for me including playing with live electronics and visual art for the first time. I’m hoping this article will give you an overview of how I got involved with this kind of work, some different types of collaborations I’ve been involved in, and some tips for creating your own collaborative projects.
My first experience of working with composers was as a clarinettist with the Chimera Ensemble in 2017, working with both professional composers and student composers from the University of York. Gradually, I began taking a more active role in collaborations and seeking out more opportunities to work with composers, in particular with The Arc Project and University of Birmingham Creative Exchange, and eventually began creating my own projects.
While it’s often seen as a limited instrument, the simplicity of the recorder lends itself very well to contemporary music, and there are still many unexplored sonic possibilities. Commissioning new recorder music not only broadens the existing repertoire for performers, but continues a long-standing tradition of experimentation and discovery. As a player, this kind of deep exploration of how my instrument works and what it can do is really exciting, and has in many cases led to me find new ideas I can apply to all areas of my playing, not just to contemporary music.
When commissioning music, as well as being the first to play a new piece, we get the opportunity to create a platform for composers we admire, and in many cases to have more creative input into the finished piece. We get the opportunity to educate more people about the recorder, including composers, starting a chain reaction and hopefully leading to even more great recorder music being created. And, most importantly of all, we get to build connections with other musicians who are just as excited about sounds as we are!
The collaboration process can take many forms. Here are three recent collaborations I’ve been involved with, and how they came about.
For this project, I worked with composer Owen Russell to create electronic interludes based on tunes from The Bird Fancyer’s Delight for a bird themed recital. I had previously worked with Owen on some pieces using tape loops and had a clear idea of what I wanted for these interludes – I wanted to be able to improvise over the top of the tracks, we had a venue in mind with a very specific speaker set-up, the interludes needed to be a certain length to allow me to change instruments, and link the existing recital pieces in terms of key and thematic material. This was an example of a quite tightly controlled brief, where I had a lot of input into how they would sound. We also had plenty of time to work on the project and Owen created several draft versions of the tracks based on my suggestions.
At the other end of the spectrum, Juxtapositions was a much looser kind of collaboration, where we didn’t know quite what form the project would take until it was well underway. The project started life as a series of conversations with three composers over coffee, where the ideas and discussions we had all had the idea of contrast or juxtaposition in common. This felt very relevant to the recorder as an instrument with such a fragmented repertoire, and I chose to intersperse Jakob van Eyck’s variations on The English Nightingale between the three new pieces as another juxtaposition between past and present.
Letting the project develop from composers’ different ideas and aesthetics in this way led to quite a technologically complex but very exciting programme, using two different live electronics set ups and live digital painting. For most of the pieces, I had less input into the collaborative process than above, and working to a deadline occasionally made some of the decisions for us regarding what could reasonably be rehearsed, recorded and learnt in the time available.
Listen to Antecedere by Andrea Balency-Béarn here.
Nightingale by Suting Han in rehearsal (Juxtapositions project)
This time, Cem approached me about performing a piece for his concert series, London Contemporary Soloists. LCS aims to provide concert platforms for emerging composers in London, and they have recently completed their first overseas tour to Turkey. I really enjoy Cem’s music so of course I agreed! I’d previously introduced Cem to the Paetzold contrabass recorder, and we’d discovered a shared interest in exploring multiphonics for this instrument. I was also learning Seascape by Fausto Romitelli at the time and was discovering many interesting sounds and extended techniques unique to the Paetzold, which fed into the creation of Ice Breath. As well as creating a piece for the LCS series, this was very much a discovery and exploration process for us both, and this was definitely a collaboration that would have gone on forever had it not been for the looming deadline of a concert performance. Many versions of the score were produced and we had a number of workshop sessions together trying out various sounds and effects, and figuring out where the limitations of the instrument and myself as a player got in the way of Cem’s ideas – particularly the unfortunate woodwind problem of needing to breathe!
Click here to watch a live concert recording of Ice Breath at St. Cyprian’s Clarence Gate.
Section from the score of Ice Breath
Now you know a little more about the world of collaborative projects as a recorder player, it’s your turn. Here are some of my top tips for working with composers:
So, what’s next?
