Official Blockflöte Thread!

[andybeals]

Holy mackerel, that alto went for a pile of cash!

[Silversorcerer]

 

Holy mackerel, that alto went for a pile of cash!

That should make you very happy, Andy.  It makes me happy as well. I have a couple of alto Koch recorders in cocobolo and one in black cherry. I paid a bit lower than that for the black cherry one, but it came with an issue of a recorder periodical with an article about Koch, was in absolute in-the-box mint condition and had the original paperwork and accessories. The two cocobolo were in exellent condition as well and I paid less than half that bid for those.

The prices on these have been going up lately. I think it might be a bit inflated so I probably will let it settle down a bit until there's another tenor up. The recent tenor was listed so that only a few people interested would find it. I missed it entirely.

There is a soprano out there with a very high ask right now. As far as real value, these are undervalued. One would have to pay a great deal more to get a better made and playing recorder despite some of the issues pointed out in that book Andy brought up. The latest model Moeck and Mollenhauers might be a little better. I have to wonder about these others because I haven't seen some of them. And the German fingering system ones I have that are Harland inspired are very diverse. One tenor has undercut tone holes and it just plays absolutely fabulously. It's unmarked but definitely a Harlan inspired instrument. The tone is very reedy and it is in Dmajor, looks like sycamore to me. It has an archaic brass articulated key mounted in a raised wooden ring. It's made to look Renaissance, but it's probably from the 1930s.

Tuning on these, if one has a consort by the same maker, is probably not a real issue. The instruments would not have been in equal temperament during the Renaissance or baroque period. The modern idea that this should be the case is one of convenience and utility for the present. If these are played the way they originally were, it is more important that the consort be harmonious when played, not that every note be in perfect equal temperament. So the best way to judge them is to play the same fingerings on a matched consort. I am close to a matched consort of three makers. I still have to get the basses and one tenor.

[Silversorcerer]

In 1992 I happened to meet Hawk Littlejohn (now deceased), a maker of Cherokee flutes trained by his grandfather. Not settling for a less than modern design execution, Hawk traveled to Europe and the UK to observe first hand how recorders and other flutes were being built there.

The native North American flutes are related to recorders but are substantially original in design. Traditionally these had only 5 holes and played a modified pentatonic scale in one octave. Hawk added a 6th hole  which allowed the Cherokee flute to play more chromatically with quite acceptable intonation in the scale it was designed to play.

Cherokee flutes are easily tempered by partially covering holes which are by tradition undercut. This was achieved by burning the holes through with an ember from the inside out before the two halves of the flute (gouged, not bored) were then glued together. The method of creating the tube was similar to how the serpents and cornettos were built. The windway is  external and the bore is closed between the mouthpiece and the resonance chamber. Air moves out a small opening and is channeled across a labium tapered from the inside out. The bore is much larger which limits the range to about an octave and a step. There is no register hole. The sound is quiet like a recorder but distinctly deep in tone and quite pleasing and never shrill. Traditional Cherokee flutes are made of red cedar, but Hawk experimented with many different soft and hardwoods. Different woods produced quite different tonal character but the cedar usually sounded the best.

My father's alto Heidelberg was the recorder I played most during my teen years when I no longer played cornet. Beginning in 1992 I started playing this flute that Hawk traded to me for doing a good bit of photography for him. Some of his flutes are in the Smithsonian now, and these are coveted among performing native Americans. I've used this one in recordings with A=440 instruments and it plays quite well in E-flat.

[LarryS]

I have 5 now, a soprano , alto and tenor in plastic, and I recently acquired two old revoiced wooden recorders, an Adler soprano and a Gunter Wunderlich alto. The wooden alto sounds so mellow.

[DaveLeBlanc]

Here's a nice wooden BASS recorder!

Finally got one of these after wanting one for years. I only paid $130 which I think is an excellent deal.

Unfortunately, the key system is the relatively undesirable German system, but it's more for my own enjoyment anyways so no biggie.

[Airflyte]

Wow, that looks good!  What key is that in? I know nothing about these . . . .

[DaveLeBlanc]

This is in the key of F, which is an irritating key since it’s haes to find music written for F; the only other F key instrument that’s xommonly used is the French Horn

However, if I’m just playing at home solo then I’ll just find whatever sheet music doesn’t go below low C and call it a day

[LarryS]

I tend to use the same fingerings on different recorders. So I'll play a piece written for a C recorder on an alto and vice versa.

[brigaltman]

Bass recorders are in the F, but read C music. The F recorders use a different set of fingerings than the C recorder. The C instrument's fingerings are similar to flute or sax. The F instruments are similar to the lower register of a clarinet.

[Fotogravinnetje]

The recorder was my first instrument to play. We almost all did at home. My parents had their own wooden soprano recorders (Aura) and we had 2 plastic recorders. We also had a plastic alto recorder and a tenor. When growing up and a bit more serious about playing them (and arguing about who got to play the alto) we got our own wooden recorders for our birthdays. I was the first to get another brand than Aura. My soprano, which I got when I was nine, was a Zamir. Softer and warmer in sound than the Aura recorders. And I loved that sound. The alto I got 1 or 2 years later was again an Aura. I dropped it several years later and probably cracked the block. It wouldn't sound good anymore. So I saved some money and bought myself a Zamir alto, because I still loved the sound of my soprano. While I did play saxophone as a teenager and started clarinet when I was 19, I never stopped playing the recorder. And it was a good alternative when I had to stop playing clarinet. About 4 years ago my sister-in-law died of cancer and she left me her set of recorders: alto and soprano Moeck. They are warm and soft like my Zamirs, but with a richer tone. I'll keep playing those too, even now I'm back to playing clarinet. I love to play the clarinet more, but I'm still in love with the recorder! (To be honest: I still pay attention everytime I hear a recorder because I love the sound, but I couldn't care less if I hear a clarinet. Just for playing myself I favor the clarinet...)

The thing I love about having played soprano and alto recorder first is that I already was familiar with the fingering in the chalumeau register on the clarinet. Because the fingering in the chalumeau register is mostly like playing alto recorder and in the clarion it is mostly like playing soprano

[LarryS]

I quite like the idea of a recorder with  keys and rings like a clarinet. Turns out there is an instrument like that, the czakan, which were very popular in the 19th century