A few photos from our concert at Varaždin Baroque Evenings Festival (September 27, 2016), courtesy of the festival.

“I see God in the instruments and mechanisms that work reliably.”

—Richard Buckminster Fuller

Frederick G. Morgan (1940–1999), recorder maker extraordinary, made always interesting choices when selecting original Baroque instruments to base his famous reproductions on. They often reflected his search for —and awareness of— specific characteristics such as those offered by different recorder models by different makers, their voicing qualities and bore profiles. Thus, besides the usual list of instruments and prices, his catalogue contained a brief description of the instruments that included a sometimes intriguing mix of practical information¹ and the occasional observation that revealed his insightful understanding of the instrument.² I believe that these brief observations alone are worth transcribing and sharing his catalogue information here. This article belongs to a series of writings about Fred Morgan that I’m writing out of simple admiration for his work as recorder maker.

1. Fred Morgan recorder catalogue, 1987–2002

The data collected here is based on two different versions of his original catalogue, completed with a later instrument —or, rather, body, since it refers to partially finished instruments— list from 2002 (see below, The Frederick Morgan Workshop in the early 2000s):

• The first one is marked “1987, ’89, ’91 & ’93,” meaning it remained unchanged during all those years.
• The second one is from 1997, which included some new soprano sizes: 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th flutes and a sopranino.³

Shown below is the collected data from the three different catalogues mentioned above, which is highly revealing in showing, for instance, how he kept his price list the same for at least twelve years before his passing (it is said that the prices of recorders went up around the world right after his death because Fred was not holding the price at a stable point any more), besides tracing the new recorder models and pitches he kept adding to his catalogue through the years. Prices were originally indicated in Swiss francs, to which I’ve added an approximate equivalent amount in today’s Euro (€). Where available, I’ve also added links to some photographs of the instruments in the catalogue featured in beautifulrecorders.com

The Fred Morgan 1987, ’89, ’91 & ’93, 1997 & 2002 catalogues

a) Baroque recorders
Pitch is A415 unless indicated otherwise.
Standard wood is boxwood.*

b) Ganassi type recorders

*Thanks to Nikolaj Ronimus for the information about the Bressan models, which was originally not specified in the catalogues.

2. Instrument descriptions

Here follows a transcription of the instrument descriptions found in the 1987, ’89, ’91, ’93 & 1997 catalogues. The following text accompanied the above list of instruments and prices:

“The next pages give some detail about the instruments listed above, and about ordering and delivery. Delivery time at present (1996) is between one and two years. The sopranino, 6th flute, 4th flute and 3rd flute are instruments which I have made very occasionally over the years, but now wish to include in my regular list.

Alto after Bressan. Derived from the original Bressan instrument owned for many years by Edgar Hunt, and now in the Bate Collection in Oxford. European boxwood, stained dark brown. Normally made with double holes, but single holes can be made on request. A415.

The 1987, ’89, ’91 & ’93 catalogue adds:

An extra centre joint is available to give the lower pitch of A409.
Low French pitch, A392, can be obtained with an extra long centre and foot.
A box to take any extra pieces for other pitches is included in the price.

Alto after Denner. Derived from the Jacob Denner alto now in the Music History Museum in Copenhagen. European boxwood, usually stained. Double holes, A415. Single holes available on request.

The 1987, ’89, ’91 & ’93 catalogue adds:

NB. This instrument is also available at A440.

Alto after Stanesby. Derived from the alto by Thomas Stanesby Senior in the collection of Frans Brüggen. European boxwood, stained dark. This instrument is of the long foot English type, and has a slightly broader sound in the upper register than the Hunt Bressan, which is the short foot type. A415 with double holes. Single holes available on request.

The 1997 catalogue adds:

Extra centre joint to give A392.

French Pitch alto after Bizey, A392. Derived from an original instrument in the Dayton Miller Collection in Washington. European boxwood, stained dark brown. Single or double holes.

The 1987, ’89, ’91 & ’93 catalogue adds:

The combination of the lower pitch with an unusually shallow windway gives increased expressive possibilities.

* * *

3. The Frederick Morgan Workshop in the early 2000s

It is well known that the Morgan workshop made an effort to continue offering instruments (or rather blanks, or bodies, as they called them, since they were not completely finished instruments) after Fred’s untimely passing, using his same tools and measurements (and even the same wood turner, Dieter Mücke, for quite some years). Thus, the workshop was capable of producing recorder bodies “up to approximately a third of the finished state,” according to Ann Morgan (Fred’s widow). Those bodies could be finished (i.e. tuned and voiced) later with the help of several makers that offered themselves to collaborate with the workshop. This clever idea from Ann Morgan has fortunately allowed to keep producing stunning Morgan instruments — notably those finished by the magnificent Danish recorder player and maker, Nikolaj Ronimus, to whom I’d like to thank again here for the great job he has done with my instruments and the great amount of care he treated them with. Chapeau!

Fred Morgan workshop plaque

Ann Morgan explained it better herself on this text originally published around 2003, still available through archive.org:

And here again, you can hear Ann Morgan describing the activity of the workshop after Fred’s passing in a very interesting 2008 interview by Amanda Smith for the Australian ABC Radio National:

“What we do now in the workshop is we do what the wood turner used to do when Fred was alive, which is make about a third of the instrument to Fred’s design work. So this person turns the outside of the instrument and, very importantly, he reams the inside of the instrument with the tools that Fred designed, the reamers that Fred designed. He places the holes, he stains the instruments, he underfits the block, and we send that instrument off to a team of finishers in Europe. So the workshop keeps going to some extent. But we do put a special stamp on the instrument, a little stamp of the Sun, which shows this instrument was made after Fred died. So yeah, we’re very clear about that. So the buyer knows they’re not getting an original Morgan by any means, but they’re getting quite a deal of the design work in there.”

