recorder names

[Judith R. Cohen <judithc...>]

In German it's "Blockflöte" , which is the most accurate name it has, I
think, because it describes what makes the recorder different from other
flutes ("ma nishtana he-khalil ha-zeh?"): the insertion of a block in
the mouthpiece which directs the sound and shapes it. That might also be
the best term for Yiddish. In French, it's called the flûte-à-bec, the
beaked flute, describing the shape of the mouthpiece but not the block
inserted. It´s also called the sweet or gentle flute, la flûte douce,
matching Spanish and Italian )flauta dulce/dolce) . The block is what
makes it both easy to play in a basically way and difficult to play
really well (sort of like learning English!): it´s easy to produce a
sound, but hard to really make it do what you want. Someone said Kurt
found the tone too bright and cheerful - recorder sound needn't be at
all bright and cheerful in fact, but the block makes it tricky to
produce major volume changes and note-bending, all that kind of thing -
it can be done but it's hard - which may be a main reason it's not very
suited to klezmer as it's shaped up in the past several decades - also
volume, if it's played with other instruments (tsimbl works but louder
instruments are another story). Judith

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