Editing Recorder (musical instrument) (section)

==== Repertoire ====
[[Jacob van Eyck]] composed a collection of about 140 melodies, each with a number of diminutions or variations, for solo soprano recorder.

During the baroque period, the recorder was traditionally associated with pastoral scenes, miraculous events, funerals, marriages, and amorous scenes. Images of recorders can be found in literature and artwork associated with all of these. [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]], [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J.&nbsp;S. Bach]], [[Georg Philipp Telemann|Telemann]], and [[Antonio Vivaldi|Vivaldi]] used the recorder to suggest shepherds and imitate birds in their music.<ref>Nicholas S. Lander [http://www.recorderhomepage.net The Recorder Homepage] (1996– ). Last accessed 30 June 2014.</ref>

Although the recorder achieved a greater level of standardisation in the Baroque than in previous periods, indeed it is the first period in which there was a "standard" size of recorder, ambiguous nomenclature and uncertain organological evidence have led to controversy regarding which instruments should be used in some "flute" parts from the period.

===== Fourth Brandenburg Concerto BWV 1049 =====
The concertino group of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach's]] fourth [[Brandenburg Concerto]] in G major, BWV 1049, consists of a {{Lang|it|violono principale}}, and {{lang|it|due fiauti d'echo}}, with [[ripieno]] strings. His later harpsichord transcription of this concerto, BWV 1057, lowers the key by a tone, as in all of Bach's harpsichord transcriptions, and is scored for solo harpsichord, two {{Lang|it|fiauti à bec}} and [[ripieno]] strings. The desired instrument for the {{Lang|it|fiauti d'echo}} parts in BWV 1049 has been a matter of perennial musicological and organological debate for two primary reasons: first, the term {{Lang|it|fiauto d'echo}} is not mentioned in dictionaries or tutors of the period; and second, the first {{Lang|it|fiauto}} part uses F#6, a note which is difficult to produce on a Baroque alto recorder in F4.

The instrumentation of BWV 1057 is uncontroversial: {{Lang|it|fiauti à bec}} unambiguously specifies recorders, and both parts have been modified to fit comfortably on altos in F4, avoiding, for example, an unplayable Eb4 in the second {{Lang|it|fiauto}} that would have resulted from a simple transposition of a tone.

For the first and last movements of the concerto, two opinions predominate: first, that both recorder parts should be played on alto recorders in F4; and second, that the first part should be played on an alto recorder in G and the second part on an alto in F. Tushaar Power has argued for the alto in G4 on the basis that Bach uses the high F#6, which can be easily played on an alto in G4, but not the low F4, a note not playable on the alto in G4. He corroborates this with other alto recorder parts in Bach's cantatas. [[Michael Marissen]] reads the repertoire differently, demonstrating that in other recorder parts, Bach used both the low F4 and F#6, as well as higher notes. Marissen argues that Bach was not as consistent as Power asserts, and that Bach would have almost certainly had access to only altos in F. He corroborates this with examinations of pitch standards and notation in Bach's cantatas, in which the recorder parts are sometimes written as transposing instruments to play with organs that sounded as much as a minor third above written pitch. Marissen also reads Bach's revisions to the recorder parts in BWV 1057 as indicative of his avoidance of F#6 in BWV 1049, a sign that he only used the difficult note when necessary in designing the part for an alto recorder in F4. He posits that Bach avoided F#6 in BWV 1049, at the cost of inferior counterpoint, reinstating them as E6 in BWV 1057.

In the second movement, breaking of beaming in the {{Lang|it|fiauto}} parts, markings of ''f'' and ''p,'' the fermata over the final double bar of the first movement, and the 21 bars of rest at the beginning of the third have led some musicologists to argue that Bach intended the use of "echo flutes" distinct from normal recorders in the second movement in particular. The breaking of beaming could be an indication of changes in register or tonal quality, the rests introduced to allow the players time to change instruments, and the markings of ''f'' and ''p'' further indicative of register or sound changes. Marissen has demonstrated that the ''f'' and ''p'' markings probably indicated tutti and solo sections rather than loud and soft ones.

A number of instruments other than normal recorders have been suggested for the {{Lang|it|fiauto d'echo}}. One of the earliest proposed alternatives, by [[Thurston Dart]], was the use of double flageolets, a suggestion since revealed to be founded on unsteady musicological grounds. Dart did, however, bring to light numerous newspaper references to Paisible's performance on an "echo flute" between 1713 and 1718. Another contemporary reference to the "echo flute" is in [[Étienne Loulié|Etienne Loulié's]] {{Lang|fr|Elements ou principes de musique}} (Amsterdam, 1696): {{Lang|fr|Les sons de deux flutes d'echo sont differents, parce que l'un est fort, & que l'autre est foible}} (The sounds of two echo flutes are different, because one is strong and the other is weak). Loulié is unclear on why one would need two echo flutes to play strongly and weakly, and on why it is that echo flutes differ. Perhaps the echo flute was composed in two halves: one which plays strongly, the other weakly? On this we can only speculate.