4. The Frederick Morgan Workshop today

After Fred’s original turner stopped working, two more woodturners, to my knowledge, have been trained at the workshop: Brendan Stemp and Owen Watkins. But the current situation is, as far as I know, that once again the workshop is training a new woodturner. According to Ann Morgan, this has happened to them every 6 or so years, and must be a very time-consuming (and costly) process. Woodturners seem to be scarce in Australia, so it’s probably very difficult to find people with these specific skills. Besides, machines are being used more often now, and woodturners sometimes become “artists” in their own right and don’t want to do fine repetition work.

As a result, they’re still able to take new orders, but, for the above reasons, delivery times are very long right now.

“I do hope to keep the workshop open. I believe our intellectual property is of use — and that there is an interest out there still in Fred’s design work. Unfortunately I can’t put a date on this…”

—Ann Morgan

Sure there is still an interest in Fred’s design work. By making partially finished bodies using Morgan’s original specifications and reamers (later voiced and tuned by a number of today’s recorder makers), the Morgan Workshop has produced some of the finest recorders I’ve ever tried.

With this piece I would like to make a small contribution in order to bring renewed attention to the valuable, priceless work that I hope can still be done by the Morgan Workshop. And, if we want more recorder bodies to be delivered again and with a shorter delivery time, we should probably make sure that Ann, and the people working at the Morgan Workshop, know about it.

* * *

“Terry has for a long time been passing his knowledge and wisdom on to others, through his web site and the woodenflute and flutemakers email lists. In the last few months, he’s taken this to a new level with the induction of his first trainee flutemaker, ensuring that his manual, practical and organisational skills are also passed on.”
From Australian flute maker Terry McGee’s résumé.

A wise, healthy philosophy, rarely to be found among musical instrument makers — I wish more of them were aware of the importance of passing their knowledge to others. Really.

“As an artist … I need to make it harder for myself, so I’m working on a few personal projects that I can’t describe. But I can tell you that they’re really hard, and I’m totally failing, and it feels great.”
Joss Whedon, via Ian Coyle

Renaissance consort basset recorder (detail) by Bob Marvin. Photo by Óscar Romero

I recently wrote about what could probably be the world’s most important photograph of a recorder and the need to get recorder scholars involved in keeping Wikipedia’s recorder article accurate and up to date. But after doing myself a first, unsuccessful attempt at changing the article’s main photograph, I decided not to limit myself to the Wikipedia article. I thought that high quality, professional photographs of high quality, professional recorders would certainly be a first step towards the spreading of the recorder’s fairer image as a fine, handmade, beautiful instrument. For which, besides contributing to Wikimedia Commons, a dedicated, open access website would be the ideal container.

Thus, taking advantage of a planned photo session with talented photographer Óscar Romero, I collected some fine recorders for the photo shoot and, in order to make the photographs freely available to everyone, persuaded him to also upload them later to Wikimedia Commons.¹ It would mean he’d have to renounce their copyright.² Which he did. Thank you, Óscar!

Our New Year’s 2016 Gift

So here’s our New Year’s 2016 Gift for the recorder community, the general public and of course the recorder itself. Go see some gorgeous photographs of a handful of beautiful recorders:

beautifulrecorders.com

→ Grab them, download them, use them, spread them³ and enjoy them.

Make your own contribution

Last but not least: beautifulrecorders.com should not only be about the few photographs we created so far. If you’re a recorder player (specially a professional one) or maker who owns some fine, professional, handmade instruments, please try to do the same⁴ with some of them and do send me the results: I’ll be really happy to publish them at beautifulrecorders.com. Our joint efforts will help—one photograph at a time—changing the general public’s image of our instrument.

Ganassi type alto recorder (detail) by Bob Marvin. Photo by Óscar Romero

“An initial search of the internet throws up numerous images of plastic, or mass-produced, cheap instruments, while images of historic or professional models need to be sought out. A concerted effort from the recorder community is needed in order to shift perspectives in the opposite direction, and to change the public’s perception of our beautiful instrument.”

—Laoise O’Brien

The title of this post may make you wonder “Why should it even exist?”, or, “Why there should be one?” Indeed, it may seem like a weird idea, and I had never thought of the possibility that such photograph might even exist before—until now. I guess you’re asking yourself what would that photo be for you right now, and I’d love to know your choices. Mine? Sorry to disappoint you, and it’s clearly not the one above, but here’s my answer:

“VariousRecorderFlutes.jpg”: Probably the world’s current most important photograph of a recorder.

Were you expecting a nicer photo? Sure. Why then did I choose that one, and why I think it’s so important? Well, I’m not judging it according to how nice it looks (in fact, I think it looks awful, both the photo itself and the mass-produced recorders on it), but rather according to its provenance. Which, as a side note, brings me to a rather more important question: what do you think is the world’s most important online resource about the recorder? Just as every recorder connoisseur, whether professional or amateur, I’d run to answer it sure is Nicholas S. Lander’s impressive Recorder Home Page. But I’m afraid that, for the vast majority of people, it’s not. I really hope I’m wrong, but I’d bet today’s most widely known, most often visited and widespread online resource about the recorder (just like about almost everything else) is probably Wikipedia. This article, to be exact.¹

Back to the (in)famous photo: as you’ll have probably seen, it’s now placed at the top right of Wikipedia’s recorder article, meaning it’s probably the world’s most important photograph of a recorder (or, at least, the most viewed one).² And what’s wrong about it? Well, I think we could all agree that the cheap, mass-produced contemporary version of the recorder is already well known to the general public and certainly does not need more public exposure.³ But what about the handmade, meticulously crafted version of a good recorder? That’s what we should really think of when imagining a recorder, instead of today’s widespread plastic toy or the poor sounding, mass-produced version of it.

It’s in this sense that I think the current version of Wikipedia’s recorder article is doing a great disservice to the professional, historical, handmade real instrument, which certainly deserves greater public awareness—and that’s what should be mainly featured on such an important article.

Improving Wikipedia’s recorder article

Yes, Wikipedia is certainly editable, so you could ask why I just didn’t try to change that photo. I did, but my edition only lasted for a few hours, since it was considered “unsuitable for this article’s lead” by a Wikipedia user. Discouraged, I haven’t tried again yet (although I’ve contributed some other photos of my own), but one of the reasons why I’m writing this text is to let Wikipedia users know about the reasoning behind my edit attempt, in the hope that we’ll manage to improve the article in the near future.

