Editing Recorder (musical instrument) (section)

== Nomenclature ==
Since the fifteenth century, a variety of sizes of recorder have been documented, but a consistent terminology and notation for the different sizes was not formulated until the twentieth century.

=== <span class="anchor" id="Types of recorder"></span> Modern recorders ===
Today, recorder sizes are named after the different vocal ranges. This is not, however, a reflection of sounding pitch, and serves primarily to denote the pitch relationships between the different instruments. Groups of recorders played together are referred to as "consorts". Recorders are also often referred to by their lowest sounding note: "recorder in F" refers to a recorder with lowest note<!-- n.b. this refers to the note 01234567, which may not be the lowest fingered note or even the lowest playable note --> F, in any octave.

The table in this section shows the standard names of modern recorders in F and C and their respective ranges. Music composed after the modern revival of the recorder most frequently uses soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders, although sopranino and great bass are also fairly common.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|title = Catalogue of Recorder Repertoire: Advanced search|url = http://www.blokfluit.org/modern/search-by-title/advanced-search/|website = www.blokfluit.org|access-date = 4 February 2016}}</ref> Consorts of recorders are often referred to using the terminology of organ registers: 8′ (8 foot) pitch referring to a consort sounding as written, 4′ pitch a consort sounding an octave above written, and 16′ a consort sounding an octave below written. The combination of these consorts is also possible.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Woodwind Instruments and Their History|last = Baines|first = Anthony|year = 1957|page = 248}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=6|Ranges of the modern recorder family
|-
! In C
! Written
! Sounding
! In F
! Written
! Sounding
|- style="text-align:right;"
| [[Garklein recorder|garklein flutlein]] or sopranissimo<br />or piccolo in C<sub>6</sub> (c‴)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef "treble^15" \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c''' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| [[Sopranino recorder|sopranino]] in F<sub>5</sub> (f″)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f' {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef "treble^8" \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f'' {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|- style="text-align:right;"
| [[Soprano recorder|soprano]] or descant in C<sub>5</sub> (c″)<br /><br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef "treble^8" \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c'' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| [[Alto recorder|alto]] or treble in F<sub>4</sub> (f′)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f' {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f' {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|- style="text-align:right;"
| [[Tenor recorder|tenor]] in C<sub>4</sub> (c′)
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef treble \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c' {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| [[Bass recorder|bass]] or basset in F<sub>3</sub> (f)
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f, {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f {f!4 \glissando \clef treble g''!}
     }
   </score>
|- style="text-align:right;"
| [[Great bass recorder|(great) bass]] or quart-bass in C<sub>3</sub> (c)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c, {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c {c!4 \glissando \clef treble d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| [[Contrabass recorder|contrabass]] or great bass<br />or sub-bass in F<sub>2</sub> (F)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f, {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f, {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|- style="text-align:right;"
| [[Sub-great bass recorder|sub-great bass]] or contra-great bass<br />or contrabass in C<sub>2</sub> (C)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c, {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">{
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c, {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }</score>
|| [[Sub-contrabass recorder|sub-contrabass]] or double contrabass <br />(octocontrabass) in F<sub>1</sub> (FF)<br />
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f, {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score lang="lilypond">{
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef "bass_8" \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative f,, {f!4 \glissando g''!}
     }</score>
|- style="text-align:right;"
| sub-sub-great bass<br />in C<sub>1</sub> (CC)<ref>{{Cite web|title = Sub-Subgroßbassblockflöte "Direct Blow", Solo, Sonderlackierung, Paetzold by Kunath|url = https://www.kunath.com/Sub-Subgrossbassblockfloete-Direct-Blow-Solo-Sonderlackierung-Paetzold-by-Kunath/29DB-SL/|website = www.kunath.com|access-date = 4 May 2025|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250504195912/https://www.kunath.com/Sub-Subgrossbassblockfloete-Direct-Blow-Solo-Sonderlackierung-Paetzold-by-Kunath/29DB-SL|archive-date = 4 May 2025|url-status = live}}</ref>
|| <score lang="lilypond">
     {
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef bass \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c, {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }
   </score>
|| <score>{
       \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
       \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
       \clef "bass_8" \omit Score.TimeSignature
       \relative c,, {c!4 \glissando d''!}
     }</score>
|| 
|| 
|| 
|}

