Making Musical Instruments
Opus 11 - Sopranino Recorder

 
Making Musical Instruments
Back  Next
Baroque
Instruments

  • Opus 9
  • Opus 10
  • Opus 11
  • Opus 12
  • Opus 13
  • Opus 14
  • Opus 15
  •  
      Medieval
    Instruments and
    Their Iconography
      Renaissance Instruments
      Substitute Materials
      The Jazz Ensemble
     
     
      The Publication
      The Author
     
      Preface
      Introduction
      Making Musical Instruments
      History
      Aesthetics
      Symbolism
      Conclusion
      Bibliography
     
      Index
      Instrument Makers
      Instruments
      Video Excerpts
      Audio Excerpts
     
      Other Web Sites
      Credits
     
     
    spacer4.gif

    It is astonishing to think that the recorder fell into disuse in the nineteenth century and that even its name was forgotten. In 1919, Arnold Dolmetsch, an English instrument maker and musicologist, became interested in early music and built his first recorder based on a baroque model.

      Sopranino Recorder - CMC 90-306.1-3/S93-2937/CD95-732 Sopranino Recorder
    In the manner of Johann Cristoph Denner
    By Jean-Luc Boudreau
    Montreal, Quebec
    1990
    Boxwood, granadilla wood
    26.5 cm
    Die-stamped marking: "Jean-Luc Boudreau Montréal 190490"

    During the baroque period, the recorder was no longer built in a single section as it was during the Renaissance, but in three movable sections. This important change enabled musicians to better tune the instrument by lengthening or shortening it slightly. Because the instrument had shorter sections, instrument makers were able to craft the bore with greater care. This method appears to have been developed by Jean Hotteterre, a wind instrument maker in the court of Louis XIV, and was subsequently adopted by the great recorder makers such as Bressan and Stanesby. Thick, elegantly turned ivory mounts on each joint made the recorder highly decorative, a reflection of baroque precepts of beauty.

    This instrument is based on a sopranino recorder by Johann Christoph Denner (1655-1707), whose family was noted for its wind instruments. When French recorders consisting of three sections appeared in Germany, Denner took an interest in them and promptly adopted the new construction method. This recorder is in two sections and is tuned to A=415.

    Opus 12 - Alto Recorder


      Alto Recorder - CMC 90-345.1-3/S99-04/CD98-169 Alto Recorder
    In the manner of Debey
    By Jean-Luc Boudreau
    Montreal, Quebec
    1990-91
    Boxwood, moulded polyester resin
    50 cm
    Die-stamped marking: "Jean-Luc Boudreau Montréal 220790"

    Jean-Luc Boudreau based this recorder on an instrument by an eighteenth-century instrument maker named Debey, which is preserved at the University of Utrecht, in Holland. It has three sections, with moulded polyester resin mounts, and is tuned to A=415.

    Top