Collaborating with composers is a really rewarding process and an important part of my practice, so I’m not planning on stopping any time soon! My next project is the digital release of a woodwind trio (flute, recorders and bassoon) by Taibah Orpin on the 3rd September, which you’ll be able to find on the Arc Project’s Youtube channel here, and I’ll also be recording a piece for the Royal Academy of Music’s bicentenary 200 Pieces project in September. As part of my Masters degree, I’m hoping to commission several new works for bass recorder, an instrument that is often neglected in the contemporary repertoire. I’ll also be working with other students from the Academy in partnership with the Southbank Centre to create an evening of collaborative performance in February.
Interested in writing for the recorder? Want to know more? Drop me an email at knattelizabeth@gmail.com 😊.
]]>Welcome back to our final Recorder31 2022 competition!
This week, we are asking you to capture your most imaginative recorder photos! All of our favourites will be included in the upcoming Recorder31 Gallery, with a FREE pair of tickets to recorder player Charlotte Schneider's LIFEM22 recital up for grabs for our overall favourite (click here to find out more).
To enter, simply post your picture(s) on social media, tag us (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) and use the hashtag #Recorder31 by 23.59 on Tuesday 30 August.
Snap away!
Not on social media? No problem! Please email your photos instead to alfie@earlymusicshop.com.
]]>For Day 23 of Recorder31, we are pleased to launch our NEW Recorder Maintenance Guide – the essential pocket guide for recorder maintenance, covering general care, oiling, playing in, guidance on specialist repairs and more...
This handy little book is free with every recorder purchased, or can be purchased separately for £2.99 in store or online. Simply add your chosen recorder to the basket along with this book to claim your free book now!
Click here to find out more...
]]>As we enter the final full week of Recorder31, we have a special treat to mark Day 22 — A Day in the Life of The Royal Wind Music!
Over the course of today, recorder consort The Royal Wind Music will be taking over our Instagram Story, revealing what life is like behind the scenes during the first day of a 3-day recording session for their upcoming recording, The Orange Tree Courtyard, all the way from the Netherlands. Expect microphones, large recorders and lots of coffee!
Click here to visit our Instagram page.
Not on Instagram? No problem! We hope you enjoy this vlog of the day!
]]>Read on to find out more about ZENITH as well as Anna's advice for choosing recorders and more!
Please introduce yourself to any of our readers who haven't yet come across your work!
Your new album "ZENITH" with Jorge Jiménez was released earlier this month. Tell us a little bit about your collaboration and the music you make together.
The album features music by composers who aren't often associated with the recorder, such as Béla Bartók, Chick Corea and Erik Satie. How do you go about selecting the music you play?
Our programmes include anything from mediaeval repertoire, improvisation, own compositions, arrangements… you name it. Next to a few original compositions, for instance the modern piece "Nadir" by Christos Hatzis, we have experimented a lot with works originally composed for keyboard instruments, such as Corea’s Children’s Songs. The sound world of those short gems felt natural to adapt, hardly any “arrangement" was needed at all. With the possibility of our two different musical voices interpreting this music originally thought for one homogenous sounding instrument, a whole new wealth of colours unfolds. Ultimately we want the music to touch the listener and become part of a programme where different musical styles and extremes are allowed to exist next to each to serve one narrative.
Which recorders did you choose to play on the album?
I usually try to make use of many different sizes and styles of recorders and also in ZENITH you will find anything from a drone played on a beautiful renaissance Rafi bass build by Francesco LiVirghi to a fast bubbling soprano recorder. But in the end I always try to find an instrument which serves the sound of a piece, blends with or distinguishes itself from the violin, and offers me the best possibilities for expressing the music. I love the process of searching for the perfect sound match and for ZENITH this turned out to be very often a tenor recorder. Next to an original piece for viola, tape, and tenor recorder, you will hear me play a very melancholic Bartók piece on a dark sounding Ganassi-style tenor and Corea and Ciconia on a Rafi-style renaissance tenor recorder.
Do you have any advice for our customers who might be looking to buy a new recorder? What do you look out for when choosing a new instrument?
Do you have any other projects on the horizon which we should look out for?
As well as finally touring ZENITH with Jorge starting this autumn, I’m hugely looking forward to present my solo programme “Fantasy & Design” in Australia to a real audience at the beginning of 2023. I wouldn’t have imagined myself performing a solo recital like this two years ago, but I now love the challenge and are glad that promoters still see potential in having someone play solo recorder on stage. There are plans to bring both ZENITH and my solo programme to the UK as well. Hopefully you can hear us perform live soon!