As a rule of thumb, the [[tessitura]] of a baroque recorder lies approximately one octave above the tessitura of the human voice type after which it is named. For example, the tessitura of a soprano voice is roughly C<sub>4</sub>–C<sub>6</sub>, while the tessitura of a soprano recorder is C<sub>5</sub>–C<sub>7</sub>.

Modern variations include standard British terminology, due to [[Arnold Dolmetsch]], which refers to the recorder in C<sub>5</sub> (soprano) as the descant and the recorder in F<sub>4</sub> (alto) as the treble. As conventions and instruments vary, especially for larger and more uncommon instruments, it is often practical to state the recorder's lowest note along with its name to avoid confusion.

==== Notation ====
Modern recorder parts are notated in the key they sound in. Parts for alto, tenor and contrabass recorders are notated at pitch, while parts for sopranino, soprano, bass, and great bass are typically notated an octave below their sounding pitch. As a result, soprano and tenor recorders are notated identically; alto and sopranino are notated identically; and bass and contrabass recorders are notated identically. [[Clef#Octave clefs|Octave clefs]] may be used to indicate the sounding pitch, but usage is inconsistent.

Rare sizes and notations include the [[Garklein recorder|garklein flutlein]], which may be notated two octaves below its sounding pitch, and the sub-contrabass, which may be notated an octave above its sounding pitch.{{Clarify|date=August 2018|reason=Is there any music written specifically for either of these instruments? If so, where can the notation be verified?}}

=== Historical recorders ===
The earliest known document mentioning "a pipe called Recordour" dates from 1388.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rowland-Jones |first=Anthony |date=Autumn 2016 |title=The Invention of the Recorder |magazine=The Recorder Magazine |volume=36 |issue=3 |page=81 |publisher=Peacock Press |location=[[Hebden Bridge]] }}</ref>
Historically, recorders were used to play vocal music and parts written for other instruments, or for a general instrument. As a result, it was frequently the performers' responsibility to read parts not specifically intended for the instrument and to choose appropriate instruments. When such consorts consisted only of recorders, the pitch relationships between the parts were typically preserved, but when recorders were combined with other instruments, octave discrepancies were often ignored.{{sfn|Baines|1957|page=242}}

Recorder consorts in the sixteenth century were tuned in fifths and only occasionally employed tuning by octaves as seen in the modern C, F recorder consort. This means that consorts could be composed of instruments nominally in B{{music|flat}}, F, C, G, D, A and even E, although typically only three or four distinct sizes were used simultaneously. To use modern terminology, these recorders were treated as transposing instruments: consorts would be read identically to a consort made up of F<sub>3</sub>, C<sub>4</sub>, and G<sub>4</sub> instruments. This is made possible by the fact that adjacent sizes are separated by fifths, with few exceptions. These parts would be written using [[Chiavette|''chiavi naturali'']], allowing the parts to roughly fit in the range of a single staff, and also in the range of the recorders of the period. (see [[#Structure 2|Renaissance structure]])

