A comprehensive database of quotations that refer to the recorder may be accessed via the interactive table below.
The database contains quotations, mostly in English, that refer to the recorder directly or indirectly including cognates of the words ‘recorder’, ‘tibia’, ‘fistula’, ‘pipe’, ‘still pipe’, ‘still music’, ‘flute’, and others. It covers the period 1100 to the present day and is drawn from dictionaries, poems, plays, libretti, short stories, novels and manuals on the training of singing birds and natural history.
The operation of the interactive table is (or should be) self-explanatory. The abbreviated citations in the References field of each record refer to items listed in the Bibliography which is accessible via the side panel to the right of this page.
Where dates, titles, authors or other details are obscure, erroneous or missing I would appreciate further information.
| First Date | Last Date | Title | Author | Quote | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1100 | 1200 | MS, Glasgow University | Anonymous | … fistula anglica … | Mentions ‘fistula anglica’, which has been taken to be a recorder by Braggard & Hen (1967: 57), but this assertion is apparently a garbled combined reference to an illustration in the so-called Hunterian Psalter showing King David tuning his harp and surrounded by musicians, including players of the triple pipe (panpipes?) and bagpipe; and the Latin name for the recorder used by Marin Mersenne in his L’Harmonie Universelle (1635). Mersenne describes the English Flute as ‘Fistula dulcis seu Anglica’. However, I note that an anonymous 15th-century Nominale (Royal Library, British Museum, MS. Reg 17, C XXVII, fol. 43, v°) includes the entry: “Hec fistula, Anglice pype” (see Wright 1857: 216, footnote). | Braggard & Hen (1967) Lasocki (2012: 5-6) Welch (1911/1961: 110) Wright 1857: 216, footnote). |
| 1174 | 1272 | Altercacio inter filomenam et bubonem: The owl and the nightingale | attributed to Nicholas de Guildford | Þe niȝtingale bigon þe speche In one hurne of one breche, And sat up one vaire boȝe – Þar were abute blosme inoȝe – In ore vaste þicke hegge, Imeind mid spire and grene segge. Ho was þe gladur vor þe rise And song a vele cunne wise. Bet þuȝte þe dreim þat he were Of harpe and pipe þan he nere, Bet þuȝte þat he were ishote Of harpe and pipe þan of þrote. The nightingale began the argument in the corner of a clearing, and perched on a beautiful branch – there was plenty of blossom around it – in an impenetrable thick hedge, with reeds and green sedge growing through it. She was all the happier because of the branch, and sang in many different ways; the music sounded as if it came from a harp or a pipe rather than from a living throat. Ac þu singest alle longe niȝt From eve fort hit is dailiȝt, And evre leist þin o song So longe so þe niȝt is long, And evre croweþ þi wrecche crei Þat he ne swikeþ niȝt ne dai. Mid þine pipinge þu adunest Þas monnes earen þar þu wunest And makest þine song so unwurþ Þat me ne telþ of þar noȝt wurþ. Evrich mur3þe mai so longe ileste Þat ho shal liki wel unwreste; Vor harpe and pipe and fuȝeles song Mislikeþ ȝif hit is to long. But you sing all night long, from evening till dawn, and your song lasts as long as the night does, and your wretched throat keeps on trilling without stopping, night or day. You constantly assault the ears of those who live around you with your piping, and make your song so cheap that it loses all its value. Every pleasure can last so long that it ceases to please; because harp and pipe and birdsong all grow tiresome if they last too long. However delightful a song may be, it will seem very tedious if it goes on longer than we would like. | The Owl and the Nightingale is a Middle English poem detailing a debate between an owl and a nightingale as overheard by the poem’s narrator. It is the earliest example in Middle English of a literary form known as debate poetry (or verse contest). Nicholas of Guildford is mentioned several times in the text as the man best suited to judge which bird presents the strongest argument. His character never actually makes an appearance, and the poem ends with the debate unresolved and the owl and nightingale flying off in search of Nicholas. Critics tend to agree that the most likely reason for the mention of Nicholas of Guildford in the poem is because he is the author. But there is no firm evidence to support such an identification and no certain trace of the existence of any Nicholas of Guildford, priest of Portesham, beyond the text itself. There are two known manuscripts of The Owl and the Nightingale: ff. 156-68, Jesus College, Oxford, MS. 29 and ff. 233-46 of British Museum M.S. Cotton Caligula A.IX. Both are bound together in collections of other works. They are both estimated to have been written in the latter half of the 13th century and copied from one earlier exemplar which is now lost. | e-Text here Translation here |
| 1295 | 1338 | Manipulus Florum: Ecclesia | Thomas de Hibernia (fl. 1295-1338) | Said (in error) by Grattan Flood (1905) to mention the recorder by name. | A collection of authoritative Latin quotations on a variety of moral and theological topics, first printed in 1483 and existing in a large number of early imprints (at least 26 editions between 1550 and 1600 alone). However, Chris L. Nighman (pers. comm., 2008) reports that the Manipulus Florum is really not a source for an early reference to the recorder after all. He notes that only the word ‘tybie’ (tibie/tibiae) which is from a biblical text (Ecclesiasticus 40:21) is cited by the compiler of the Manipulus. A check of the modern edition of the Vulgate Bible (Vatican, 1979) shows that the term ‘tibiae’ is indeed used in this line. In the Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha (1962) it is translated as ‘flute’. Tybie et psalterium suauem faciunt melodiam et super utraque lingua suauis ecclesiastici XL. glossa. Hec naturaliter mulcent et exhilarant animam, sed lingua suauiter docens plus confortat intellectum. [The flute and the psaltery make sweet music, but a pleasant voice is above them both (Eclesiastes 40). Gloss. They naturally soothe and exhilarate the soul, but a clever tongue teaches us more than does the intellect.] | e-Text here Flood, G (1905, 1913: 87) Nighman, C.L. (2001-2014) |
| 1300 | 1400 | King Richard Coeur de Lion: 3417-3430 | Anonymous | At noon “a laver” the waytes blew; Þe messangeres naught ne newe Richaryds law ne hys custome. Sade the kyng: “Frendes ye are welcome!” To hem he was cumpanyable, Þey were set a syde table. Salt was set on but, no bred, Ne watyr, ne wyn, whyt ne red. The Sarazynes sate, and gunne to stare, And thought: “Allas, how schal we fare?” King Richard was set on des, With dukes and earlys prowd in pres; Fro kechene com þe fyrste cours, WiÞ pypes, and trumpes, and tabours. [At noon a fanfare the waits blew; The messengers nothing knew of Richard’s law or his customs. Said the king: “Friends, you are welcome!” To them he was companionable, They were set aside a table. Salt was set on it, but no bread, No water, no wine, white or red. The Saracens sat and began to stare, And thought: “Alas, how shall we fare?” King Richard was set on a dias, With proud dukes and earls in threes; From the kitchen came the first course, With pipes and trumpets, and tabors.] | A metrical romance about King Richard I of England based on a lost Anglo-Norman romance dating from c. 1230-1250. The name of the Middle English author is unknown, but he is thought to have been from south-east England, and he may also have written the romances Of Arthour and of Merlin and King Alisaunder. ‘Pypes’ probably refers to shawms or bagpipes. | e-Text here Kurath, H. (1960: 670) Weber, H. (1860: 134) |
| 1300 | 1400 | Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight: verse vi, lines 118-122 | Anonymous | Þen þe first cors come with crakkyng of trumpes, Wyth mony baner ful bryȝt þat þerbi henged; Nwe nakryn noyse with þe noble pipes, Wylde werbles and wyȝt wakned lote, Þat mony hert ful hiȝe hef at her towches. [Then the first course came in with a blaring of trumpets, Which were hung with many bright banners. A new noise of nakers with the noble pipes, Wild and stirring melodies wakened the echoes; That many a heart leapt full high at their tones.] | An alliterative romance, from British Library MS Coton Nero A.x which appears to have been written by the same author as the romances known as Pearl, Patience and Purity or Cleanliness). Here ‘noble pipes’ probably refers to shawms or bagpipes. | e-Text here Tolkien et al. (1967) |
| 1300 | 1400 | King Richard Coeur de Lion: 6676-6687 & 6705-6716 | Anonymous | It was before the heygh myd nyght, The moon and the sterres schon ful bryght, Kyng Richard unto Jaffe was come, With hys galeyes alle and some. They lokyd towarde the castel, They herd no pype ne flagel. They drowgh hem nygh to the lande Yiff they might undyrstande; And they ne cowde nought aspye, Be no voys of menstralsye, That quyk man in the castel ware. … Thus waylys Kyng Richard ay Tyl it were spryng al off the day: A wayte ther come in a kernel, And pyped a moot in a flagel. He ne pyped but on sythe, He made many an herte blythe. He lokyd doun, and seygh the galeys, Kyng Richard is icomen to us! Thenne a meryere not e blew, And pypyed: ‘Seynyours! or suis! or sus! [Lords! Wake up! Wake up!] Kyng Richard is icomen to us!’ | A metrical romance about King Richard I of England based on a lost Anglo-Norman romance dating from c. 1230-1250. The name of the Middle English author is unknown, but he is thought to have been from south-east England, and he may also have written the romances Of Arthour and of Merlin and King Alisaunder. ‘Pypes’ probably refers to shawms or bagpipes. The ‘pype’ probably refers to the tabor-pipe, the ‘flegel’ to a small flute or whistle-pipe or flageolet (Carter 1961/1980: 155, 350). | e-Texthere Carter (1961/1980) Kurath (1960: 670) Weber (1860: 134) Zaerr, (2012) |
