Editing Recorder (musical instrument) (section)

==Name==
The instrument has been known by its modern English name at least since the fourteenth century. David Lasocki reports the earliest use of "recorder" in the household accounts of the [[Earl of Derby]] (later [[Henry IV of England|King Henry IV]]) in 1388, which register {{Lang|la|i. fistula nomine Recordour}} (one pipe called 'Recordour').<ref name="ReferenceB2">David Lasocki, "Recorder", §I. 1: Nomenclature, ''Grove Music Online'', edited by Deane Root, Oxford Music Online {{subscription required}}.</ref>

By the fifteenth century, the name had appeared in English literature. The earliest references are in [[John Lydgate]]'s Temple of Glas ({{circa}}&nbsp;1430): ''{{Not a typo|These lytylle herdegromys Floutyn al the longe day..In here smale recorderys, In floutys}}.'' ('These little shepherds fluting all day long ... on these<!-- "here" also held the now obsolete meaning "gentle, mild, pleasant" --> small recorders, on flutes.')<ref>{{Cite book|title = Lydgate's Temple of Glas|last = Lydgate|first = John|author-link=John Lydgate|publisher = Oxford University Press|page = 64|editor-first = J.|editor-last = Schick|ref=none}}</ref> and in Lydgate's Fall of Princes ({{circa}} 1431–1438): ''{{Not a typo|Pan, god off Kynde, with his pipes seuene}}, / {{Not a typo|Off recorderis fond first the melodies}}.'' ('Pan, god of Nature, with his pipes seven, / of recorders found first the melodies.')<ref name="oed2-recorder3">{{cite OED2|recorder}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Lydgate's Fall of Princes|last = Lydgate|first = John|author-link=John Lydgate|publisher = Oxford University Press|pages = 270|editor-last = Bergen|editor-first = Henry|ref=none}}</ref>

=== Etymology ===
The instrument name ''recorder'' derives from the Latin {{Lang|la|recordārī}} (to call to mind, remember, recollect), by way of [[Middle French|Middle-French]] verb {{Lang|frm|recorder}} (before 1349; to remember, to learn by heart, repeat, relate, recite, play music)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|chapter=record, v.1|year = 2005|title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|edition = 3rd}}</ref><ref name="cnrtl1">{{Cite web|url = https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/dmf/recorder|title = recorder<sup>1</sup>, verbe|access-date = 5 February 2016|website = Dictionnaire du Moyen Français|publisher=[[Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales]]}}</ref> and its derivative {{Lang|frm|recordeur}} ({{circa|1395}}; one who retells, a minstrel).<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=recorder, n.<sup>2</sup> |year = 2005 |title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|edition = 3rd}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/dmf/recordeur?idf=complXrmYXcbdcfb;str=0|title = recordeur|access-date = 5 February 2016|website = Dictionnaire du Moyen Français|publisher=[[Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales]]}}</ref> The association between the various, seemingly-disparate, meanings of ''recorder'' can be attributed to the role of the medieval ''[[jongleur]]'' in learning poems by heart and later reciting them, sometimes with musical accompaniment.<ref name="cnrtl1" />

Appending the name ''recorder'' to the instrument itself is uniquely English: In Middle-French there is no equivalent noun sense of {{Lang|frm|recorder}} referring to a musical instrument.<ref name="cnrtl1" /> The English verb ''record'' (from Middle-French {{Lang|frm|recorder}}, early thirteenth century) meant "to learn by heart, to commit to memory, to go over in one's mind, to recite"; but the term did not refer to ''playing music'' until the sixteenth century. It was long after the English recorder was so-named that it gained two additional meanings: "silently practicing a tune", or "sing or render in song"—both referring almost-exclusively to songbirds.<ref name=":0" />

Partridge indicates that the use of the instrument by {{Lang|fr|jongleurs}} led to its association with the verb: {{Lang|fr|Recorder}} the minstrel's action, a ''recorder'' the minstrel's tool.<ref name="ReferenceB2"/><ref>{{Cite book|title = Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English|last = Partridge|first = Eric|publisher = Routledge|year = 1977}}</ref> The reason is uncertain why this flute instrument—rather than some other instrument played by the {{Lang|fr|jongleurs}})—is known as the recorder.

=== ''Flute'' and ''recorder'' ===
The introduction of the Baroque recorder to England by a group of French professionals in 1673 popularised the French name for the instrument, {{Lang|fr|flute douce}}, or simply {{Lang|fr|flute}}, a name previously (and subsequently) reserved for the transverse instrument. Until about 1695, the names ''recorder'' and ''flute'' overlapped, but from 1673 to the late 1720s in England, the word ''flute'' always meant recorder.<ref name="ReferenceB2"/> In the 1720s, as the transverse flute overtook the recorder in popularity, English adopted the convention already present in other European languages of qualifying the word ''flute'', calling the recorder variously the "common flute", "common English-flute", or simply "English flute" while the transverse instrument was distinguished as the "German flute" or simply "flute".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flute-a-bec.com/textestanesbygb.html|title=Stanesby : Tenor Recorder ("The True Concert Flute")|website=www.flute-a-bec.com}}</ref> Until at least 1765, some writers still used ''flute'' to mean recorder.<ref name="ReferenceB2"/>

=== Other languages ===
Until the mid-eighteenth century, musical scores written in Italian refer to the instrument as {{lang|it|flauto}}, whereas the transverse instrument was called {{lang|it|flauto traverso}}. This distinction, like the English switch from ''recorder'' to ''flute'', has caused confusion among modern editors, writers and performers.

Indeed, in most European languages, the first term for the recorder was the word for flute alone. In the present day, cognates of the word ''flute'', when used without qualifiers, remain ambiguous and may refer to either the recorder, the modern concert flute, or other non-western flutes. Starting in the 1530s, these languages began to add qualifiers to specify this particular flute.<ref name="ReferenceB2"/>