Recorder31 Day 3 | This Month's Featured Album

Every month at The Early Music Shop, we shine a light on an album that we've been enjoying recently, as part of our Featured Album series. This month, to tie in with Recorder31, we're delighted to introduce the new album by recorder quartet BLOCK4, Beneath A Pale Moon. For today's feature, we interviewed all four current members of the quartet about the album and their love of the recorder.

For a full blog about this release, including our review, please click here. CD copies of the album are in stock from The Early Music Shop now – click here or on the album cover below to view and purchase!

The four current members of BLOCK4 took the time to share some insights into the new album with us, along with reflections on playing the recorder and what it's like to work in an ensemble.

Tell us how your relationship with the recorder began, and what inspired you to pursue it for your career?

Verena Barié: My three siblings and mother played recorder quartet music together, and as the youngest one I just could not wait to join them! The idea of communicating closely with each other through music is what keeps me eager in exploring all possible spectrums of sound.

Daniel Scott: I was 17 when I first started playing recorder, after already playing piano and flute for some time. I think the sound was what drew me to it initially, and it still does, but it was the inspirational teachers who nurtured my passion for the instrument - Thank you Kathryn Corrigan and María Martínez Ayerza!

Emily Bannister: I began playing recorder aged 6 in a Saturday morning music group. My teacher (Lisete da Silva) was a professional player who always encouraged me to take my recorder lessons just as seriously as any other instrument I pursued while I was at school. She showed me it was possible to be a professional recorder player, and I was hooked!

Sarah Jeffery: I started playing the recorder aged 6, when my mum started a recorder club at my primary school. I only decided to take music seriously years later though, when my A level music teacher encouraged me and helped to show me that a career in music was a real thing!

What’s your favourite thing about working in a recorder quartet?

Verena: Since we can swap instruments from high to low, we each get the chance to be in the lead or the driving bass positions. To train our own flexibility in that way is a gift for the musical listening and the understanding of each other's lines.

Dan: I love how we all approach our shared instrument in different ways, I learn so much from my colleagues and they inspire me to refine my own playing. It’s also just a joy to make music together.

Emily: I love that when you work on good ensemble skills (breathing together, matching articulation), when you are on the same instrument you can really be matching perfectly. I also like that while there is some really excellent repertoire out there, it is your job to create more, either through arrangements or working with composers. I love the idea that there is so much possibility when it comes to repertoire. 

Sarah: Playing music as part of a group is simply the best thing there is. The sound, the feeling of working together, discovering new pieces and hearing it all come alive... it's the best!

What’s the most challenging thing about working in a recorder quartet?

Verena: The most beautiful thing becomes the trickiest at the same time: we all play the same instrument. It takes maturity and confidence to be so vulnerable with each other, which makes ensemble playing also a learning club for social behavior.

Dan: The challenge of the quartet is finding the shared sound. It’s not just about intonation or playing together but somehow blending into one unified sound and musical intention - to become an organ of sorts. And then still to play with individuality within this.

Emily: When everyone is playing the same instrument, you have to be incredibly precise with tuning and matching each other, the room for error is extremely tiny! I love the challenge of working together on this - and getting the opportunity through recording to really work at being precise on this was so much fun for us!

Sarah: In every ensemble I've ever played in, we get a little too ambitious with instrumentation... so it's the surprising amount of *stuff* we have to carry!

The music on your new album ‘Beneath A Pale Moon’ is quite diverse, ranging from folk tunes to medieval melodies and contemporary compositions. What do you listen to when you’re not working with BLOCK4?

Verena: I like to listen to experimental music with traditional and folk instruments and the combination with electronics for example. At the moment I am listening to albums by instrument maker and musician Alistair Fraser from New Zealand.

Dan: A real mix! Here are some things I like at the moment: Tasto Solo, Early Modern English Music and Edoardo Torbianelli’s Chopin late piano works. 

