Ten Top Facts about the Recorder

Southern Sinfonia is very excited about this week’s Café Concert, taking place at Newbury Corn Exchange on Friday 5^th July at 1.00pm. The event will feature the UK’s leading recorder ensemble, ‘The Flautadors’. Formed in 1997, this award winning quartet have appeared at major festivals, been played on various radio stations, released a number of recordings and undertaken a series of established education projects.

The group aspire to recreate the 15^th-18^th centuries, playing on a number of recorders of various designs, choosing the perfect design style to match the music being performed.

In honour of The Flautadors’ upcoming performance and chosen instrument, Southern Sinfonia would like to present its Ten Top facts about the beautiful woodwind instrument that is the recorder:

1. Most commonly, the smallest recorder played is the ‘Sopranino’, which is usually 24cm long. The largest is the ‘Contra Bass’, which is often 152cm. Both are played in the key of F.
2. The largest fully functioning recorder ever made was 5m long. Each hole was 8.5 cm wide and it was created from specially treated pine. The finished product was as tall as a giraffe!
3. Learning to play the recorder is very popular in schools because it teaches children about coordination.
4. The first English reference to the word recorder meaning a musical instrument appeared in 1388, when it was spelled ‘Recourdour’.
5. One of the oldest surviving wooden recorders is a 14^th century renaissance descant recorder found in Holland.
6. The Italian word for the recorder is ‘flauto dolce' which translates as ‘soft, sweet flute’.
7. King Henry VIII played and collected recorders; he had 76 in his collection when he died. 
8. Shakespeare used a recorder to produce incidental music for ‘Hamlet’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
9. Musicians Paul McCartney, Dido and Bruce Spingsteen can all play the recorder. James Dean is also supposed to have learnt to play Bach on the instrument.
10. 3.5 million plastic recorders are produced each year. 

Our Café Concert on Friday 5^th July is the perfect opportunity to see this wonderful instrument expertly played. Click here to buy tickets for the event and see The Flautadors bring the 16^th Century to life.

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