And since we’re at it, the same should be said for Wikipedia’s recorder article’s text: it’s of course very important that recorder scholars focus on doing highly specialized work, but I firmly believe that what probably constitutes today’s go-to place for accessing the most basic information about the recorder for the general public, shouldn’t be abandoned by recorder scholars. For our own benefit, let’s all contribute in order to keep its text accurate and up to date.

29–12–15 Update: See this related post.

For almost forty years (1968–2007), recorder maker Bob Marvin has been generously sharing an impressive amount of knowledge, personal experiences and detailed technical information on the reconstruction of recorders based on original instruments preserved in European museums—which makes him probably the most prolific writer among recorder makers. He has done so in a very personal, concise and sometimes provoking way, always in the hope of generating debate and an exchange of ideas among makers and readers, and always with great insight and a unique sense of humour.

I’ve tried to collect here a (hopefully) comprehensive list of his publications in several journals and periodicals, many of them freely available online, such as the ones in FoMRHI. For this purpose, the highly recommended book The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge Music Bibliographies, 3rd ed., 2012) by Richard Griscom and David Lasocki, was a tremendous help and time saving tool. When available, I’ve included the articles’ item numbers on this book —sometimes referring to its first (1994) and second (2003) editions when a specific article was not included in the third one— for additional reference (ex. Lasocki #903). Unfortunately, I haven’t had access to all the articles (I’m missing items 25, 26, 27 & 28¹ in this list), since some of them were published in old periodicals of limited circulation, so I’d really appreciate if anyone would be so kind as to provide me with a PDF version of them. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I did. Thank you, Bob!

A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY BOB MARVIN

→ You can also download a PDF version of this list: A comprehensive list of publications by Bob Marvin (181 downloads) . Last updated: February 3, 2016.

1. FoMRHI Communications (‘Comms’), published in FoMRHI quarterlies (1977–1985)

1. What is a musical instrument, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 6 (January 1977): 38–39 (Communication no. 52). [No Lasocki #].
2. A Ganassi flauto, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 11 (April 1978): 40–46 (Communication no. 118). Lasocki #903.
3. Nuts, bolts and plugs, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 12 (July 1978): 42 (Communication no. 146). Lasocki #2108 (2nd ed.).
4. Making reamers on a shoestring, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 14 (January 1979): 37–38 (Communication no. 180). Lasocki #2107 (2nd ed.).
5. A serviceable early baroque flauto, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 16 (July 1979): 50–51 (Communication no. 226). Lasocki #683.
6. A double recorder, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 31 (April 1983): 42–43 (Communication no. 453). [No Lasocki #].
7. Untitled (tuning conical bore woodwind instruments), FoMRHI Quarterly no. 33 (October 1983): 34–35 (Communication no. 492). [No Lasocki #].
8. The fornication of recorder windways, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 35 (April 1984): 48–49. (Communication no. 532). Lasocki #2106 (2nd ed.).
9. Reamer-saving counterbores, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 41 (October 1985): 20 (Communication no. 648). Lasocki #2109 (2nd ed.).
10. A flexible recorder, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 41 (October 1985): 21 (Communication no. 649). Lasocki #739.
11. Apologies to Sverre, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 41 (October 1985): 21 (Communication no. 650). [No Lasocki #].
12. A Bassano flauto, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 41 (October 1985): 22–23 (Communication no. 651). Lasocki #420.
13. Tuning recorders, FoMRHI Quarterly no. 41 (October 1985): 23–24 (Communication no. 652). Lasocki #2110 (2nd ed.).

2. American Recorder

14. Playing French Late Baroque Music on the Recorder, American Recorder 9, no. 2 (spring 1968): 39–41. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #1182. [The article’s given author name is Robert Marvin, a common mistake or overcorrection, since in the case of Mr. Marvin, Bob is only his nickname, and not a shortened version of Robert. Cited as Bob in AR full index].
15. Letter, American Recorder 13, no. 3 (August 1972): 102–3. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #889. [Reprinted from A Recorder Odyssey: Searching for a Renaissance Consort, Recorder and Music Magazine 4, no. 4 (December 1972): 118–21. ISSN 0034–1665 (see item 28 in this list)].
16. Letter, American Recorder 28, no. 2 (May 1987): 84. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #1293. [Response to an article by Scott Reiss on articulation].
17. Q & A, American Recorder 31, no. 2 (June 1990): 40. ISSN 0003-0724. Lasocki #41 (1st ed.). [Response to a reader’s questions on temperaments built into historical recorders].
18. Letter, American Recorder 34, no. 1 (March 1993): 30–34. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #1293. [Response to an article by Patricia Ranum on articulation in French music].
19. Letter, American Recorder 36, no. 2 (March 1995): 30–33. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #823. [Fragments and commentaries on a letter by Bob Marvin in reply to Raymond E. Dessy’s review of John Martin’s book, The Acoustics of the Recorder].
20. In: Recorders of the future, American Recorder 36, no. 5 (November 1995): 4. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #744. [Panel discussion on the future of the recorder].
21. American Recorder 37, no. 1 (January 1996): 32–34. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #786. [Raymond Dessy responds to comments sent to him by Bob Marvin].
22. Paean to Paeons, American Recorder 37, no. 5 (November 1996): 10–14. ISSN 0003–0724. [No Lasocki #].
23. A Short, Personal and Musical History of Recorders, American Recorder 46, no. 5 (November 2005): 30-31. ISSN 0003-0724. Lasocki #108 [Lasocki’s book gives page numbers 26-27].
24. American Recorder 48, no. 2 (March 2007): 32–33. ISSN 0003–0724. Lasocki #910. [Letter from Bob Marvin with a response from Brown about the latter’s article The Ganassi Recorder: Separating Fact from Fiction in American Recorder 47, no. 5 (November 2006): 11–18].