| c. 1488 | Sir Orfeo: Harley 3810 | Anonymous | 286 With esy pace and wele avysed, 287 Taberis and pypes yeden hem by 288 And alle maner of mynstrelsy; 289 And ladyes ther com rydyng, 290 Joly they wer in alle thing; 291 Jentle and jolef, forsothe, y wys. | Sir Orfeo is preserved in three manuscripts: the oldest, Advocates 19.2.1, known as the Auchinleck MS (National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh), is dated at about 1330; Harley 3810 (British Library, London), is from about the beginning of the fifteenth century; Ashmole 61 (Bodleian Library, Oxford), compiled over the course of several years, the portion of the MS. containing Sir Orfeo dating around 1488. The beginning of the poem describes itself as a Breton lai, and says it is derived from a lost text, the Lai d’Orphey. Whilst Harley 3810 refers to ‘pypes’, the other two manuscipts refer to ‘trumpes’ (trumpets). Here ‘pypes’ probably refers to the tabor-pipe (see Carter 1961/1980: 350). | e-Text here Translation here Carter, H.H. (1961/1980). | |
| ±1300 | Kyng Alisaunder, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates 19.2.1 | 7760 Kandidus wroþ went oway & no com oȝain nouȝt mani a day. Þo þe cloþ was ydrawe Þe waite gan a flegel blawe, Alisaunder & Candace To chaumber token her pas, So we finden on þe boke, Þat niȝt þe king his leue toke He went to Ynde to his barouns Bi wodes, bi dales & bi tounes; Leue he had wiþ morni[n]ge & went forþ in þe daweinge Bi an heȝe way þat he kneu Til þat he com to Tholomeu. | A ‘flegel’ refers to a small flute or whistle-pipe; a flageolet (Carter 1961/1980: 155). Kyng Alisaunder is a Middle English romance or romantic epic in 4017 octosyllabic couplets which tells the story of Alexander the Great. dates from the end of the 13th century or the early 14th century, and is based on the Anglo-Norman Roman de Toute Chevalerie. The name of the author is not known, but he probably lived in or around London, and he is thought by some to have also written the romances Richard Coer de Lyon, Arthour and Merlin and The Seven Sages of Rome. | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980) | ||
| 1379 | 1380 | House of Fame 3:1215. | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | And eke in ech of the pynacles Weren sondry habitacles, In which stoden, al withoute – Ful the castel, al aboute – Of alle maner of mynstralles And gestiours that tellen tales Both of wepinge and of game, 1200 Of al that longeth unto Fame. Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe, That sowned bothe wel and sharpe, Orpheus ful craftely, And on his syde, faste by, Sat the harper Orion, And Eacides Chiron, And other harpers many oon, And the Bret Glascurion; And smale harpers with her glees 1210 Sate under hem in dyvers sees, And gunne on hem upward to gape, And countrefete hem as an ape, Or as craft countrefeteth kynde. Tho saugh I stonden hem behynde, Afer fro hem, al be hemselve, Many thousand tymes twelve, That maden lowde mynstralcies In cornemuse and shalemyes, And many other maner pipe, 1220 That craftely begunne to pipe, Bothe in doucet and in rede, That ben at festes with the brede; And many flowte and liltyng horn, And pipes made of grene corn, As han thise lytel herde-gromes That kepen bestis in the bromes. | The House of Fame is over 2,000 lines long in three books and takes the form of a dream vision composed in octosyllabic couplets. Upon falling asleep the poet finds himself in a glass temple adorned with images of the famous and their deeds. With an eagle as a guide, he meditates on the nature of fame and the trustworthiness of recorded renown. This allows Geoffrey to contemplate the role of the poet in reporting the lives of the famous and how much truth there is in what can be told. | e-Text here e-Translation here Carter (1961/1980) Welch (1911/1961: 16) |
| 1379 | 1380 | House of Fame 3: 773,774. | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | Thus every thing, by thys reson, Hath his propre mansyon To which hit seketh to repaire, Ther-as hit shulde not apaire. Loo, this sentence ys knowen kouth Of every philosophres mouth, As Aristotle and daun Platon, 760 And other clerkys many oon; And to confirme my resoun, Thou wost wel this, that spech is soun, Or elles no man myghte hyt here; Now herke what y wol the lere. “Soun ys noght but eyr ybroken; And every speche that ys spoken, Lowd or pryvee, foul or fair, In his substaunce ys but air; For as flaumbe ys but lyghted smoke, 770 Ryght soo soun ys air ybroke. But this may be in many wyse, Of which I wil the twoo devyse, As soun that cometh of pipe or harpe. For whan a pipe is blowen sharpe The air ys twyst with violence And rent — loo, thys ys my sentence. Eke whan men harpe-strynges smyte, Whether hyt be moche or lyte, Loo, with the strok the ayr tobreketh. | e-Text here e-Translation here Carter (1961/1980). | |
| 1340 | 1475 | Canterbury Tales, Prologue 79-92. | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | With hym ther was his sone, a yong SQUIER, 80 A lovyere and a lusty bacheler; With lokkes crulle, as they were leyd in presse. Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse. Of his stature he was of evene lengthe, And wonderly delyvere, and of greet strengthe. 85 And he hadde been somtyme in chyvachie In Flaundres, in Artoys, and Pycardie, And born hym weel, as of so litel space, In hope to stonden in his lady grace. Embrouded was he, as it were a meede, 90 Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and reede; Syngynge he was, or floytynge, al the day, He was as fressh as is the monthe of May. Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde. Wel koude he sitte on hors, and faire ryde. 95 He koude songes make, and wel endite, Juste, and eek daunce, and weel purtreye and write. So hoote he lovede, that by nyghtertale He slepte namoore than dooth a nyghtyngale. Curteis he was, lowely, and servysable, 100 And carf biforn his fader at the table. | First published in 1475. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 13-14) |
| 1369 | The Romaunt of the Rose: 763-765. | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | 762 And folk dance and merry bene 763 Ther myghtist though see these flowtours, 764 Mynstrales, and eke joglelours, 765 That wel to synge did her peyne; 766 Somme sone songes of Loreyne, 767 For in Lorynher notes bee 768 Full swerter than in this contre. | The Romaunt of the Rose is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegory, the Roman de la Rose. | e-Text here | |
| 1369 | The Romaunt of the Rose: 4247-4251. | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | 4247 Discordant ever fro armonge 4248 And distoned from melodye 4249 Controve he wolde and foule fayle 4250 With hornepipes of Cornewaile. 4251 In floytes made he discordance | A description of one Wicked Tongue. | Welch (1911/1961: 13-14). | |
| ≤1359 | Campus Florum | Thomas Wallensis (Walleys, Waleys) | The earliest extant English-Latin dictionary, Galfridus Anglicus’ Promptorium Parvulorum (compiled ca 1440, printed 1499), gives: “Recorder litell pype. Canula – C. f. in coraula.” A Campus florum is given as the authority for this translation. Thomas Wallensis was a Dominican monk from Oxford who flourished about the time of Edward II. The Campus florum cited in Promptorium Parvulorum is not the Campus florum (c. 1335), beginning “Fulcite me floribus”, in the library of Peterhouse, Cambridge, which consists of short tracts from the fathers and canonists, alphabetically arranged. Leland (1545) ascribes to Thomas Wallensis a second work of this name, an English-Latin vocabulary or dictionary, which he saw at one of the Oxford libraries, beginning “Disciplina deditus apud Miram vallem.” There was probably a copy of the same, called Campeflour, at Syon monastery, and Bale (1557-1559) knew of another at Magdalen College, Oxford, now also lost. The Promptorium Parvulorum contains frequent references to this lost work. Whilst it is possible that the lost Campus Florum mentioned the recorder it is more likely that the work passed on earlier definitions of ‘choraules’ [Gk, the leader of the chorus who played either canulae or fistulae] and that the compiler of Promptorium simply added the up-to-date equation with recorder. | Bale, J. (1557-1559) Lasocki, D. (2012: 52-53) Leland (1545/1709: 307, 333) Welch (1911/1961: 19) | ||
| 1387 | Polychronicon: 1.409.16 | Ranulf Higden | They haueth in greet mangerie Harpe, tabor, and pype for mynstralcie. | Probably refers to the tabor-pipe. | e-Text here Carter, H.H. (1961/1980: 350). | |