As well as the Medieval Double Recorder, introduced by Dr Emily Baines for Day 18 of Recorder31, there are many other variations of the 'typical' recorder found all over the world!
For Recorder31 Day 20, discover the Csakan with Mary-Jannet Leith! The Csakan (or 'walking stick recorder'!) was popular in Vienna in the early 19th century and so is often referred to as 'the Romantic recorder'. Watch the video above to find out more and hear a performance of the Allegro movement from Anton Herberle's Sonate (1808).
Enjoy this clip? Click here to watch all previous PitchPoint episodes — our podcast presented by Mary-Jannet Leith exploring all things Early Music! Keep an eye out for our special Recorder31 2022 PitchPoint towards the end of the month...
]]>To mark the penultimate weekend of Recorder31, we turn our attention to the big beasts of the recorder family — the basses!
Our Basses & Beyond weekend offer includes 50 instruments both new and previously-owned, from the basset to the sub-great bass!
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about any of our instruments.
Offer ends Sunday 21 August @ 23.59 PT
For our next instalment of Recorder31 #FridayFun, we hope you enjoy this recorder-themed wordsearch! Click here to download the puzzle as a pdf.
Let us know how you get on and watch this space for this weekend's Recorder31 offering from 6pm this evening...
Click here to check your answers.
]]>Today at Recorder31, we are inviting entries for the Recorder31 Limerick Competition. Consult your rhyming dictionaries and send us your best efforts on social media or by email to alfie@earlymusicshop.com!
Winners will be announced at the end of the month with prizes available for our favourites.
Good luck!
]]>For Day 15 of this year's Recorder31, we've put together this extensive collection of must-have accessories to satisfy every recorder player's needs! From joint grease to roll bags, there's loads to choose from! Click here to browse
The collection also includes a selection of 15 sheet music books - our top-selling recorder titles! This is the perfect opportunity to add anything you don't already have to your collection...
Click here to browse
]]>When I was a young recorder player based in Suffolk, I had to make the journey to London to buy my very first wooden recorder from The Early Music Shop. I remember being blown away by the selection of instruments and the piles of recorder music and CDs as I walked into the shop for the first time. This was something I had never seen before, as up to that point the trusty Yamaha plastic recorders had been my beloved and trusted friends. You can imagine my excitement when I learnt that The Early Music Shop was moving to my home county Suffolk! I may be biased but I could not think of a better location to go and search for a new instrument. Surrounded by beautiful countryside, a concert hall, art galleries, quirky home stores and cafes, Snape Maltings is a great place for an inspirational day out. I decided it was time to go and take a look...
The Early Music Shop is located in the centre of Snape Maltings. As I walked into the shop, I was greeted with a warm welcome from the team: Alfie, General Manager; Phillip, Store Manager and Finn, the Recorder Specialist who can be found in the shop from time to time. I was able to browse, take a look at sheet music, a range of CDs and of course the wall-to-wall recorder cabinets. The shop stocks a wide range of instruments and accessories, from Mollenhauer, Moeck and Küng, to Takeyama and various other makers as well as previously-owned instruments. You can find instruments of all sizes, including tenors, the larger bass instruments, fourth & sixth flutes, voice flutes and more!
When choosing a recorder, you have to consider your price range, the type of wood you would like in terms of sound quality and then the make of recorder. It is an extremely personal choice, so an outing to somewhere such as The Early Music Shop could not be better to help you choose your next recorder, where the tranquil and quiet setting means you can take your time discovering what works best for you. The staff are incredibly friendly and ready to help you and answer any questions you may have.
After you have browsed The Early Music Shop, you can find the perfect spot to enjoy an afternoon tea with cake in the Riverview Cafe overlooking the vast countryside that surrounds Snape Maltings. An evening in this area would not be complete without a visit to nearby Aldeburgh for walk along the beach and fish and chips at what is (arguably!) one of the best fish and chip shops in Suffolk. Do not expect it to be fast however as people travel from far and wide queuing for as long as an hour to enjoy — the perfect amount of time to grab yourself a drink in the pub next door whilst you wait in line!
On Saturday 15th October, I am looking forward to returning. I will be back at Snape Maltings for The Early Music Study Day, which will include a workshop, a masterclass and more. At the end of the day, I will be back in the shop to help you browse the range and choose a new recorder.
