RECORDER SHEET MUSIC: Little Song - W.A. Mozart | Page 3

Recorder has a very rich history
Important in today’s music
The rebirth of the recorder

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RAED &
LEARN

THE HISTORY OF THE RECORDER
The soprano baroque recorder has a very
rich history and the first known examples
of this instrument date back to many
years ago. Its popularity throughout the
years has grown, declined and was then
reborn.

In the past, recorders were enjoyed by
common men but also by kings and
queens. They were often made of boxwood, but the recorders owned by kings
and queens would be decorated with
ivory, or even entirely made of ivory!

The soprano baroque recorder has a
very rich history and the first known examples of this instrument date back to
many years ago. Its popularity throughout the years has grown, declined and
was then reborn.

The popularity of the recorder declined
in the 18th century and it was replaced
by the modern flute, the oboe, the
clarinet and other such instruments.
The recorder started being considered a
historic instrument and was very rarely
seen even during the 19th century.

This woodwind musical instrument
differentiates itself from other instruments because it has holes for seven
fingers and a thumb. This makes it
easily recognizable among other whistle-like instruments. It probably evolved
in the 14th century, but even before that
one can find many paintings and illustrations depicting “pipes” which could
possibly be recorders. However, we can
never know for sure what they are.

However, this was not the end of the
soprano baroque recorder. It was revived during the 20th century thanks to
various German scholars and performers as well as the France-born musician
Arnold Dolmetsch. Many compositions
have been written for the recorder
during the 20th century. Thanks to
this, today the recorder is no longer
an instrument of antiquity but it has
regained its popularity and can even be
found in seven different sizes, starting
from as small as 9 inches to up to 8
feet in length.

The recorder was very popular during
the Medieval and the Renaissance periods until the Baroque era. Many songs
and dances have been written for the
recorder. In fact, during this time the
recorder was a very popular instrument for dance music. Many surviving
recorders from the Renaissance period
can still be found today, and one can
clearly recognize recorders in various
paintings from Medieval times.

Even though the recorder has existed
for very long and has lost its popularity
for certain periods of time, it is once
again a popular instrument today and
plays a very important part in today’s
music.

HARDPLPlay Harder.
YED
Live Hard.

HARDPLPlay Harder.
YED
Live Hard.

Little Song - W.A. Mozart

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