Surviving instruments which are candidates for echo flutes include an instrument in Leipzig which consists of two recorders of different tonal characteristics joined at the head and footjoints by brass flanges. There is also evidence of double recorders tuned in thirds, but these are not candidates for the {{Lang|it|fiauto}} parts in BWV 1049.

===== "{{Lang|it|Concerti per flautino|italic=no}}" RV 443, 444, 445 =====
[[Antonio Vivaldi|Vivaldi]] wrote three concertos for the {{lang|it|flautino}}, possibly for performance by students at the [[Ospedale della Pietà]] in Venice, where he taught and composed in the early eighteenth century. They feature virtuosic solo writing, and along with his concerto RV 441 and trio sonata RV 86 are his most virtuosic recorder works. They each survive a single hastily written manuscript copy, each titled {{Lang|it|Con.to per Flautino}} (Concerto for little flute) with the additional note {{Lang|it|Gl'istrom.ti trasportati alla 4a}} (The instruments transpose by a fourth) in RV 443 and {{Lang|it|Gl'istrom.ti alla 4ta Bassa}} (The instruments lower by a fourth) in RV 445. The three concertos RV 443, 444, and 445 are notated in C major, C major and A minor respectively. Also of note is the occasional use of notes outside the normal two octave compass of the recorder: the range of the solo sections is two octaves from notated F4 to notated F6, however there is a single notated C4 in the first movement of RV 444, a notated E4 in a tutti section in the first movement of RV 443 and low E4 in multiple tutti sections of RV 445.

A number of possible {{Lang|it|flautini}} have been proposed as the instrument intended for the performance of these concertos. The first suggestion was the use of the one keyed piccolo, or another small transverse flute, however such instruments had fallen out of use in Venice by the generally accepted time of composition of these concertos in the 1720s, and this opinion is no longer considered well supported. Another suggestion, first proposed by Peter Thalheimer, is the "French" flageolet (see Flageolets below) in G5, which was notated in D4, appearing a fourth lower, possibly explaining the note in the margins of RV 443 and RV 445 ({{Lang|it|Gl'istromti transportati alla 4a}}) and supported by Bismantova (1677 rev. 1694) and Bonanni (1722) which equate {{Lang|it|flautino}} to the flageolet. However this suggestion has been opposed by the presence of notated F{{sub|4}} and F{{music|#}}{{sub|4}} which are not within the typical compass of the flageolet, although they may be produced through the covering of the bell, sometimes combined with underblowing, as attested by theorists as early as Cardano (c.&nbsp;1546) and as late as Bellay (c.&nbsp;1800).<ref>{{Cite journal|title = 'Flautino' und 'Flasolet' bei Antonio Vivaldi|last = Thalheimer|first = Peter|date = 1998|journal = Tibia|issue = 2|volume = 23|pages = 97–105|trans-title = 'Flautino' and 'Flasolet' in Antonio Vivaldi's works}}</ref>

Two instruments are conventionally accepted today for the performance of these concertos, the sopranino recorder, notated like an alto but sounding an octave higher, and the soprano recorder, following the instruction to transpose the parts down by a fourth. [[Winfried Michel]] was first to argue in favour of the soprano recorder in 1983, when he proposed to take Vivaldi at his word and transpose the string parts down a fourth and play the {{Lang|it|flautino}} part on a soprano recorder in C5 (also "fifth-flute") using the English practice of notating such flutes as transposing instruments using the fingerings of an alto recorder. Michel notes that this transposition allows for the use of the violins' and viola's lowest strings (in sections where they provide the accompaniment without bass) and the lowest two notes of the 'cello. He attributes the presence of notes not in the recorder's normal compass to Vivaldi's haste, noting that these notes do not appear in the solo sections.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Vivaldis Konzerte 'per Flautino' in ihrer wahren Gestalt: Ein letzter Leseversuch|last = Michel|first = Winfried|date = 1998|journal = Tibia|issue = 2|volume = 23|pages = 106–111|trans-title = Vivaldi's concertos 'per flautino' in their true form: A final attempt at a reading}}</ref> He has edited editions of RV 443 and RV 445 for soprano recorder in G major and E minor respectively. [[Federico Maria Sardelli]] concurs with Michel in supposing that the margin note was intended to allow the performance of the concertos on the soprano recorder on a specific occasion, however concludes that they were probably written for the sopranino recorder in F5, noting that small transverse flutes had fallen out of use in Italy by Vivaldi's time, the paucity of flageolets in Italy, the range of the parts, and uses of the {{Lang|it|flautino}} in vocal arias.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1225&context=ppr|title = "Vivaldi's Music for Flute and Recorder" by Federico Sardelli|last = Bowers|first = Jane|date = 2008|journal = Performance Practice Review|doi = 10.5642/perfpr.200813.01.09|issue = 9|volume = 13|pages = 1–8|doi-access = free}}</ref>