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Cranmore Tenor Recorder after Haka

Original price £1,880.00 - Original price £1,880.00
Original price
£1,880.00
£1,880.00 - £1,880.00
Current price £1,880.00
SKU CRA04T
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This tenor recorder is made after Haka by English recorder maker Tim Cranmore.

Richard Haka (b London, 1646; d Amsterdam 1705) was the son of Thomas Hakay, later Haca, who made walking sticks in London before moving to Amsterdam around 1652. Richard's mother Agnes returned to England in 1675. He starting work as a woodwind instrument maker ca 1660. In 1676, when living in Kalverstraat, he married the 23-year-old Grietje van den Bogaert; although declaring himself at the time to be aged 30, it seems likely that he was in fact somewhat older. His nephew Coenraad Rijkel and the instrument makers Abraham van Aardenberg and Jan Steenbergen trained with him. He and Rijkel later quarrelled (qv). Haka lived 'In de vergulde Basfluyt' on the Spui; subsequent addresses were Singel and Keizersgracht. Haka's instruments evidently enjoyed a wide reputation; a 1700 inventory of the Medici Court in Florence lists a consort of 16 recorders by him. Today they are represented in many collections; in addition to recorders, examples of walking-stick recorder, flageolet, alto flute, shawm, altpommer, oboe, tenor oboe, deutsche schalmei and bassoon survive.

There are two surviving tenors by Haka, one in boxwood, and one in ebony and ivory. They differ enormously both internally and externally, and one can see the maker trying a new approach. The boxwood instrument that I copy is very slim and light, and works well over two octaves, although the high D needs a different fingering from normal with leaked front holes.

This tenor is made of stained English boxwood and is supplied with a handmade, blue roll case.

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