| 1388 | Household accounts of the Earl of Derby, 30 September 1388 (folio 16v), Public Records Office, London, DL 28 1/2. | Hugh de Waterton (a.1373–1409) | From accounts for 30 September 1388 in a section headed Necessaria; having dealt with 12 ‘orange apples’ and with repairing a mirror it says: Et pro j fistula nomine Recordour empta London’ pro domino iij s iij d | Hugh de Waterton was a trusted servant of the House of Lancaster. By 1386 he was Bolingbroke’s chamberlain. When Bolingbroke came to the throne as Henry IV in 1399, Waterton was appointed Chamberlain of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position which he held until his death. This is the first unequivocal reference in English to the recorder by name (Trowell 1957). Unfortunately, Trowell did not consult the original household accounts, but relied on a transcript of them in James Hamilton Wylie’s History of England under Henry the Fourth, vol. 3 (1896), and it turns out that Wylie misread the word for the instrument. Rowland-Jones (2000) has re-examined the original and finds that the superscript horizontal line following the ‘o’ is an abbreviation for ‘ur’ in English court hand. Thus although the critical word looks like ‘Recordo’ and has been interpreted as such, it should really be rendered Recordour and the entire entry should be translated: “And for one flute by name of Recordour bought in London for my lord, three shillings and four pence.” Note that whereas the word ‘fistula’ (flute) is treated as a common noun, ‘Recordour’ is treated as if it were a proper noun like ‘London’, and that it is qualified by the word ‘nomine’. This would seem to indicate that the word (and probably the recorder itself) was new to the language or at least unfamiliar. | Bornstein (1987) Higbee (1965) Hunt (2002) Lasocki (2007, 2012) Rowland-Jones (2000) Rowland-Jones, A. (2003: 4) Trowell (1957) Wright (1965) | |
| 1398 | De proprietatibus rerum [On the Properties of Things]: 19.133.943 | Bartholomaeus Anglicus [Bartomew de Glanville] (a.1203–m.1272) | Tibia is a pype, and hath that name for it was fyrste made of legges of hartes, yonge and olde, as men trowe; and the noyse of pypes was called Other, as Hugucion sayth. This name Tibia comyth of Tibium, that is a rushe, other a rede, and therof comyth this name Tibicen a pypere, and was somtyme an instrument of doole and lamentacyon, whyche men dyde use in office and sepultures of deed men, as the Gloce sayth super Matheum IX. and thereby the songe was songe of doole and of lamentacyon. | Translated from the Latin by John de Trevisa in 1398. Trevisa (c.1342-c.1412) was a Cornish writer and translator of Latin works into English for the benefit of his master, Lord Berkeley. | e-Text here. Hawkins, Sir. J. (1776); Trevisa, J. de (1988). | |
| 1398 | De proprietatibus rerum [On the Properties of Things]: 19.134.943,944 | Bartholomaeus Anglicus [Bartholomew de Glanville] (a.1203–m.1272) | Calamus hath that name of thys worde Calando, sowning; and is the generall name of pypes. A pype hyghte Fistula, for voyce comyth therof. For voyce hyghte Fes in Grewe, and send, Istola in Grewe. And soo the pype hyghte Fistula, as it were sendyng oute voyce other sowne. Hunters useth this instrument, for hartes louyth the noyse therof. But whyle the harte taketh hede and likynge in the pypynge of an hunter, another hunter whyche he hath no knowlege of, comyth and shoteth at the harte and sleeth hym. Pypyng begyleth byrdes and foules, therefore it is sayd “the pype syngeth swetely whyle the fowler begyleth the byrde.” And shepe louyth pypynge, therfore shepeherdes usyth pipes whan they walk wyth theyr shepe. Therefore one whyche was callyd Pan was callyd God of hirdes, for he joyned dyverse redes, and arayed them to songe slyghly and craftely. Virgil spekyth therof, and sayth that Pan ordeyned fyrst to join [in one horne] Pan hath cure of shepe and of shepherdes. And the same instrument of pypes hyghte Pan donum, for Pan was fynder therof as Ysyder sayth. And wyth pipes watchynge men pleyseth suche men as restyth in beddes, and makyth theym slepe the sooner and more swetly by melodye of pypes. | Translated from the Latin by John de Trevisa in 1398. | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980) Hawkins (1776) Trevisa (1398/1988) | |
| 1425 | unknown | The Laud Troy Book, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 595 | Anonymous | [139. They [the Greeks] set Watches and kindle Fires ; in the Morning they take up Arms.] …Mules & hors bene put to cracche, And afftir that thei sette here wacche With sicur men that wolde not slepe, On euery a side that ost to kepe; Thei dede falle bothe oke and plane And made fir In euery a lane, That men myght se bothe ner and ferre Our-al a-boute In eueryche a corner; The fires ^euen a gret lyght, As of hit hadde ben day-lyght. Mynstralles her pipes hente And alle other of Instrumente, Thei nakered, piped, and blew, Vnto that the Cokkes crew. And thus was thanne the sege be-gonne, That laste ten 3er, or Troye was wonne; git was it neuere wonne with fyght, With the Gregeis, ne with ther myght; Hit was be-trayed falsly Alas ! With Antenor and Eueas. … [They anchor their ships.] Hit is day, the Cok hath crowen, Many an horn thanne was blowen, Many an horn and many a pipe; Thei be-gan her Armure gripe Bothe In feld and In toun; Thei rered many a gomfanoun, Baneres brode of fyne asure, Grene, and white, of purpur pure, Some were rede as vermyloun, With pelotes, daunse, and Cheueroun, Some with sauters engrele, And some with bastouw wouerle, Off sable some, of siluer fyn, And some of hem began to schyn. … [218 Hector kills Octomene. A Fight between Dwmedes and Antipe.] … Diodemes and kyng Antipe, With-oute trompe or pipe Or any other Melodye, Thei redyn to-geder with gret envye; Here speres brast In splentes, But thei fel not with here dentes, With that lustyng ne that lornay. But thei jede not quyte a-way: Thei drow here swerdes of here scauberkis And smot on scheldes and hauberkes, The rynges barst, the nayles out, Thei were strawed al a-bout; Her woundes bledde, her flescfi was tamet, The holest of hem ful sore was lamet. But at the laste be-tydde it so, That Diodemes smot In-two … [242 Both Trojans and Greeks are glad of the Truce: they make merry.] … These lordes toke leue of the kyng And wente horn al hying; And to the Gregais horn he brynges Off his trewis gode tydynges That thei of Troie hath graunt the trewes. Then myjt men here many glewes, Pipe and Trompe, and many nakeres, Synfan, lute, and Citoleres; Ther was so many a daunce. Thei made tho gret puruyaunce Off corn and hay, of wyn and otes, And thei songen wel merie notes; Thei hele her woundes In gret quiete, With mochel loye thei dronke and ete. And thei of Troye were as fayn Off here reste, bothe knyjt & swayn. | The Laud Troy Book is a substantial poem about the siege of Troy which survives uniquely in this manuscript. It was amongst the manuscripts given to the Bodleian Library by its 17th-century owner, Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), from his extensive collection. | e-Text here |
| 1398 | De proprietatibus rerum [On the Properties of Things]: 19.135.943,944 | Bartholomaeus Anglicus [Bartholomew de Glanville] (a.1203–m.1272) | Sambuca is the Ellerne tree brotyll, and the bowes therof ben holowe, and voyde and smothe; and of those same bowes ben pipes made, and also some maner symphony, as Ysyder sayth. | Translated from the Latin by John de Trevisa in 1398 | e-Text here. Hawkins (1776) Trevisa (1398/1988) | |
| 1398 | De proprietatibus rerum [On the Properties of Things]: 19.138.944 | Bartholomaeus Anglicus [Bartomew de Glanville] (a.1203–m.1272) | Tympanum is layed streyghte to the tree in the one side, and half a tabour other halfe a symphony, and schape as a syfue, and beten wyth a stycke; ryght as a tabour, as Isyder sayth, and maketh the better melody yf there is a pype therwyth. | Translated from the Latin by John de Treviso (1398) Probably a reference to the tabor-pipe (see Carter 1961/1980: 350). | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980) | |
| ?1527 | The noble lyfe a[nd] nature of man, Of bestes, serpentys, fowles a[nd] fisshes y be moste knowen | Laurence Andrewe (fl. 1510-1537) | Delphinus is a monster of the see, & it hath no voyce, but it singeth lyke a man and towarde a tempest it playeth vpon the water. Some say whan they be taken that they wepe. The Delphin hath none eares for to here nor no nose for to smelle yet it smelleth very well & sharpe. And it slepeth vpon the water very hartely, that thei be hard ronke a farre of and thei leue C.xl. yere. & they here gladly playnge on instrumentes, as lutes harpes tabours and pypes. They loue their yonges very well, and they fede them longe with the mylke of their pappes & they haue many yonges, & amonge them all be .ij. olde ones, that yf it fortuned one of the yonges to dye, than these olde ones wyll burye them depe in the gorwind of the see because othere fisshes sholde nat ete thys dede delphyn; so well they loue theyr yonges. There was ones a kinge that had taken a delphin whyche he caused to be bounde with chaynes fast at a hauen where as the shippes come in at & there was alway the pyteoust wepynge and lamentynge, that the kinge coude nat for pyte but let hym go agayne. The Dolphin is a monster of the sea; it has no voice, but sings like a man, and just before a storm it plays upon the water. Some say that when they are captured they weep. The Dolphin has no ears to hear with, nor nose to smell with, yet it can smell very well and sharply. And it sleeps upon the water very heartily, so that it can be far from hard rocks. They live 140 years, and they gladly listen to the playing of musical instruments, such as lutes, harps, tabors, and pipes. They love their young very well, and breast-feed them for a long time. They have many young, and among them there are always 2 old ones, so that if it happened that one of the young were to die, then these old ones will bury them deep in the ground of the sea so that other fish will not eat the dead dolphin, so well they love their young. There was once a king that had captured a dolphin which he caused to be bound fast with chains at a haven where ships come in at, but there was always the most pitiful weeping and lamenting that the king, in pity, let him go again. | Probably refers to the tabor-pipe (Carter 1961/1980). This is a translation, by Laurence Andrew, from a Dutch version of parts of Hortus sanitatis. It was printed in Antwerp by Ioh[a]n of Doesborowe] in ?1527. A native of Calais, Andrewe was a translator and printer who set up shop in Fleet Street, London. | Carter (1961/1980: 350) | |