3. Woodwind Quarterly

25. Ruminations of a Recorder Maker, Woodwind Quarterly no. 9. [No Lasocki #].
26. Designing Pre-Baroque Recorders, Woodwind Quarterly no. 12 (spring 1996): 98–101. ISSN 1070-2512. Lasocki #682.

4. Continuo

27. Letters from Bob Marvin, Continuo 3, no. 4, January 1980: 3–9, ISSN 0705–6656. Lasocki #610.
28. Making Renaissance Recorders, Continuo 9, no. 4, January 1985: 2–7. ISSN 0705-6656. [Cited as Continuo 9, no. 4, January 1986 in Lasocki #888].

5. Recorder and Music Magazine

29. A Recorder Odyssey: Searching for a Renaissance Consort, Recorder and Music Magazine 4, no. 4 (December 1972): 118–21. ISSN 0034–1665. Lasocki #889. [Reprinted as a letter in American Recorder 13, no. 3 (August 1972): 102–3 (see item 15 in this list)].

6. The Galpin Society Journal

30. Recorders & English Flutes in European Collections, The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 25 (July 1972): 30–57. Lasocki #504. [See Lasocki #385 for some corrections on the identification of some of the Vienna recorders listed here].

7. archive.org

31. A Short, Personal, and Musical History of Recorders
32. Judging Recorders on an Historical Basis. Lasocki #108 (see item 28 in this list).
33. The Gomer van Awsterwyke Society

8. Bob Marvin’s website

34. Thirds. Posted on December 28, 2014. Last accessed: January 17, 2016.

9. Other

35. Jean-Luc Boudreau: Alexa Eicken sprach mit dem Blockflötenbauer aus Montreal, Windkanal 2/2001: 12–14. ISSN 1864–6204. Lasocki #547. [Canadian recorder maker Jean-Luc Boudreau on what he learned from two days with Bob Marvin].

Any comments, corrections, additions, etc., will be much appreciated. Thank you!

As many recorder players may have noticed, Ernst Meyer’s short-lived website (online from July 2013, when I had the pleasure to help him setting it up during a visit to his workshop), is gone since 2014. Which is a real pity, as it contained some stunning, full-size photos of Ernst’s work, as well as a catalogue of his recorder models.

Archive.org to the rescue: what many people may have not noticed, however, is that archive.org’s Wayback Machine robots saved it partially for posterity. Just a couple of screenshots, though, but, fortunately, one of them was his model list. Check them out:

• Homepage
• Model list

Great, isn’t it? (you can donate to archive.org here, by the way. It’s a great initiative.)

Here’s the above linked catalogue again. Please note that, since it’s from 2013, it may not be accurate or complete (actually, it was never complete, since it did not include his Renaissance models):

Ernst Meyer recorders

Models

Denner

• Soprano c”440
• Soprano c”415
• Soprano b’415
• Soprano a’415 → b’392
• Alto g’415
• Alto f’440
• Alto f’415

Bressan

• Alto f’440
• Alto f’415
• Alto f’392
• Tenor d’440
• Tenor d’415
• Tenor d’392 → c’440

TNT

“The Naked Truth” ist demnächst in diversen Grössen, Alt und Tenor erhältlich [“The Naked Truth” will soon be available in various sizes, alto and tenor”]

“I try to keep this up-to-date, but is a never-ending battle. Whoever would have thought there would be more than 13,000 recordings featuring our instrument?”

1. Van der Sluijs, L, Lander, N.S. & Short, C. (1996–2015). Recorder Home Page: Recordings. Last accessed Monday, September 7th, 2015. http://www.recorderhomepage.net/recorded-recorders-database/

Table 1

As promised in an earlier article, I’ve been collecting some information about Fred Morgan‘s work with the intention of making it publicly available, both for practical and historical reasons but also for the important and highly interesting data contained in his documents: I’m sure they will be really useful for today’s players and makers as a valuable reference source.

So here are three of the fingering charts that he made over the years for his “Ganassi” type recorders. They’re incredibly accurate and detailed, surely an extension of the immense amount of thought he put into the development of his own “Ganassi” model (from which most contemporary recorder makers have derived their own ones), and well worth having on hand—ironically, they may be harder to find nowadays than Ganassi’s 1535 ones.

Table 1. Basic fingerings for F.G. Morgan Ganassi type descant recorder in g’. May 1987

This table is organised chromatically and contains all the notes of the instrument (two octaves and a sixth), to which could be perhaps added #I/bII (g#’/ab’, 0123 4567).

☞ A scan of the original document can be found here.

Table 2. F.G. Morgan ‘Ganassi’-type recorder in g’

See here a similar table by Fred Morgan with a different disposition that closely follows Silvestro Ganassi’s original charts in chapter 3 of Fontegara (“Regola apertenente a tutte le voce di esso instrumento”). Since it practically contains identical information as table 1 (see point 3 below), it’s not reproduced here. However, there are a few things worth mentioning about its structure:

1. First staff includes “The First Thirteen Notes” (or “l’ordine del soprano in la proprieta di be quadro”, as Ganassi puts it), excluding accidentals. Fingerings are identical to Ganassi’s except for two notes:

• VIII (f”): Ganassi gives 013 67 & 013

• IX (a”): Ganassi indicates all holes open instead of closed hole 2

2. Second staff includes “Ganassi’s Seven Notes More” (“le sette voce de piu”) in the third octave, comprising notes XIV (f”’) to XX (e””). Unlike Ganassi’s original high notes charts, this one excludes three of the accidental notes (namely: #XIV (f#”’), #XV (g#”’) and bXVII (bb”’), but they are added in a third staff (table 2b below) that also follows Ganassi’s chart organisation (see his “ordine de la sustentation” chart) in which both are devoted to accidental notes.

3. Finally, comparing Fred’s own tables 1 & 2 above, there’s only one tiny difference between them: table 2 (the “Ganassi-like” one) adds a small knee shadow (“K ½”, literally) to note XIX (d”” 0123 46 K ½).

