The recorder revival is largely due to the efforts of Carl Dolmetsch, one of the first acknowledged recorder virtuosos of the 20th century.

A Choice "Best Academic" book in its first edition, The Recorder remains an essential resource for anyone who wants to know about this instrument. This new edition is thoroughly redone, takes account of the publishing activity of the years since its first publication, and still follows the original organization.

The fascinating story of a hugely popular instrument, detailing its rich and varied history from the Middle Ages to the present The recorder is perhaps best known today for its educational role. Although it is frequently regarded as a stepping-stone on the path toward higher musical pursuits, this role is just one recent facet of the recorder's fascinating history--which spans professional and amateur music-making since the Middle Ages. In this new addition to the Yale Musical Instrument Series, David Lasocki and Robert Ehrlich trace the evolution of the recorder. Emerging from a variety of flutes played by fourteenth-century soldiers, shepherds, and watchmen, the recorder swiftly became an artistic instrument for courtly and city minstrels. Featured in music by the greatest Baroque composers, including Bach and Handel, in the twentieth century it played a vital role in the Early Music Revival and achieved international popularity and notoriety in mass education. Overall, Lasocki and Ehrlich make a case for the recorder being surprisingly present, and significant, throughout Western music history.

"This title was first published in 2003. Between 1939 and 1989 the recorder virtuoso Carl Dolmetsch gave 45 concerts at the Wigmore Hall in London, all but a few with harpsichordist Joseph Saxby. The highlight of these concerts was the performance of a specially commissioned work. Many important twentieth-century composers contributed to this corpus of works, including Lennox Berkeley, York Bowen, Arnold Cooke, Gordon Jacob and Edmund Rubbra. This book is the first to explore this repertoire in depth. Each of the 'Dolmetsch' works is catalogued and discussed in detail. Drawing on much previously unexplored correspondence and manuscript scores held in the Dolmetsch Archive in Haslemere, Andrew Mayes places this music in the wider context of the twentieth-century recorder revival and surveys the influence these works have had on recorder music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. His analyses of the works includes composers' programme notes, supplemented where possible with information directly from the composers."--Provided by publisher.

A practical guide to the history, music and technique of the recorder.

This book addresses key questions about the materials used for the wind instruments of classical symphony orchestra such as flutes, clarinets, saxophones, oboes, bassoons and pipe organs. The content of this book is structured into four parts. Part 1- Description of materials for wind instruments deals with wood species and materials for reeds used for making clarinet, oboe and bassoon- and, with metallic materials and alloys for - horn, trumpet, trombone, etc. Auxiliary materials associated with the manufacturing of wind instruments are felt, cork, leather and parchment. Part 2- Basic acoustics of wind instruments, in which are presented succinctly, some pertinent aspects related to the physics of the resonant air column. An important aspect discussed is related to the effect of wall material on the vibration modes of the walls of wind instruments. The methods for measuring the acoustical properties of wind instruments are presented. Part 3- Manufacturing of wind instruments, describes the technology used in manufacturing metallic tubes and pipes made of wood. Part 4 - The durability and degradation of materials addresses data about methods for cleaning wind instruments, studies factors producing degradation of organ pipes, describes methods of conservation and restoration of brass instruments and of historical pipe organs. Finally, the properties of marble are described, being the only one nondegradable and sustainable material used for pipes for organs.