| c. 1300 | Kyng Alisaunder, Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 622 | Anonymous | 2159 Now rist grete tabour betyng, Blaweyng of pypes, and ek trumpyng, Stedes lepyng, and ek arnyng, Of sharp speres, and avalyng Of stronge knighttes, and wyghth meetyng ; Launces breche and increpyng; Knighttes fallyng, stedes lesyng; Herte and hevedes thorough kervyng; Swerdes draweyng, lymes lesyng I Iard assaylyng, strong defendyng, Stiff withstondyng and wighth fleigheyng. | Possibly refers to the tabor-pipe (Carter 1961/1980), but surely shawms or bagpipes would be more appropriate in a battle. Kyng Alisaunder is a Middle English romance or romantic epic in 4017 octosyllabic couplets which tells the story of Alexander the Great. dates from the end of the 13th century or the early 14th century, and is based on the Anglo-Norman Roman de Toute Chevalerie. The name of the author is not known, but he probably lived in or around London, and he is thought by some to have also written the romances Richard Coer de Lyon, Arthour and Merlin and The Seven Sages of Rome. | Carter (1961/1980: 350) | |
| 1425 | The Laud Troy Book, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 595 | Anonymous | [380 Agamemnon is re-chosen Emperor of the Greeks. A new Battle.] … The sterres passen and alle the clouds The day dawes, the Crowe croudes, The lurkis synge, the cokkes crowe, The waytes faste her pipes blowe. [12900] | Probably refers to shawms or ‘wayte pipes’ (Carter 1961/1985: 350). The Laud Troy Book is a substantial poem about the siege of Troy which survives uniquely in this manuscript. It was amongst the manuscripts given to the Bodleian Library by its 17th-century owner, Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), from his extensive collection. | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980: 350) | |
| 1400 | The Prologue and Tale of Beryn, Alnwick Castle, Duke of Northumberland MS 55 | Anonymous | [lines 3180-3187] Deperdeux! quod Geffrey, ther’of we shull wele do. He rayid hum otheriwise; and without wordis mo They went to the dyner the hole company, With pipis and with trompis, and othir melody: And in the myddis of their mete gentil women fyve, Maidens fresh atirid as myght be on lyve, Come from the Duke Isope, lord of theat regioune, Everich wiyth a present, and that of grete renown … | Possibly refers to shawms. The Prologue and Tale of Beryn are spurious 15th century additions to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The Tale of Beryn is an adaptation of the French Romance L’histoire du chevalier Berinus, written in the mid-14th century, itself derived from The Book of Sindibad, composed in Sanskrit as early as 500 BC. | e-Text here | |
| 1407 | Resoun and Sensuallyte: 1779. | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | But all her singing was in vain To be compared, in sothness [truth], Unto the excellent sweetness Of this Floyte melodious, By force of which Mercurius Made Argus slepe. | The reference is to a Siren. John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. The sheer bulk of Lydgate’s poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. | e-Text here | |
| 1407 | Resoun and Sensuallyte: 2389-2412 | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | [The accomplishments of Venus’ first son, Pleamre.] By his avys and his purchace; For ther kan) no man), in no place, Of vnkouth pleyes tel[le] noon) But he kan) hem euerychon) : Touche be crafte, and nat be rote, Harpe and lute, fythel and Rote, And synge songes of plesaunce, Maisterly revel and Daunce, Pipe and floyte lustely. And also eke ful konyngly In al the crafte and melody Of musyke and of Armony, What tyme that hit shal be do, He ys expert; and eke also At al[le] pleyes delytables : At mereles, dees, and tables He kan) pley[en] passyngly ; But best and most specialy At the Chesse he dooth excelle That philomestor, soth to telle, For to make comparyson, Was nat lyke him of renoun, That first founde this play notable, With him to play[e] was not able. | John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. The sheer bulk of Lydgate’s poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. | e-Text here | |
| 1407 | Resoun and Sensuallyte: 5592. | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | And floutys ful of armonye. | John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. The sheer bulk of Lydgate’s poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. | e-Text here | |
| 1903 | unknown | L’Allegro up to Date, Punch 124-125 (16 December 1903: 424. | A.A. Sykes | But come, thou Mistress FLORENCE FARR, So buxom, blithe, and debonarr, Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Care dispelling jollity . . . The old forgotten dancing-lore, The steps we cannot understand, DOLMETSCH agrees to take in hand, These on the well-trod stage anon, When next our learned sock is on, We’ll show, while ARNOLD, Fancy’s child, Tootles his native wood-wind wild. These delights if thous canst give, Miss Farr, within thy Club* I’ll live. | *The Sesame Club, where Florence Farr and her dancers performed in that year. It is not hard to recognise this portrait of Arnold Dolmetsch, “tootling his native wood-wind wild.” But this presents something of a mystery. Is this verse curiously prophetic (as Cambell (1975: 151) has it, or was Arnold Dolmetsch actually tootling on a recorder before he purchased the original Bressan recorder in 1905 (now in the Horniman Museum, London)? | Cambell (1975) |
| 1413 | 1483 | The Booke of the Pylgremage of the Sowle: 50.44.6 | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) OR Thomas Hoccleve (c.1368-1426) | Thenne come there dauncynge forth a lothely companye with fowle defourmed vysages, and grisely of theyr personnes: they flouted, and they taberd; they yellyd, and they cryed, ioyinge in theyr maner, as semyd, by theyr semblaunt. | 1413 translation of Guillaume de Guileville’s Le pèlerinage de l’âme (14th century), published by William Caxton (1483). Nothing in the English work gives any indication of who the translator may have been. Two English poets have been put forward as possible translators of the French work, but neither of them convincingly. These are John Lydgate (c.1370-1449) and Thomas Hoccleve (c.1368-1426), both generally considered to be disciples of Chaucer. | e-Text here Cust (1859) |
| 1425 | Two Chaucerian Ballads.: 326-328. | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | 326 Lusty trumpetes and lyght clariouns 327 Harpes, lutes, made meolody, 328 Floytes shrille that so loude crye. | John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. The sheer bulk of Lydgate’s poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. Since Lydgate was a disciple of Chaucer, many of the latter’s works were attributed to him or his immediate entourage. | ||
| 1430 | The Chester Plays: The Play of the Shepherds: The Paynters and the Glasiors Playe | Anonymous | THE THIRD BOYE O noble childe of thee! Alas! what hae i for thee, Save onlye my pipe? Elles trewlye nothinge, Were I in the rockes or in, I could make this pippe, That all this woode should ringe, And quiver, as yt were. 625 THE THYRD BOYE. O noble chyld of thy Father on hye, 626 alas, what have I for to give thee? 627 Save only my pype that soundeth so royallye, 628 elles truely have I nothinge at all. 629 Were I in the rocke or in the valey alowe, 630 I could make this pipe sound, I trowe, 631 that all the world should ringe 632 and quaver as yt would fall. | Probably refers to a double-reed instrument of the bagpipe family (see Carter 1961/1980). | e-Text here and there Carter (1961/1980: 350) | |
| 1431 | 1438 | The Fall of Princes: 2479-2485. | John Lydgate (?1370-1449). | 2479 Pan, god off Kynde, with his pipes seuene, 2480 Off recorderis fond first the melodies. 2481 And Mercurie, that sit so hih in heuene, 2482 First in his harpe fond sugred armonyes. 2483 Holsum wynes thoruhfyned from ther lyes 2484 Bachus fond first, of vynes heuy lade, 2485 Licour off licours corages for to glade. | The Fall of Princes is a translation in 36,000 lines of a French version of Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum John Lydgate of Bury was a monk and poet, born in Lidgate, Suffolk, England. The sheer bulk of Lydgate’s poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines. | e-Text here |