Table 2b. Chromatic Fingerings for Aron Meantone

Table 2b is the second part of table 2, and it gives the fingerings of the accidental notes for Pietro Aron’s meantone temperament. Fred’s document contains fourteen notes, though only seven (the Aronized ones) are included in table 2b, since the rest are just identical to those in table 1 above.

☞ A scan of the original document can be found here.

Morgan vs. Ganassi charts for chromatic notes: a comparison

When comparing table 2b to Ganassi’s chart for accidental notes (“ordine de la sustentation”), the following differences can be observed:

1. #V/bVI (d#”/eb”): Both Ganassi and Morgan specify two different fingerings for the #V/bVI note. Morgan gives a very low one for the #V note (d#” 012 4567; slightly higher in table 1: 012 456), and a higher one for bVI (eb” 012 456). Ganassi gives also high and low fingerings for such notes but, curiously enough, his lower one equals Morgan’s higher sounding fingering (012 456), and the high one sounds indeed very sharp: 012 45. Ganassi only uses sharps in his chart, but we could probably assume that his lower fingering could be applied to the #V note (d#”).
2. #VII (f#”): This note differs from Ganassi’s chart, but just because there must be a mistake in Ganassi’s book, since all the holes in Fontegara’s recorder image corresponding to this fingering are open, giving the impression that this particular fingering was unintentionally left blank. So, the correct fingering should probably be 01, just the same as in Morgan’s chart.
3. #VIII (g#”): We find here exactly the same problem as before, the finger holes in Fontegara’s recorder image corresponding to this fingering seem to have been unintentionally left blank. Considering that two of the most common Renaissance fingerings for this note (0 & 12) would be pretty close to a recorder image with the finger holes not filled in (all holes open), this hypothesis seems reasonable.
4. #XI (c#”’): Same fingerings but Ganassi gives also a second, higher one (0123 5).
5. #XII/bXIII (d#”’/eb”’): Opposite case as before, it’s now Morgan who gives a second fingering for this note, making a distinction between a lower d#”’ (012 4) and eb”’ (0123 567), although this fingering can actually be pretty flexible depending on how much you close hole 7.
6. Ganassi’s chart for chromatic notes does not go up beyond note #XII (d#”’), since his fingerings for the third octave are found in another place: his “Seven Notes More” (“le sette voce de piu”) chart.

Table 3. Fingerings for Ganassi type soprano in c”

Accidentals:

As can be seen, this table has again another layout but still follows Ganassi’s logical way of organising notes and fingerings by separating natural and chromatic notes, and then by different octaves. All the fingerings here are included and do not differ from those in table 1, with the following exceptions:

1. The g Alto bX note (bb”, see table 1 above) is now actually #IX (d#”) on the soprano, which can also be fingered as 23 456.
2. The g Alto #XIV note (f#”’) is now natural XIV (b”’), fingered 01 567.
3. The g Alto XIV note (f”’) is now bXIV (bb“’), which gets here the slightly lower fingering 013 567.
4. The g Alto #XV note (g#”’) is now c#”’ (also #XV, but gets the slightly higher fingering 013 46.
5. The g Alto bXVII note (bb”’) is now actually #XVI (d#”’), fingered 023 56 + Bell [completely] closed.
6. The g Alto XVI note (a”’), equivalent to d”” in the soprano, gets now the easier fingering 023 7.
7. Same for the g Alto XVII note (b”’), equal to e”” in the soprano, which gets now the easier fingering 023 56.
8. And finally, the g Alto XVIII note (c””), equivalent to f”” in the soprano, which gets now the easier fingering 012 45.

The following text about ‘playing in’ and maintenance of a new instrument is included in the original document below the fingering chart:

“This instrument has been blown for some hours and adjusted as needed to ensure that it will play for about one hour at a time without significant movement occurring in the windway. It may, and should, be blown for about one hour at a time from the very beginning. If it is played for substantially longer periods without being allowed to dry, some change may be noticed in the sound.

The bores have been sealed with a polyurethane varnish, then re-reamed and oiled with Raw Linseed Oil, or Flaxseed Oil as it is also known, which is a drying oil. The instrument should be oiled every few months, or more often if the bores look very dry.”

☞ See a scan of the original document here.

Note: underlined numbers (ex. 0) always mean partially closed holes. Due to the numerical characters design of the specific typeface used in this website, underlined numbers 3 & 7 have had to be replaced by strike through numbers (3 & 7) in order to make them more readable.

What the guy in the linked image above and many other people must have surely experienced is today’s widespread plastic toy version of the instrument: naturally, it sounds bad to me, too. But I’d say more: take whatever musical instrument and make a factory mass-produced, cheap, plastic version of it. Yes, make a cheap, plastic guitar, violin or saxophone: how great would they sound? Could we even compare it with the results that a handmade instrument by an experienced maker’s meticulous craftsmanship could achieve? Well, this is how good recorders are made. Sometimes as family businesses that have lasted over several decades, thus sharing and inheriting their insights, experience, secrets and findings over the years: Rauch von Schrattenbach, Schnitzer, Bassano, Hotteterre, Stanesby, Bressan and Denner are just a few of such families that consistently produced all sort of state of the art wind instruments, including recorders. When imagining a recorder, think of them instead of the mass produced Hohners and the like.

And most important: the amount of love, commitment and talent that surrounded the recorder in the past (and still today), in such aspects as how it was built —producing precise, beautiful sounding instruments— and played, perfectly demonstrates David Lasocki’s answer to that image:

“The recorder plays heavenly music, as people have known for over seven centuries.”

It would be hard to put it in a shorter, more brilliant and effective way.

A recorder block of a Schnitzer tenor by Monika Musch. Photo: Fernando Paz

This is an initiative that should definitely exist. Maybe not for the old-schooled, secret-keeping builders that may still be around, but I already know so many open minded, eager to share their knowledge and experience, and generous recorder makers that I’m still wondering what is stopping them to make that a reality. We’d all certainly benefit from their collaborative work, both makers and players. Bear in mind that professional recorder players and builders are a relatively small community, with still so many things to learn from original instruments, and with so many people working rather isolated and far away from other colleagues, with little or no exchange of information among them.