Transpositions ("registers"), such as C<sub>3</sub>–G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>, G<sub>3</sub>–D<sub>4</sub>–A<sub>4</sub>, or B{{music|flat}}<sub>2</sub>–F<sub>3</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>, all read as F<sub>3</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>4</sub> instruments, were possible as described by [[Michael Praetorius|Praetorius]] in his ''[[Syntagma Musicum]]''. Three sizes of instruments could be used to play four-part music by doubling the middle size, e.g. F<sub>3</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>4</sub>, or play six-part music by doubling the upper size and tripling the middle size, e.g. F<sub>3</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–C<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>4</sub>–G<sub>4</sub>.<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|title = Adrian Brown Recorders: Recorder Types|url = http://www.adrianbrown.org/recorder_types/index.html|website = www.adrianbrown.org|access-date = 9 February 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184153/http://www.adrianbrown.org/recorder_types/index.html|archive-date = 3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Modern nomenclature for such recorders refers to the instruments' relationship to the other members of consort, rather than their absolute pitch, which may vary. The instruments from lowest to highest are called "great bass", "bass", "basset", "tenor", "alto", and "soprano". Potential sizes include: great bass in F<sub>2</sub>; bass in B{{music|flat}}<sub>2</sub> or C<sub>3</sub>; basset in F<sub>3</sub> or G<sub>3</sub>; tenor in B{{flat}}<sub>3</sub>, C<sub>4</sub> or D<sub>4</sub>; alto in F<sub>4</sub>, G<sub>4</sub> or A<sub>4</sub>; and soprano in C<sub>5</sub> or D<sub>5</sub>.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url = http://www.adrianbrown.org/cgi-bin/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&view_search=1|title = Renaissance recorder database|last = Brown|first = Adrian|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160216033730/http://www.adrianbrown.org/cgi-bin/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&view_search=1|archive-date = 16 February 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The alto in F<sub>4</sub> is the standard recorder of the Baroque, although there is a small repertoire written for other sizes.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|title = Catalogue of Recorder Repertoire: Advanced search|url = http://www.blokfluit.org/historical/search/advanced/|website = www.blokfluit.org|access-date = 4 February 2016}}</ref><ref name=":10">Andrew Mayes: "Carl Dolmetsch and the Recorder Repertoire of the 20th Century", Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2003, {{ISBN|0-7546-0968-5}}: p. 241: "Prompted by the scarcity of solo music for bass recorder, Carl Dolmetsch has written this lively gavotte..."; p. 248: "There appears to be so small a repertoire for tenor recorder that I decided to write this 'plaint'."</ref> In seventeenth-century England, smaller recorders were named for their relationship to the alto and notated as transposing instruments with respect to it: third flute (A<sub>4</sub>), fifth flute (soprano; C<sub>5</sub>), sixth flute (D<sub>5</sub>), and octave flute (sopranino; F<sub>5</sub>).<ref>{{IMSLP|work=Recorder Concerto in F major (Sammartini, Giuseppe)|cname=Recorder Concerto in F major (Sammartini)}}</ref><ref>{{IMSLP|work=6 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op.3 (Babell, William)|cname=6 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op. 3 (Babell)}}</ref> The term ''flute du quart'', or fourth flute (B{{music|flat}}<sub>4</sub>), was used by Charles Dieupart, although curiously he treated it as a transposing instrument in relation to the soprano rather than the alto. In Germanic countries, the equivalent of the same term, ''Quartflöte'', was applied both to the tenor in C<sub>4</sub>, the interval being measured down from the alto in F<sub>4</sub>, and to a recorder in C<sub>5</sub> (soprano), the interval of a fourth apparently being measured up from an alto in G<sub>4</sub>.<ref name="ReferenceB2" /> Recorder parts in the Baroque were typically notated using the treble clef, although they may also be notated in French violin clef (G clef on the bottom line of the staff).

In modern usage, recorders not in C or F are alternatively referred to using the name of the closest instrument in C or F, followed by the lowest note. For example, a recorder with lowest note G<sub>4</sub> may be known as a G-alto or alto in G, a recorder with lowest note D<sub>5</sub> (also "sixth flute") as a D-soprano or soprano in D, and a recorder in G<sub>3</sub> as a G-bass or G-basset. This usage is not totally consistent. Notably, the baroque recorder in D<sub>4</sub> is not commonly referred to as a D-tenor nor a D-alto; it is most commonly referred to using the historical name "[[voice flute]]".