Emily: I like to listen to lots and lots of different types of music, but it always depends on my mood. I just went to see Taylor Swift live with Sarah, and I haven’t been listening to much else since! My favourite recorder quartet music to listen to is Quartet New Generation’s recordings, and Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. I also love listening to Seldom Sene’s recordings.

Sarah: Taylor Swift.

Do you have a favourite track on the new album?

Verena: I love WICKED. The energy and drive juxtaposed with solid organ-chords by the four Paetzolds is a great playing and listening experience. But to calm me down I enjoy Alma Redemptoris Mater in the low recorder setting, which brings us to a feeling of home at the end of the album.

Dan: My Last Breath. I think the high quality recording captures the soft and subtle sounds of this piece in a special way. 

Emily: My favourite track on the album is ‘Domine Jesu Christe’. We have been playing this piece since the very early days of BLOCK4 - we first performed it at the final of the Royal Overseas League competition in 2014, which we won! It felt important to include this piece in our first recording, but it was also a really lovely experience to make a new version of it with the group’s new membership. We included a few pieces like this, in order for the album to be a tribute to all of the time (and all of the people) who have worked together to create BLOCK4 over our time as an ensemble.

Sarah: I LOVE performing 'Airlines' - it has such a creative use of the recorder's percussive qualities. It's a great example of contemporary music that can be both totally experimental, and fun!

The album sleeve notes are in the form of a story, written by fellow recorder player Essa Flett – what inspired this decision, and how do you hope the listeners’ experience changes as a result?

Verena: The audience is always at the core of BLOCK4's programs. Through the narrative we can lead the imagination from piece to piece, even if the styles of music are centuries apart. As our instrument is often played by children, I find it fitting to give a special emphasis on the imagination with music. Maybe we can inspire young musicians to find their own narratives in the music they practise!

Dan: The story frames the pieces and ties all the music together, I think it makes for a beautiful programme and I hope people take something from it too.

Emily: We were always very keen to include both early and contemporary music in our first recording, as our preference is to always make programmes which are a 50/50 split. We realised that this duality is important to us because we have always thought of programming concerts as having a sort of internal narrative when we were creating them as a group. We were so excited to have the chance to bring our own internal story to life by working with the incredibly talented Essa! We hope that by including the story in the programme notes the audience can understand how, in our minds at least, all of this incredibly eclectic music fits together all in one recording. Essa did an exceptional job of bringing our initial ideas to life, and we are so happy with the outcome!

The album features recorders by the late great Adriana Breukink, along with those by makers we stock at The Early Music Shop, including Kunath, Küng and Yamaha. Are there any new instruments you’ve currently got your eye on?

Verena: At the moment I try to concern myself with maintaining the instruments I own. International plane rides with quickly changing climate zones (and questionable handling of luggage) leave their marks, which I want to keep to the minimum.

Dan: It’s a pleasure and an honour to be able to play on a consort of recorders by Adriana Breukink. And yes actually, a renaissance G basset from Monika Musch will hopefully be ready for me by the end of the year, I can’t wait!

Emily: We are so lucky to have such beautiful instruments already to work with as an ensemble, but we are always thinking of new sounds we can add to the quartet. I would love to expand our consort with some Raffi instruments, and a long term goal would be to expand our Paetzold consort with a Subcontrabass in F instrument!

Sarah: I am trying very hard not to buy new instruments at the moment..! However, my husband is trying to persuade me to buy a crumhorn.

Click here to order 'Beneath A Pale Moon' from The Early Music Shop now!

Did you enjoy today’s interview about BLOCK4’s ‘Beneath a Pale Moon’?

We’re delighted to have a signed CD to give away to a lucky reader of Recorder31. To enter, simply answer the question below:

‘Beneath a Pale Moon’ features music by three Renaissance composers: Merula, Praetorius and Guerrero. Which of these composers was born first?

Comment your answer on our social media or on this blog post before Wednesday at 12pm and we’ll pick a winner at random from all correct entries. Good luck!

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The Sound of Recorder Music!

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