There are many others, but I’ll mention (just in case any of them are listening and, why not, as a sort of invocation) a few of them that I bet would like the idea:

• Adrian Brown
• Lorenzo Lio
• Marco Magalhães
• Monika Musch
• Fernando Paz
• Fumitaka Saito

I hope both this initial list and the International Society of Recorder Makers will one day become official and expanded. If you’re a recorder maker wishing to be included in the former list, please let me know. An annual meeting would already make a huge difference. Let’s make it real!

Short promotional video of our duo program A Baroque Dream, recorded from our concert on March 15, 2015 at Festival de Música Antigua de Sevilla (FeMÀS). Apologies for the bad quality audio: our recording equipment failed at the very last moment, so the audio is just the one from the video camera—that was placed at the end of the hall. Footage by courtesy of the festival. You can read more about the project here and see some photos from the concert here.

Photos courtesy of Javier Sierra. Read more about the concert here.

Frederick G. Morgan (1940-1999)

Just as so many recorder players, I’ve always admired Fred Morgan’s instruments but, unfortunately, I was never able to get one of his instruments before his untimely passing in 1999. Two things impeded it: first, I was only 21 back in 1999, having only the economic resources of a young student who was trying to survive in The Netherlands, where I was studying at that time. And second, even when I always did my best to collect the money, it was necessarily a slow process, which paired with the fact that I only once managed to get an answer to my letters from busy Fred —and it only happened when I discovered that mentioning my famous Dutch teachers Jeanette van Wingerden and Marion Verbruggen would do the trick—, delayed the whole process till it was too late.

At that time, I was lucky to occasionally try some instruments by Fred (I still remember an incredible Ganassi g alto made in ivory that I briefly tried at a friend’s toilet — thanks Beto!). I’ve always felt a greater affinity to earlier repertories than Baroque music, but I’m sure not having baroque instruments that really satisfied me also played an important part on this fact. Thus, I’ve exclusively played, toured and recorded using always Renaissance recorders in my professional projects, both Ganassi-like and consort instruments mainly by recorder maker Bob Marvin, which I’ve always loved and have always given me more than the necessary inspiration to pursue good projects and hard work.

Back in 2009, I heard about a third-hand Morgan Debey from someone in the USA. I took the risk and bought it without even trying it (paying a crazy sum for it). Fortunately, everything went fine and I was happy with the instrument, but used as I was to the full blowing level required by the huge Renaissance recorders’ bores, I wasn’t able to instantly adapt to the old, delicate Debey and continued focusing on earlier recorders for a long time — though I kept the old Debey as a valuable treasure, of course.

Later in 2009 I came across Swiss genius recorder maker Ernst Meyer’s instruments, which really surprised me since they connected very well with my (mainly used to Renaissance recorders) playing, due to its huge voicing measures and proportions, and it was the first time I was truly inspired by modern copies of Baroque recorders — and I still am: I love Ernst’s work and can’t wait to make a recording project with his instruments.

But again, an unexpected event changed my mind about modern copies of Baroque recorders in 2012: a Spanish colleague, player and teacher decided to start a new career and consequently put his recorder collection for sale. Even when he asked, again, for a crazy sum, I thought it was my first real opportunity to finally get some instruments by Fred, and decided I’d go for them. Since it was a really high sum that would force me to ask for a considerable bank loan, I tried to convince my colleague to only get a Bressan alto, but he insisted on selling his three Morgan recorders together, and I finally accepted, thinking that I could always sell the other two instruments later if I needed to (the others were instruments that I thought I wouldn’t really need that often, such as a Stanesby soprano and a Ganassi g alto, really useful for me but I had just received the Morgan/Ronimus version of the same instrument only a few months earlier).

Three years later, I’m still paying for them, but it’s clear to me that I don’t want to sell any of them, and I sure have professional plans for them. These three instruments are still inspiring me every day and my appreciation for them is still growing in an ongoing process, being deeply impressed by the qualities of Fred Morgan’s instruments. Since I got them, I’ve done my first professional Baroque concert ever (I mean, as my own personal project instead of a collaboration in someone else’s project) —in a career of about 15 years— in 2013, which I naturally dedicated to Fred; I have written a bit about his ‘playing in’ process for new instruments, which I really admire; his work as a maker has raised so much my level of consciousness and appreciation of the great job made by the finest recorder makers today, that I also dedicated a program to four of them, including Fred, of course; I’ve finally come to really appreciate the old Debey; and I’m now planning to publish here some practical information about his work, including the list of instruments and their descriptions as they appeared in his catalogue, just to make it publicly available as the historical document that they represent.

Last but not least, all of this would not have been possible without the extraordinary help of Danish recorder player, teacher and maker Nikolaj Ronimus, whose expert knowledge on Fred’s recorders and voicing techniques has enabled me to fully enjoy Fred’s instruments — I wish to express here my heartfelt thanks to him.

And of course my Fred Morgan story doesn’t finish here. It’s actually happening right now, everyday in my daily practice sessions and every time I use them in concerts. ¡Viva Fred!

***

Update (May 12, 2015): To my surprise, Ann Morgan did let me know that I published this piece on what would have been Fred’s 75th birthday. See this link. What a coincidence!

Update 2 (December 24, 2016): Published a new, related article: The Fred Morgan recorder catalogue.

Care of Recorders

Wood swells when moist and shrinks when dry. Flutes crack when the outside is too dry, or the inside too wet. When cold air is heated it draws moisture out of wood (more readily when warm than cold), especially from the exposed exterior of a flute. So in winter air may need to be humidified to keep a relative humidity of at least 30%, and flutes stored in a cooler part of a room.