Look forward to seeing you there!
To mark the halfway point of Recorder31, we have put together an extensive collection of tenor recorders both new and previously-owned, specially priced this weekend only and available for immediate despatch.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about any of our instruments.
Click here to browse the offer
]]>It's time for some more #FridayFun as we enter our second weekend of #Recorder31 and this time we have some recorder-themed anagrams for you to enjoy!
Please click here to download the puzzle and click here for the answers.
Good luck!
Watch this space for our bonus Friday offering at 6pm tonight. Sign up to our mailing list or follow/like us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to make sure you don't miss out.
]]>We are delighted to reveal that the winner of two LIFEM22 Access All Areas Passes is El Carr on Instagram — congratulations and we look forward to seeing you in Blackheath! Thank you to all who entered and, for those of you that missed out, tickets are on sale here!
Monday 1 August was a significant day, not least with the beginning of Recorder31 2022, but it was also an important date for the London International Festival of Early Music (LIFEM) as tickets went on sale for LIFEM22! Click here to find out more.
For Day 11 of Recorder31, here is your chance to win a pair of Access All Areas Festival Passes worth £95 each!
All you have to do to enter is follow/like us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, share the competition tweet/post and answer the following question by Sunday 14 August at 23.59 PT:
In what year did Arnold Dolmetsch begin making recorders?
The winner will be randomly selected and announced on Monday 15 August.
Not on social media? No problem! Simply sign up to our mailing list and email your answer to alfie@earlymusicshop.com instead.
Good luck!
]]>Whether you're new to the recorder, have been playing it for years or are considering taking it up, Recorder31 is for you!
Today at Recorder31, 'Meet The Recorder' with Sophie Matthews of GreenMatthews and find out more about the instrument that is at the heart of our celebrations throughout August!
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Today at Recorder31, we are celebrating the opening day of the Woodhouse Recorder Courses, run by leading expert tutors Annabel Knight and Chris Orton with recorder players from up and down the country!
Today at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the 3-day Advanced Course gets underway with the Junior Day taking place on Tuesday 16 August in Guildford. There are still spaces and bursaries available, so please click here to find out more and book!
‘I would highly recommend Woodhouse to any recorder player – it was utterly brilliant!’ — Sarah Jeffery, Team Recorder
Since 2004, Woodhouse Recorder Courses have been running inspiring courses for recorder players who want to develop their enthusiasm and skills with an expert team of tutors. Whether you are an Advanced player keen to take your playing to the next level on our multi-day course, or just want to dip your toe in the water on one of our popular Junior days, we have something for you!
]]>Congratulations, Aldo!
Enjoy Aldo's performance and follow the score along to his composition in the video below!
Welcome back to our second week of Recorder31!
For Day 8, we have our second competition of the month and a stunning Aura Conservatorium Alto Recorder in Boxwood worth £465 to be won — thank you to Otto and all at Aafab for supporting this week's competition!
To enter, use our chosen theme — a Minuet by Hotteterre (click here to download) — to write your own variation (or set of variations!) and share your performance with us on social media or email to alfie@earlymusicshop.com by Monday 22 August at 11.59pm.
We look forward to hearing your compositions!
]]>The Student Recorder Society is a community of recorder students studying at universities, conservatoires and music colleges in the UK.
Our aims are:
Since the Society started in April, we’ve been meeting once a month on Zoom to catch up and chat! It’s been really interesting to hear about what recordery things are happening in different parts of the UK, and the performances and projects everyone’s been up to.
We’ve been brainstorming and compiling a database of recorder resources we’ve found useful, and planned our first ever in person meeting. This took place at the Birmingham Recorder in Education Conference last month, where we had the chance to finally meet and play through some chamber music together, as well as attending some of the conference events!
We’re hoping to meet in person once a term and plans are already in the works for our next trip, which will be to London in the Autumn.
The Student Recorder Society was dreamed up over a pint at the London International Festival of Early Music last October, by recorder students Dillon Conolly (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) and Lizzie Knatt (Royal Academy of Music).
During my current studies at RBC I noticed the lack of a network between recorder students in various establishments. Having grown up in the North West I felt very isolated as a recorder player until I started university. With this in mind I wanted to set up the Student Recorder Society with Lizzie to have an open door for any higher education student to come through. Creating this network means that every young recorder player has somewhere to go if they want advice, to promote a concert or even just want a chat!