| 1440 (compiled) | 1449 (printed) | Promptorium Parvulorum | Galfridus Anglicus | Flowtye, pype. Cambucus ydraula, calamaula. Flowtyn, or pypn. Calamiso. Pype (pypet, s.) Fistula. Recorder litell pype. Canula … C. f. in coraula. | The first English/Latin dictionary. According to Welch (1911), the earliest extant English-Latin dictionary, Galfridus Anglicus’ Promptorium Parvulorum (compiled ca 1440, printed 1499), gives Recorder litell pype. Canula … C. f. in coraula. An earlier work, Campus Florum (ca 1359), as yet unlocated – not the book of the same title in the library of Peterhouse, Cambridge – is given as the authority for this translation. A work with this title authored by Thomas Walleys, a Dominican monk from Oxford, in 1359, seems not to have survived. Whilst it is possible that Campus Florum mentioned the recorder in 1359 it is more likely that the work passed on earlier definitions of ‘choraules’ [Gk, the leader of the chorus who played either canulae or fistulae] and that the compiler of Promptorium simply added the up-to-date equation with recorder (Lasocki 2012: 53). | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980: 156) Lasocki (2012: 52-53) Welch (1911/1961: 18-21) |
| 1440 | 1520 | The Squier of Lowe Degre | Anonymous | [lines 1069-1079] There was myrth and melody With harp, getron and sautry, With rote, ribible and clokarde, With pypes, organs and bumbade, With other mynstrelles them amonge, With sytolphe and with sautry songe, With fydle, recorde, and dowcemere, With trompette and with claryon clere, With dulcet pipes of many cordes: In chambre revelyng all the lordes, Unto morne that it was daye. | A date of 1475 for this work has been widely accepted. This is an anonymous late Middle English or early Modern English verse romance. It was printed by Wynkyn de Worde c. 1520 under the title Undo Youre Dore. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 10-11) |
| 1450 | Buke of the Howlat | Richard [de] Holland | All thus our ladye they lofe, with liking and list Menstralis and musicians mo than I mene may, The psaltery, the citholis, the soft cytharist, The croude, and the monycordis, the gythornis gay, The rote, and the recordour, the ribup, and rist, The trump, and the taburn, the tympane but tray; The dulsate, and the dulsacordis, the schalm of assay; The amyable organis usit full oft, Clarions loude knelis, Portativis and bellis, Cymbaclanis in the cellis That soundis so soft. | The Howlat is preserved in two manuscripts, the Asloan, dating from about 1515, and the Bannatyne, written in 1568. The poem is 60-70 years older than the earlier manuscript. It is a comic allegory telling a comic fable of an owl’s borrowed feathers, his pride and ultimate fall, and a bird parliament which decides his fate. Holland was a Scottish writer, secretary or chaplain to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray (c. 1450) and rector of Halkirk, near Thurso. He was afterwards rector of Abbreochy, Loch Ness, and later held a chantry in the cathedral of Norway. He was an ardent partisan of the Douglases, and on their over-throw retired to Orkney and later to Shetland. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 11-12) | |
| 1438 | 1483 | Catholicon Anglicum, British Library, London, Additional 15562 (Pref.MS) | Anonymous | a Flote of a pipe; jdraula. … … a Pipe; vbi a trumpe. to Pipe; vbi to trumpe. to Pipe as a byrde; pipiare. a Pipe maker; tibiarius. a Pyper; Aules, Auledus, fistulator, sambucinator, tibicen, tubicenis (tibicina A.). … … to Recorde; repetere, recordare. | The Catholicon Anglicum was an English-to-Latin bilingual dictionary compiled in the later 15th century and thus one of the earliest dictionaries in the English language. There are two known copies of the dictionary still in existence, only one of which is complete . The author may have been a native of Yorkshire in the north east of England. It has been argued that the Catholicon dates from as early as 1438 (Addy 1888), though one of the surviving copies is dated 1483. | e-Text here Addy (1888) Herrtage (1881: 136, 281 & 301) |
| 1502 | Privy Purse, expenses of King Henry VII | 21 Henry VII. Jan. 1. To the Styll Mynstrells in reward 4 0 0… | This is from a folio in the Chapter-house, Westminster, with the title “The Kyngs boke of paymentis, begynnyng primo die Oct A° 21 Regis Henriei VIImj.” | Collier (1831, 1: 47) | ||
| 1510 | 1532 | The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke / Hall’s Chronicle | Edward Hall [Halle] | From thence [that is, from Greenwich, in 1510, the second year of his reign] the whole Courte removed to Wyndesore, then begynning his progresse, exercising hym selfe daily in shotyng, singing, daunsyng, wrastelyng, casting oft he barre, plaiyng at the recorders, flute, virginals, and settyng of songes, makyng of ballettes, and did set ii goodly masses, every of them fyve partes, whiche were song oftentimes in hys chapel and afterwards in diverse other places. | This concerns King Henry VIII. According to Hall, the King was proficient in arms and arts: he shot with the bow, wrestled, played on instruments, sang and composed music, besides writing ballads. Edward Hall or Halle (1497–1547) was an English lawyer, Member of Parliament, and historian. His Chronicle ended in 1532. | e-Text here Collier (1831, 1: 60-61, footnote) Manifold (1956: 66) Welch (1911/1961: 27) |
| 1485 | Paris and Vienne: Thystory of the noble and ryght valyaunt knight Parys and of the fayre Vyene, the Daulphyns doughter Vyennoys Translated out of the Frensshe into Englysshe by Wiliam Caxton of Westmestre. 3.20 | Anonymous | Parys thenne and edward wiyth one accorde dysposed them self for go gyue somme melodyous myrthe to the noble mayde vyenne and wyth theyr musyecal Instrumentes as recordours they yede by nyght tyme to gyder towards that parte of the castel where as the fayre vyenne laye in hyr chambre and there they sange ful swetely and sowned melodyously theyr musycal Insrumentes and pypes and certeyn the melodye of their songes and the sowne of theyr Instrument was so playsaunt & so sweet that it passed al other melodye. And when the daulphyn and his wyf & the fayre vyenne theyr doughter herede this swete and melodyous sowne as wel of mas wyces as of dyuers Instrumetes they had grete Ioye and took grete playsyr at it & had grete desyre to knowe what they were that fo grete solace and Ioye made tosore theyr castel and for to wete & knowe what they were the daulphyn assygned a day of a feste at the whyche he sente for alle maner mynstrellys in hys londe chargyng theym vupon grete payne that they shold come for to playe before hym and hys barons in hys castel of vyenne. | A prose story of knight-errantry of Catalonian origin, translated by William Caxton. | eText here | |
| 1485 | Paris and Vienne: Thystory of the noble and ryght valyaunt knight Parys and of the fayre Vyene, the Daulphyns doughter Vyennoys Translated out of the Frensshe into Englysshe by Wiliam Caxton of Westmestre: 76.13. | Anonymous | [Towards the end, Vienne, in introducing her beloved to her father the dauphin says:] Here is my good friend Paris, whom I have so much desired, and for whom I have suffered so much pain and sorrow; and father, this is he that so sweetly sang and floyted … | Translated by William Caxton. | ||
| 1422 | 1450 | Polychronicon: 6.179. | Ranulf Higden, unknown translator, Ms Harl. 2261 (British Museum) | Seynte Aldelme, bischop of Schirburn, diede in this tyme, whom Egwyne beriede, callede Aldelmus as olde holy, instructe nobly in Grewe and in Latyn, havynge in habite and in use instrumentes off the arte of musike, as in harpes, pipes, recordres. | Ranulf Higden (d. 1364) was a Benedictine monk of St Werburgh’s in Chester. His Polychronicon was a long chronicle, one of several such works of universal history and theology. It was based on a plan taken from Scripture, and written for the amusement and instruction of his society. It closes the long series of general chronicles, which were soon superseded by the invention of printing. It is commonly styled Polychronicon, from the longer title Ranulphi Castrensis, cognomine Higden, Polychronicon (sive Historia Polycratica) ab initio mundi usque ad mortem regis Edwardi III in septem libros dispositum. The work is divided into seven books, in humble imitation of the seven days of Genesis, and, with exception of the last book, is a summary of general history, a compilation made with considerable style and taste. Written in Latin, it was translated into English in 1387 by by John of Trevisa (d. 1402) and by an unknown writer of the fifteenth century. Trevisa’s translation was first printed by Caxton in 1480. The quote given here comes from Ms Harl. 2261 rather from Trevisa (who gives “… instrumentis of musik, pipes and strenges, and oþere mannere of glee.”) It would appear that its unknown scribe made his translation some time in the reign of Henry VI, between 1422 and 1450, and therefore some years before Edward IV came to the throne. Saint Aldelme died c. 709. Higden’s unknown translator seems to have seen nothing inappropriate in a bishop (and a saint) playing the recorder: the generic term ‘pipe’ could have served to include recorders. | e-Text here e-Text of Higden’s Latin original here |