The interior of a flute gets wet from condensed moisture in the breath. This can be reduced by warming the head five minutes or more under arm (or elsewhere so that the outside will also be moistened to accommodate the interior’s wetting). The block can be removed (with a stick slightly rounded on the end) and warmed (hot to the lip) on a light bulb, stove, etc. Don’t let it burn or bake more than a minute lest it shrink. While the block is out, a cylinder of aluminum, heated in hot water, etc., can be inserted to warm the windway. Playing in a warm room will reduce condensation, as will using the more traditional tonguings, “R” and “L”, instead of always “T”, etc. A hair drier can be used to warm and dry the windway, but seems more effective to use during a playing session than before. Normally, a recorder doesn’t need swabbing out after being played; it’s the windway that usually cracks, so just suck it out dry.

After being played, flutes should be left to dry in free air. If humidity is high, or if the flutes are being played a lot, a small fan blowing on them will help, as will removing their blocks.

If a recorder’s block still fits tighter than before a playing session, it hasn’t dried out yet. (But a block reacts less to humidity than does the flute’s harder wood, so it may fit tighter in winter than in summer.)

During play, bass caps should be removed to let dry whenever possible.

Oil doesn’t preserve wood so much as seal it acoustically. I prefer raw linseed oil, which hardens, but slowly enough to penetrate and not make a mess. A porous wood like maple needs oiling every week when new, but after a year of oiling, only every few months, and after a few years, rarely. If you oil a flute and the sound doesn’t change, it didn’t need it. Individual pieces of the same kind of wood vary enormously in their thirst for oil.

Before oiling, the bore should be cleaned with a fairly stiff plastic-bristled cylindrical brush. Clean the fingerholes and window with a small cylindrical brush (electric razor brush, etc.), the windway with a toothbrush, and remove keys and blocks.

Wrap a small piece of clean cloth (with any potentially loose fibers picked off) around a stick (dampen the end slightly to make it cling), dip it in warm oil, and rub it around in the bore (only up to the edge, not into the windway). Oil fingerholes with a small stick, and let drain vertically. Any oil remaining after a day should be removed; newspaper is a relatively lint-free absorber to push through the bore. Any cloth will add lint to a rough maple bore.

The most common change in voicing is the block “rising” into the windway. Eventually it must be sanded back down again by an experienced hand. Temporary relief can come from removing the block and drying it well with heat (as when warming) for some minutes or hours, thus shrinking it slightly. A couple of narrow paper shims (sticky notepaper, etc.) can be placed on the block’s “shoulders” at its distal end, to push it slightly out of the windway. A loose block can be shimmed with paper.

The noise of keys can be briefly silenced for concerts with a drop of thick oil at each metal-metal contact. Such an oil can be a mixture of mineral oil and petroleum jelly with the consistency of thick cream that just barely flows.

❡

And here’s a full scan of the original document.

Enrico Pieranunzi

Next March 15, 2015 I’ll be incredibly lucky to share the stage with great Italian jazz pianist Enrico Pieranunzi at Sevilla Early Music Festival (FeMÀS).

The concert program, titled Un sueño barroco (A Baroque Dream), will include improvisations on works from the 15th to 18th centuries. For those of you who might not be familiar with Enrico, I think I’d only need to mention one single fact about his career for you to have an idea of his background and amazing trajectory as a jazz musician: he has shared the stage and recorded with musicians such as Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Marc Johnson, Joey Baron, Chris Potter, Paul Motian, Kenny Wheeler, Johnny Griffin, Jim Hall and Charlie Haden, among many others. The fact that, hypothetically, from March 15 on my name could be included in a complete list (not in the most representative, abbreviated one, naturally) of his collaborations —a list including so many jazz giants— amazes and terrifies me in equal parts.

And here are the program notes for the concert, which include a short text by each of us (sorry, only in Spanish for now, let’s see if I find some time to translate them between practice sessions).

Vicente Parrilla — Photo by Óscar Romero

Finally found some time to publish this here.
Here’s the full concert audio (no edits, no cuts, no omissions, no tricks!)
from our concert at Warsaw Music Encounters Festival, May 16, 2014.
I’ve also uploaded it to YouTube, and for those of you who prefer SoundCloud,
find (and download!) it also posted below. Credits:

Glosas & improvisations

New embellishments on Spanish & Italian Renaissance music

Antoine Busnoys: Fortuna desperata* 0:00
Marchetto Cara: Chi me dara piu pace* 4:21
Bartolomeo Tromboncino: Per dolor me bagno il viso* 8:02
Josquin Desprez: Mille regretz* 16:08
Philippe Verdelot: Igno soave* 20:38
Ph. Verdelot: Madonna per voi ardo* 24:46
Anon: Une jeune fillette* 32:50
P.R. dit Sandrin: Doulce Memoire* 37:12
Vicente Parrilla: Contrapunto sobre Ave Maris Stella 41:39
Passacaglia (improvisation) 45:12
Ciaccona (improvisation) 55:57
La Spagna (improvisation) – encore 1:07:50

*Embellishments: Vicente Parrilla

More Hispano — Vicente Parrilla
Vicente Parrilla, recorder & musical direction
Juan Carlos Rivera, vihuela
Rami Alqhai, viola da gamba
Javier Núñez, harpsichord

Glosas live in Warsaw
Recorded at Warsaw Music Encounters Festival, May 16, 2014
Photos: Marta Skotnicka-Karska
Recording engineer: Marcin Domżał
Thanks to: Władysław Słowiński

Royal Castle — Warsaw

I wish to thank Polish Composers’ Union for their kind invitation to perform at Warsaw Music Encounters Festival (Festiwal Warszawskie Spotkania Muzyczne). We’ve been asked to perform our Glosas program (whose music scores can be downloaded for free here) at a concert that will take place on May 16th, 2014 (19:00h) at the Royal Castle’s Great Assembly Hall.

Musicians: Javier Núñez (harpsichord), Rami Alqhai (viola da gamba), Juan Carlos Rivera (vihuela) & Vicente Parrilla (recorders & musical direction).