What’s your favourite thing about being a recorder player?
All the other recorder players! I have never found a more passionate, creative, supportive, and kind community.
What have you gained from the SRS so far?
Seeing for the first time nearly all the young recorder players in one place, I have personally gained a larger sense of community.
What’s on your recorder bucket list?
Lizzie (MMus Recorder, Royal Academy of Music)
During my current studies at RBC I noticed the lack of a network between recorder students in various establishments. Having grown up in the North West I felt very isolated as a recorder player until I started university. With this in mind I wanted to set up the Student Recorder Society with Lizzie to have an open door for any higher education student to come through. Creating this network means that every young recorder player has somewhere to go if they want advice, to promote a concert or even just want a chat!
What’s your favourite thing about being a recorder player?
I love the diversity of sounds you can make with the recorder, and I’m constantly discovering new ones! I really enjoy collaborating with other musicians and composers and I’ve met so many wonderful people through being a recorder player.
What have you gained from the SRS so far?
The chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones has been really wonderful!
Tell us about your current projects?
I’m bringing a programme for recorder and electronics based on tunes from the “Bird Fancyer’s Delight” to the AMOK experimental music night in Birmingham later this month, and commissioning new pieces for bass recorder and harp as part of my Masters’ project. I’m also learning the baroque bassoon!
Beth Toulson (MMus Recorder, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)
I have been studying the recorder at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2017. I completed my undergraduate degree in 2021, graduating with a First Class in BMus (Hons) Performance, and am currently half way through my MMus in Instrumental Performance which I will finish in 2023.
What’s your favourite thing about being a recorder player?
My favourite thing about being a recorder player is how versatile we have to be as musicians. We play every single size of recorder, not just in their baroque designs but also in renaissance and modern models, which means we are constantly using different clefs and fingering systems for each instrument. As our repertoire spans from the mediaeval period right up to the present day, we have to adapt to all the different styles of performance practice, and sometimes read from non-conventional types of writing including contemporary and mensural notation. It keeps us on our toes!
What’s on your recorder bucket list?
I would love to visit Italy one day to see the landmarks that made the recorder so prominent during the 17th and 18th centuries. I'd especially like to visit St Mark's Basilica in Venice, which was also home to the Bassano family before they moved to England, and also Naples, which is where lots of our Italian repertoire was written. It would be amazing to see the 1725 Neapolitan Manuscript in person at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella.
Cecily (BA Music, University of Oxford)
What have you gained from the SRS so far?
After lockdown, and given that Oxford University is not exactly a hub of recorder players, I really enjoyed the first SRS meet up and am looking forward to more! Also, it's useful to get to know some other people in a similar position - the resources list will come in handy, and I can ask people a few years ahead of me for advice.
Where do you see the recorder in your future?
I’m not really sure, but I definitely want to continue performing, professionally or otherwise.
Felicity (BMus Recorder, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)
What’s on your recorder bucket list?
What have you gained from the SRS so far?
The SRS has been a great way to meet and connect with other recorder players around the country, outside of my regular environment, and as we have been able to meet up in person, it has given us the opportunity to play chamber music with each other too. It has also been really beneficial for me in terms of gaining access to new resources that I haven’t come across before.
The Society is open to any recorder players currently studying at a UK Higher Education institution, at undergraduate or postgraduate level, and recent graduates. We understand what it’s like to be students with a very busy schedule so there’s absolutely no expectation to come to any or all of our events, and it’s been great to have recorder players from all corners of the country pop in for just a Zoom call or two.
Want to get involved? Drop us an email at hello.studentrecordersociety@gmail.com!
A big thank you from both of us at The Student Recorder Society to The Early Music Shop for involving us in Recorder31! Also, a big thank you to those who have helped us get this off the ground. The support and backing of the recorder community has been amazing! We cannot wait to show what we have planned.
To celebrate Day 5 and the first weekend of Recorder31, we have put together a collection of over 150 alto recorders both new and previously-owned, exclusively priced this weekend only!
Save on instruments from globally-respected makers, including Moeck, Mollenhauer, Coolsma, Aura, Fehr, Küng, Takeyama, Von Huene, Yamaha and more until 23.59 PT on Sunday 7 August.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about any of our instruments.