| 1392 | 1534 | Coventry Plays: Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors: Songs | Anonymous | [These well-known songs belong to the Tailors’ and Shearmen’s Pageant. The first and the last the shepherds sing, and the second or middlemost the women sing – Robert Croo, 1534] SONG 1 As I out rode this enderes night, Of three jolly shepherds I saw a sight, And all about their fold a star shone bright; They sang terli, terlow; So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow. SONG 2 Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child, By by, lully, lullay, thou little tiny child By by, lully, lullay! O sisters two, How may we do, For to preserve this day This poor youngling, For whom we do sing By by, lully, lullay? Herod the King, In his raging, Charged he hath this day His men of might, In his own sight All young children to slay,— That woe is me, Poor child for thee, And ever mourn, and may, For thy parting, Neither say nor sing By by, lully, lullay. SONG 3 Down from heaven, from heaven so high, Of angels there came a great company, With mirth and joy and great solemnity, They sang terli, terlow, So merrily the shepherds their pipes can blow. | Here, ‘pipes’ probably refers to a double-reed instrument of the bagpipe family (see Carter 1961/1980). The English mystery plays are themselves shrouded in mystery. Their precise origins are unknown, their authors are largely unidentified, and the details of their presentation are still a matter for conjecture. The earliest mention of them is dated 1392, but some if not all of them may have been in existence before this date. The two surviving plays were copied in 1534 when they were still being promoted. They were finally suppressed in 1579. The Pageant of the Shearmen and Taylors covers the Nativity story from the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents. The manuscript was destroyed in the fire at the Birmingham Free Reference Library in 1879, but fortunately a printed transcript of it had been published by the Coventry antiquarian Thomas Sharp in a limited edition in 1817, and in his Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries Anciently Performed at Coventry in 1825. | e-Text here Carter (1961/1980: 350) |
| 1500 | Proverbis in the garet at the New lodge in the parke of lekinfelde. | Anonymous | The recorder of his kynde the meane dothe desyre Manifolde fyngerynge & stoppes bryngithe hy from his tunes clere. Who lyst to handill an instrument so goode Must se in his many fyngerynge that he kepe tyme stop and moode. | These musical proverbs, written on the roof and walls of the garret of the New Lodge of Leckingfield Manor House (now destroyed), were written down by the scribe William Peeris ‘clerke and preste to the right nobill Erle Henry the VII Erle of Noarthumberlande. | Chappell & Macfarren (1855) Welch (1911/1961: 8-9) | |
| 1509 | Passetyme of Pleasure: 1527-1533. | Stephen Hawes (ca 1475-1511). | 1527 There sate dame musyke / with all her mynstralsy 1528 As taboures / trumpettes / with pypes melodyous 1529 Sakbuttes / organs / and the recorder swetely 1530 Harpes / lutes / and crouddes ryght delycyous 1531 Cyphans / doussemers / wt clarycymbales gloryous 1532 Rebeckes / clarycordes / eche in theyr degre 1533 Dyde sytte aboute / theyr ladyes mageste | Welch (1911/1961: 8) | ||
| c. 1518 | 1523 | Mirrour of Good Manners | Alexander Barclay (c. 1476-c.1552) | So under like maner a childe tender and milde, What thing he hath learned in his frayle tender age, Shall finde thereof the fruite, when he passed childe, And come to mannes estate, with double advauntage, Therfore first record thou, as birde within a cage, In thy joyous iuuent thy tunes tempting longe, And then at mans estate forth with thy pleasaunt songe. | Published 1570. Barclay was a clergyman, poet, translator, and nonfiction writer who spent his entire recorded life in England. His Mirrour of Good Manners, in verse translated from a Latin text of the humanist scholar Domenico Mancini, about 1518, is a moral work analyzing the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. It was printed by Pynson without a date. iuuent (juventus) = youth (20-40 years) Barclay was an English monk, poet and translator. | e-Text here |
| 1511 | Privy Purse, expenses of King Henry VIII for New Year’s Day, Brit. Mus. MS. Ad. 7100. | Item, to the shakbushes [sackbuts] 50sh. to the styll mynstrells 4 0 0. to the Queene’s mynstrells 40sh. | Welch (1911/1961: 131). | |||
| 1530 | Lesclarcissement de la langue Francoyse: 681/2. | John Palsgrave (c. 1485 – 1554) | I recorde as yonnge byrdes do: Je patelle. This byrde recordeth all redy, she wyll synge within a whyle: C’est oyeslet patelle desja, elle chantera avant quil soyt longemps. Recorder a pype fleute a. ix neufte trous. | This book — written in English despite its French title — is said to be the first grammar of the French language. Its purpose was to help Englishmen who wanted to learn French. The term fleute a neufte trous indirectly furnishes the earliest corroboration of the meaning of ‘recorder’ in English. Palsgrave was a priest of Henry VIII of England’s court. He is known as a tutor in the royal household, and as a textbook author. | Lasocki (2012: 3) Welch (1911/1961: 22, 40) | |
| 1532 | Flouers for Latine Spekyng selected out of Terence … | Nicholas Udall (1504-1556) | … and thinke it not a smalle thinge to have lerned to playe on the pype or the recorder. | A rendering of the line from Virgil’s Bucolics: Nec te poeniteat calamo trivisse labellum. Udall was an English playwright, cleric, translator and schoolmaster. | Welch (1911/1961: 113) | |
| 1542 | The Apophthegmes of Erasmus 10 | Nicholas Udall (1504-1556) | Beyng asked by what meanes a man might atteigne an honest name and fame: if he earnestlie applie hymself, quote Socrates, to be soche a man in deede as he desireth to be accompted and estemed. If a manne would fain be reputed a good plaier on the Recorders, it is necessarie that he performe, & doe soche feates, as he seeth doen of them, who been allowed for perfecte good plaiers on tht instrumente. As he that hat verie slender sight, in ministerying Phisike, is not therefore a Phisician, because he is sente for, to take cure of pacientes, and hath by the comen voice of men, the name of a Phisician: so is not he by and by, a good gouernour in a comen weal, or a good officer, that is by the voice of the peopole so bruted, exepte he knowe also the right facion and waies to rewle the citee, and to kepe it in good order. | Udall was an English playwright, cleric, translator and schoolmaster. This work was a translation by Erasmus of Rotterdam of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata. It is a collection of apophthegms from classical antiquity. | e-text here | |
| 1542 | The Apophthegmes of Erasmus 42 | Nicholas Udall (1504-1556) | Augustus being semblably hailed or saluted by a Popinjaie, commaunded her to be brought to …… And when she had therewith salued Augustus, as he passed by, Tushe, tushe (quoth Cesar) we haue enough of soch saluters, as this at home alreadie: Anon the crowe recorded al so the other woordes whiche she had so often heard, brought out them also in this maner, Bothe our labouir and all our coste is loste. Cesar laughing hartely thereat, commaunded a greate dele more to bee paied for her, than he had geuen for any soch bird tofore. | Udall was an English playwright, cleric, translator and schoolmaster. This work was a translation by Erasmus of Rotterdam of Plutarch’s Apophthegmata. It is a collection of apophthegms from classical antiquity. | e-text here | |
| 1547 | Inventory of the Guarderobes, British Museum, Harley 1419, ff. 202r, 203r, 205r. | INSTRUMENTES AT WESTMINSTER IN THE CHARDGE OF PHILIPP VAN WILDER … Instruments of sundrie kindes … Item. 5 Cases with Flutes and in euerie of 4 of the saide Cases 4 flutes and in the 5th three Flutes. Item. One Case furnissed with 15 Flutes in it. Item. One Case with tenne flutes in it: the same are caulled pilgrim Staves and the same case furnissed conteinethe butt 6 hole pipes. Item. One case with 7 Flutes in hitt. Item. 5 Flutes of Iuorie tipped with golde enameled blacke with a Case of purple vellat garnisshed at both thendes with Siluer and guilte: the same Case furnisshed contenethe but 4 hole pipes. Item. Foure Flutes of Iuorie tipped with golde in a Case couered with grene vellat. … Item. One case with 6 recorders of Boxe in it. Item. 8 Recorders greate and smale in a Case couered with blacke Leather and lined with clothe. Item. Twoo base Recorders of waulnuttre, one of them tipper with Siluer: the same are butt redde woodde. Item. Foure Recorders made of okin bowes. Item. 6 recorders of Iuorie in a case of blacke vellat. Item. One greate base Recorder of woode in a case of woode. Item. Foure Recorders of waulnuttre in a case couered with blacke vellat. Item. 9 Recorders of woode in a case of woode. Item. A Pipe for a Taberde in a Case of blacke leather. … Chestes … Item A Case couered with crimesen vellat havinge locke and all other