Since I’ll perform in front of an audience entirely made up of recorder players¹ (professionals, teachers and students), makers and other recorder specialists, I thought it’d be a good idea to design a program whose main concept is neither the chosen repertory nor my own performance, as usual, but rather a third element: the instruments themselves. And the reason is I’ll be using a handful of state of the art recorders by some of the most influential makers within the instrument’s modern history, which I’m sure will add another layer of interest to my performance. The title of the program is a case of sheer serendipity, since it comes from the curious fact that all of the makers’ family names start with letter m: Bob Marvin, Ernst Meyer, Fred Morgan and Monika Musch. I first chose a couple of representative recorder models by each maker and then a piece to showcase it. Finally —and it’s a bit of a more technical note— the context of a solo concert seems specially appropriated to show each recorder’s virtues and qualities, since I’ll be able to adjust my blowing to get the exact sound I want from each instrument without the normal pitch restrictions imposed by an accompanying instrument. Here’s the program:

M

A Short & Incomplete Sound History of the Recorder Through its Modern Makers — Chapter M (Ma-Mu)

Ma — Recorders by Bob Marvin (USA)

Alfonso X el Sabio (1221-1284)
Tantas en Santa María (CSM 173)
Pero que seja a gente (CSM 181)
A madre de Jesucristo (CSM 172)

Improvisation
On La Spagna tenor

Me — Recorders by Ernst Meyer (CH)

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Tango-Étude no. 3

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Flute sonata in A m H.562: Poco Adagio – Allegro – Allegro

Mo — Recorders by Fred Morgan (AU)

Jacques Hotteterre (1673-1763) & Michel Lambert (1610-1696)
Traits pour la Flûte-a-bec & L’amour

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Partita in C m BWV 1013: Allemande – Corrente – Sarabande – Bourrée Anglaise

Mu — Recorders by Monika Musch (DE)

Aurelio Virgiliano (fl. 1600)
Recercata terza

Kees Boeke (*1950)
Lacrime (1983)

And here’s the list of recorders I’ll be performing on:

• Marvin: cylindrical g alto, pythagorean (2003) & Praetorius consort tenor (2004)
• Meyer: Denner alto (2009) & Denner-Bressan voice flute (2010)
• Morgan: Bressan alto (1997) & Stanesby soprano (1978)
• Musch: Schnitzer tenor (2007) & Ganassi g alto in one piece (2003)

Teatro Helena Sá e Costa – Porto

1. Portuguese translation by Inês Moz Caldas, muito obrigado!: “Ao desenhar um programa para um evento dedicado à flauta de bisel, onde grande parte do público que assiste ao concerto será composto, provavelmente, por flautistas (profissionais, estudantes e amadores) e outros especialistas do mundo da flauta, pareceu-me boa ideia abordá-lo não apenas desde uma perspectiva do repertório ou da minha própria interpretação, como é habitual, mas também dos próprios instrumentos que utilizarei. O principal motivo é ter a sorte de utilizar instrumentos construídos por alguns dos construtores de flautas mais influentes da história moderna da flauta de bisel, até ao ponto de, por si só, constituir, para além das obras e -esperemos- da minha interpretação, um terceiro foco de interesse para o público, sobretudo tratando-se de um concerto integrado num encontro especializado. O título do programa surge da curiosa coincidência de todas as flautas que usarei no concerto serem de construtores cujos apelidos começam com a letra m: Bob Marvin, Ernst Meyer, Fred Morgan e Monika Musch. Primeiro seleccionei um par de modelos de flauta representativos de cada construtor, e depois uma obra que me parecesse especialmente interessante para tocar em cada instrumento. E por último -embora esta observação seja um pouco mais técnica- o formato de concerto para flauta a solo parece-me, para além do mais, especialmente adequado para mostrar as qualidades de cada instrumento, já que poderei sempre ajustar o ar para conseguir o meu som ideal em cada instrumento sem as restricções na altura do diapasão que me imporía qualquer instrumento de acompanhamento durante o concerto”.

Enrike Solinís – Euskal Barrokensemble – Colores del Sur

COLORES DEL SUR

Baroque dances for guitar
Enrike Solinís, baroque guitar, theorbo & lavta
Euskal Barrokensemble:

• David Jiménez Chupete & Dani Garay, percussion
• Miren Zeberio, baroque violin
• Josetxu Obregón, baroque cello
• Pablo Martín Caminero, violone
• Iñaki Aranegi, theorbo
• Vicente Parrilla, recorder

→ Colores del Sur on Amazon

Finally. All five movements from Corelli’s Sonata I Opus 5 in F major are now available and published above as a video playlist (© Actidea; more info about the concert here). And below are the sheet music version of the same videos, containing the whole sonata:

Click below for the first four movements’ videos. And stay tuned: last Corelli movement coming soon.

Recorded live on August 16, 2013 at XIV Noches en los Jardines del Real Alcázar de Sevilla (audio © Actidea).
Thanks to Miguel Ángel González from Actidea. Read more.

Here are, published together as a playlist, the first three movements from the Bach Sonata in E minor BWV 1034 (© Actidea). The camera run out of battery just before we played the fourth movement, so only the audio was recorded, with which we made a sheet music video series (see below) — I’ve also published a second, embellished version of the third movement, which I performed as an encore. Hope you enjoy it!

Watch the rest of the Bach sonata videos here or click below. I’ll be posting some videos in the next days from a concert I performed last summer with lutenist Miguel Rincón which, somehow, meant my return to the great Baroque repertoire after quite a few years.

Recorded live on August 16, 2013 at Noches en los Jardines del Real Alcázar 2013. Thanks to Miguel Ángel González from Actidea. Visit their youtube channel in the next days for the concert videos.

More Hispano Quartet

Left to right: Rami Alqhai, Vicente Parrilla, Miguel Rincón & Javier Núñez. Photo by John Finn, courtesy of East Cork Early Music Festival

«At its best, the group’s style came as close as anything I’ve heard to an early-music jam session, with caution thrown to the wind».

—The Irish Times, October 16, 2013

“At its best, the group’s style came as close as anything I’ve heard to an early-music jam session, with caution thrown to the wind.”
The Irish Times, October 16, 2013