I never expected my first wooden recorders to be Renaissance recorders

Oct 21, 2013 · 2 minute read · Comments
musicrecorderPittsburgh Recorder SocietyPittsburghRenaissanceBaroqueJacob Van Eyck

Yesterday, I noted that I picked up two recorders during the Pittsburgh Recorder Society meeting.

They were these Renaissance instruments:

Nice maple recorders, Mollenhauer Kynseker models:

• Kynseker Soprano 4107
• Kynseker Alto 4217

These are my very first wooden recorders. All my other recorders are Yamaha plastic recorders, because they are inexpensive and easy to maintain. I’ve periodically considered buying wooden recorders, but to get some of clearly higher quality than the plastic ones is expensive!

Why bother with Renaissance?

I jumped at the opportunity to bid in the auction for these two Renaissance recorders to acquire them inexpensively.

Up till recently, I wouldn’t have considered buying Renaissance recorders at all, because of the difference in construction and tonal quality from the Baroque-style recorders that I have and that we play in the Pittsburgh Recorder Society meetings.

But this summer at the Mideast early music workshop, I paid attention to people playing Renaissance recorders (for Renaissance music and other music too) and found the louder and “reedier” sound intriguing. I could see myself playing them in contexts in which this kind of sound quality would be advantageous.

So now I have these two wooden recorders to play with.

Note that the solo soprano recorder music by Jacob van Eyck from the Renaissance that I played last year would have entirely been suited to my new soprano Renaissance recorder! I may revisit that music to play it on the new instrument.