garnishments to the same of Siluer gilte with viij recorders of luerie in the same Case the twoo bases garnished with Siver and guilte. Item. One case of blacke leather with 8 recorders of boxe. Item. One case of white woode with 9 recorders of boxe in the same. Item. A case couered with black lether with 7 recorders of woode in it. Item. A little case couered with blacke leather with 4 recorders of Iuerie in it. Item. One flute and 6 phiphes of blacke Ibonie tipped with Siluer thone of the phiphes lackinge a tippinge at one ende in a bagge of redde leather. Item. 3 Flutes of glasse and one of woode painted like glasse in a Case of blacke leather. Item. 3 Flutes of woode in a case of blacke leather. Item. 3 Flutes in a redde leather bagge. | INSTRUMENTS AT WESTMINSTER IN THE CHARGE OF PHILIP VAN WILDER … Instruments of sundry kinds … [Item, five cases with flutes and in every of four of the said cases four flutes and in the fifth three flutes. Item, one case furnished with fifteen flutes in it. Item, one case with ten flutes in it: the same are called Pilgrim Staves and the same case furnished contains but six whole pipes. Item, one case with seven flutes in it. Item, five flutes of ivory tipped with gold enameled black with a case of purple velvet garnished at both the ends with silver and gilt: the same case furnished contains but four whole pipes. Item, four flutes of ivory tipped with gold in a case covered with green velvet. … Item, one case with 6 recorders of box in it. Item, 8 recorders great and small in a case covered with black leather and lined with cloth. Item, two bass recorders of walnut, one of them tipped with silver: the same are but red wood. Item, four recorders made of oaken bows. Item, 6 recorders of ivory in a case of black velvet. Item, one great bass recorder of wood in a case of wood. Item, four recorders of walnut in a case covered with black velvet. Item, nine recorders of wood in a case of wood. Item, a pipe for a tabor in a case of black leather. … Chests … Item, a case covered with crimson velvet having lock and all other garnishments to the same of silver gilt with eight recorders of ivory in the same case the two basses garnished with silver and gilt. Item, one case of black leather with eight recorders of box. Item, a case of white wood with nine recorders of box in the same. Item, a case covered with black leather with seven recorders of wood in it. Item, a little case covered with black leather with four recorders of ivory in it. Item, one flute and six fifes of black ivory tipped with silver, the one of the fifes lacking a tipping at one end, in a bag of red leather. Item, three flutes of glass and one of wood painted like glass in a case of black leather. Item, three flutes of wood in a case of black leather. Item, three flutes in a red leather bag. | Ashbee (1993: 393-395) Lasocki (2005, Musique de Joye: 442-444) Welch (1911/1961: 28-29) | ||
| 1552 | 1566 | Ralph Roister Doister: 609-616. | Nicholas Udall (1504-1556) | 609 With every woman is he in some loves pang, 610 Then up to our lute at midnight, twangledome twang 611 Then twang with our sonets, and twang with our dumps 612 And heyhough from our heart, as heavie as lead lumpes: 613 Then to our recorder with toodle loodle poope 614 As the howlet out of an yvie bushe should hoope, 615 Anon to our gitterne, thumbledum thumpledum thrum 616 Thumpledum, thrumpledû, thumbpledum, thrûpledum thrum. | Roister’s manservant-pander, Dobinet Doughtie, soliloquises about all the running around he has to do, wearing out his shoes, carrying messages ‘these long nights’ to various lady-friends of his master. The servant goes on to describe his master’s skill at singing and writing ditties to his ladyloves. So here, the recorder is used, solo, it seems, as a night-time serenading instrument, even if it sounds like an owl hooting! If taken seriously, this quote anticipates Quantz’s supposed introduction of the ‘dl’ articulation in 1752 by two centuries! See Rowland-Jones (2000). | Rowland-Jones (2000, Quantz…: 54-55) |
| 1563 | Actes and Monuments [Foxe’s Book of Martyrs] | John Foxe (1516/17–1587) | He [Thomas Bilney] could abide no swearinge, nor singing. Comming from the church where singinge was, he wold lament to his schollers, þe curiositie of their deinty singing, which he called rather a mockery with god, then otherwise. And when Doct. Thurlby Bishop after, then scholler lieng in the chamber vnderneth him, wold play vpon his recorder (as he would often do) he would resort straight to hys prayer. | Thomas Bilney really did give his life at the stake for his opinions. Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of Actes and Monuments (popularly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs), an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the reign of Mary I. Widely owned and read by English Puritans, the book helped mould British popular opinion about the Catholic Church for several centuries. | e-Text here Foxe (1563, 3: 534) Welch (1911/1961: 58). | |
| 1576 | The Complaynte of Philomene (Arb.) 110. | George Gascoigne (c. 1535–1577) | But there to turne my tale, The which I came to tell, The yongest dame to forrests fled, And there is dampnde to dwell. And Nightingale now namde VVhich (Philomela hight) Delights for (feare of force againe) To sing alwayes by night. But when the sunne to west, Doth bende his weerie course, Then Phylomene records the rewth, VVhich craueth iust remorse. And for hir foremost note, Tereu Tereu, doth sing, Complaining stil vppon the name Of that false Thracian king. | Gascoigne was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. | e-Text here. | |
| 1578 | 1598 | The Lady of May. | Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) | But Espilus as if hee had beene inspired with the Muses, began forthwith to sing, whereto his fellow shepheardes set in with their recorders, which they bare in their bags like pipes, and so of Therions side did the foresters, with the cornets they wore about their neckes like hunting hornes in baudrikes. …… This being said, it pleased her Maiesty to iudge that Espilus did the better deserue her: but what words, what reasons she vsed for it, this paper, which carieth so base names; is not worthy to containe. Sufficeth it, that vpon the iudgement giuen, the shepheards and forresters made a full consort of their cornets and recorders, and then did Espilus sing this song, tending to the greatnesse of his owne ioy, and yet to the comfort of the other side, since they were ouerthrowne by a most worthie aduersarie. The song contained two short tales, and thus it was. | Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His first known literary work, was this one-act play which draws upon the pastoral tradition, is notable for its allegorical content relating to Queen Elizabeth I, for whom the first production was performed in 1578 at the Earl of Leicester’s country estate at Wanstead. This masque was first published (though without a title) in Sidney’s 1598 folio of the The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia. | e-Text here |
| 1579 | The Shepheardes Calender, April 29-32. | Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) | Thenot: But if hys ditties bene so trimly dight, I pray the Hobbinoll, recorde some one: The whiles our flockes doe graze about in sight, And we close shrowded in thys shade alone. Hobbinol: Contented I: then will I singe his laye Of fayre Eliza, Queene of shepheardes all: Which once he made, as by a spring he laye, And tuned it unto the Waters fall. | Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. | e-Text here | |
| 1566 | 1575 | The posies of George Gascoigne esquire. Jocasta: a tragedie written in Greeke by Euripides, translated and digested into acts by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh of Grayes Inne, and there by them presented, 1566. | George Gascoigne (1535-1577) & Francis Kinwelmersh (1538-?1580) | The order of the seconde dumbe shewe Before the beginning of this seconde Acte dyd sound a very dolefull noise of flutes : during the which there came in upon the stage two coffines covered with hearclothes, and brought in by viii in mourning weed, and accompanied with viii other mourners : and after they had caried the coffins about the stage, there opened and appeared a grave, wherin they buried the coffins, and put fire to them; but the flames did sever and parte in twaine, signifying discord by the history of two brethren, whose discord in their hfe was not onely to be wondred at, but, being buried both in one tombe (as some writers affirme), the flames of their funeralls did yet parte the one from the other in like maner, and would in no wise joyne into one flame. After the funerals were ended and the fire consumed, the grave was closed up again, the mourners withdrew them off the stage, and immediately, by the gates Homoloydes entred Pollinyces, accompanied with vi gentlemen and a page that carried his helmet and target ; he and his men unarmed saving their gorgets, for that they were permitted to come into the towne in time of truce, to the end Jocasta might bring the two brethren to a parle : and Pollinyces, after good regard taken round about him, speake as foloweth. | Actually a translation from Lodovico Dolce’s Italian version of the Phoenissae. Francis Kinwelmersh, translated only Acts I and IV of Jocasta, neither of which concern us here. Originally published in 1573 under the title A Hundredth Sundry Flowres bound up in one small Posie. Gathered partly (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarch, Ariosto and others; and partly by Invention out of our owne fruitfull Orchardes in Englande, Yelding Sundrie Savours of tragical, comical and moral discourse, bothe pleasaunt and profitable, to the well-smelling noses of learned readers, by London printer Richarde Smith. Gascoigne was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. Kinwelmersh (Kynwelmarsh, Kindlemarsh) was a minor Elizabethan poet and dramatist. | e-text here. Welch (1911/1916: 131). |
