In defense of the recorder

[Hope Ehn Dennis Ehn <ehn...>]

I started this thread by asking for a Yiddish word for "recorder." 
Unfortunately, it seems to have become a thread devoted to
recorder-bashing. 

On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Karen Harker wrote:

> I agree that there would be difficulties in using this instrument for
> Jewish music, in particular with the difficulty in note-bending.

> While the tone of the instrument could be changed, it is usually with
> great difficulty and using such measures that effectively change the
> instrument. 

I don't want to start a "flame war," but I have to challenge those
statements, as well as some made earlier by other people, about the
recorder. It would be helpful if people who wish to discuss the
capabilities of the recorder actually had a lot of experience playing that
instrument. I have played recorder for at least 30 years, and teach it to
student groups at the Cambridge (MA) Center for Adult Education, as well
as coaching recorder players as part of leading Renaissance and Baroque
music ensembles there. 

The recorder is more capable that has been implied: 

 1) Notes can be bent (i.e. pitch changed) with breath pressure. Much to
    my surprise and that of my recorder students, I do this (on a plastic
    soprano recorder) without even thinking about it when playing Klezmer
    music with them. 

 2) It is also possible to change the tone so that the recorder sounds
    different from its usual early-instrument sound -- although I have not
    yet figured out how to explain this in technical terms. 

 3) While many recorders, including good plastic ones, do have a coupling
    between pitch and volume, expensive wooden recorders do have the
    capacity to change volume without changing pitch. This *does not*
    require making physical alterations to the instrument. 

 4) It is *not* reasonable to assume that recorders are too quiet to play
    with other instruments. Some are, but not all. Some recorders are very
    loud: I have a blackwood alto that can balance an oboe. It has *not*
    been altered physically to produce this volume. 

 5) Almost any decent soprano recorder, including a good plastic one,
    should work with more usual Klezmer instruments, because it is pitched
    so much higher: a soprano recorder will sound an octave higher than a
    flute or oboe playing the same part. 

 6) If one is discussing a group made up *entirely* of recorders, then few
    recorders are too soft. 

 7) Whether or not one likes the recorder, it is hardly reasonable to
    claim that recorder groups should not play Klezmer music. Some of
    these people don't play any other instrument -- or any other
    instrument that would be appropriate for such music. 

I have had adult student groups ask to play Klezmer music; they'd be quite
dissatisfied if I had to tell them that I couldn't give them any such
music because it had been deemed to be "politically incorrect" for them to
play it. Suggestions that people should not play Klezmer music on recorder
remind me of a music history teacher I had in college: he insisted that
early music should never be performed, because the performers might do it
wrong. 

In my opinion, it is reasonable to play Klezmer music on any instrument
that can fit the music, as long as there is no deception involved. I would
consider deception to be involved if a group were to advertise itself as
an "ordinary" Klezmer band while actually using entirely different
instruments. I am sure that a professional recorder consort would be
entirely capable of playing Klezmer music to the satisfaction of anyone
who didn't have preconceived notions about which instruments would be
acceptable. I agree that such a group should make it clear that they would
be using recorders. 

Deception is also involved when groups claim to be professional, but don't
sound that way. On at least one occasion, I bought a ticket for a concert
by a "professional" Klezmer group, playing the usual instruments, that was
so bad that I was tempted to ask for my money back! I would much rather
have heard the music played *well* on recorders, kazoos, or anything else. 

Hope Ehn                       <ehn (at) world(dot)std(dot)com>

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