| 1579 | The Schoole of Abuse, Thomas Woodcocke, London | Stephen Gosson (1554-1624) | You are no sooner entred [in the Schoole of Abuse], but libertie looseth the reynes, and geues you head, placing you with Poetrie in the lowest forme: when his skill is showne too make his Scholer as good as euer twangde, hee preferres you too Pyping, from Pyping to playing, from play to pleasure, from pleasure to slouth, from slouth to sleepe, from sleepe to sinne, from sinne to death, from death to the deuill, if you take your learning apace, and passe through euery forme without reuolting. Looke not too haue mee discourse these at large, the Crocodile watcheth to take me tardie, which soeuer of them I touche, is a vyle: Trype and goe, for I dare not tarry. Heraclides accounteth Amphyon the ringleader of poets and Pypers: Delphus Philammones penned the birth of Latona, Diana and Apollo in verse; and taught the people to Pype and Daunce rounde about the temple of Delphos. Hesiodus was as cunning in Pyping, as in Poetrie: so was Terpandrus, and after him Clonas. Apollo which is honoured of Poets as the God of their Art, had at the one side of his Idol in Delos a bowe, and at the other, the three Graces with three sundrie instruments, of which one was a pype, and some writers affirme that he pyped himselfe now and than. Poetrie and pyping, haue allwaies bene so vnited togither, that til the time of Melanippides, Pipers were Poets hyerlings. But marke I pray you, how they are now both abused. | Gosson included pipers, as he termed flute-players, in a list of ‘Caterpillars of a Commonwealth’. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 58-59) | |
| 1579 | Parallel Lives | Plutarch, Englished by Sir Thomas North (1535-1604) | Afterwards, when he [Alcibiades] was put to school to learn, he was very obedient to all his masters that taught him anything, saving that he disdained to learn to play on the flute or recorder saying that it was no gentlemanly quality. ” For,” said he, ” to play on the viol with a stick cloth not alter man’s favour, nor disgrace any gentleman: but otherwise, to play on the flute, his countenance altereth and changeth so oft, that his familiar friends can scant know him. Moreover the harp or viol cloth not let him that playeth on them from speaking or singing as he playeth: where he that playeth on the flute holdeth his mouth so hard to it, that it taketh not only his words from him, but his voice. Therefore,” said he, ” let the children of the Thebans play on the flute, that cannot tell how to speak: as for the Athenians, we have (as our forefathers tell us) for protectors and patrons of our country, the goddess Pallas and the god Apollo: of the which the one in old time (as it is said) brake the flute, and the other pulled his skin over his ears that played upon a flute.” Thus Alcibiades alleging these reasons, partly in sport, and partly in good earnest, did not only himself leave to learn to play on the flute, but he turned his companions’ minds also quite from it. For these words of Alcibiades ran from boy to boy incontinently: “that Alcibiades had reason to despise playing on the flute, and that he mocked all those that learned to play on it.” So afterwards, it fell out at Athens, that teaching to play on the flute was put out of the number of honest and liberal exercises, and the flute itself was thought a vile instrument and of no reputation……. | Alcibiades’ reaction (probably referring to the aulos) may reflect Plato’s comment on flute-playing. Plato himself did not despise it, but (I think) refers to its feminine qualities. Our modern use of ‘gentlemanly’ puts this quotation in line for being thoroughly misunderstood! Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2000). Sir Thomas North was an English justice of the peace, military officer and translator. His translation into English of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, from the French of Jacques Amyot, is notable for being a source text used by William Shakespeare for several of his plays. | e-Text here Sternfeld (1967: 230) | |
| 1580 | A pleasaunte laborinth called Churchyardes chance framed on fancies, vttered with verses, and writte[n] to giue solace to euery well disposed mynde: … Printed by John Kyngston, London.. | Thomas Churchyard (?1520-1604). | Of my Lorde cheef Baron that was THe Sittern sweete whose siluer sounde,(the sloggards witts awakes:)Through chaunge and choice, of notes newe founde,a pleasant Musicke makes.The Harpe whose twang and stroke is strange, is vsed eury where,His many stryngs and warblyng sound, so mutche delites the eare.The milde Recorder hath a place, where sweete Concordance is,The Cornet and the Howboies bothe, maie matche and sound wt thisThe Uirginall with quiet noyes, must matched be I trowe,The sliller that the Musick is, the better doeth it showe:But some had rather heare for chaunge, a cherefull ryng of bells,Who fains the noies doeth pearce the aire, and thonder crack expels.In elder daies when stormes arose, and tempests rough did rore,Thei loudly rang the halloude bell, for cause I told before.In tounes of warre where watche & ward, is kept with worthy gardThe Larum bell that warnyng giues, in deede maie ill be spard:When Prince remoues the bells thei ryng, & at hie feasts and times,In forraine lande a noble noies, is made of bells and chimes.The blest birthe daie of Kyngs and Queenes, wt bells is honord still,In signe of Princes happie raignes, and Subiects greate good will:A ryng of bells is heard farre of, and pleaseth many a minde,Now nere thei sound, then farre thei seem, as bloes the gale of winde.But I delite in passyng Bell, for that doeth plainly shoe,As one from hence doeth take his leaue, so hence we all must goe:A passyng Bell then shall it be, that makes best Musicke here,It tings and tolls what we are worthe, and sounds in eare so clere.That eche man knowes the passyng Bell, is best in these our daies,Let Lute and Sutern then giue place, and yeeld to Bell the praies. | Thomas Churchyard was page to Henry, Earl of Surrey and served as a soldier in Scotland and Ireland (under Earl Grey), in France and the Low Countries. He obtained a pension from Queen Elizabeth, but was reduced to earning a living by writing. Churchyard published some 60 books and pamphlets over a 50-year period. | e-Text here | |
| 1580 | Euphues and his England, CONTAINING. his voyage and aduentures, myxed with sundry pretie discourses of honest Loue, the discription of the countrey, the Court, and the manners of that Isle: 278 | John Lyly (c.1553/1554–1606) | Fidus calling these Gentle-men uppe, brought them into his garden, where under a sweete Arbour of Eglentine, the byrdes recording theyr sweete notes, hee also strayned his olde pype, and thus beganne. | Imprinted at London for Gabriell Cawood, dwelling in Paules Church-yard. | e-Text here | |
| 1582 | The First Part of the Elementarie Which Entreateth Chieflie of the Right Writing of our English Tung: 209. | Richard Mulcaster (c.1531-1611) | … recorder … | Lists the word ‘recorder’ without further qualification. Richard Mulcaster (c.1531-1611, is known best for his headmasterships and pedagogic writings. He is often regarded as the founder of English language lexicography. He invented the name ‘footeball’. | e-Text here | |
| 1585 | A sinfvll Mans Solace most sweete and comfortable, for the sicke and sorowful soule: …: 69-76 | John Norden (c. 1547-1625) | A SINFVLL Mans Solace. Contriued into seuen daies Confe∣rence betweene Christ and a wordly-minded Rich-man. THE ARGVMENT. A certaine coueitous Rich man, ha∣uing his Cofers full of gold and siluer: And so great aboundance of all thinges about him, that he thought himselfe so farre in fortunes fauour, that (being blin∣ded with his greedy desires of gaine, and loue of himselfe) he fell into this foolish conceit following. 01 The Rich-man. 02 OH Corps of mine,* take now thine ease, 03 betake thy lymbs to rest: 04 I haue enough to keepe thee now, 05 as dainty as the best. … … 57 Sweet Arbors here and there, about 58 my Pallace shalbe set, 59 With plants of price, of sweetest smel, 60 that I for coyne can get. 61 Wherein, to passe my plesaunt daies, 62 I will my solace take: 63 With melodie and musicke sweet, 64 and all things else forsake. 65 But loe, where should I finde a seat, 66 thus to content my minde? 67 It must be where some plesaunt spring 68 and woods do grow by kind. 69 Where eccoes with resounding voice, 70 may answere Cornet shrill: 71 The Trumpet and Recorder sweet, 72 to please my fancy still. 73 Which might it be, where Wheary boat 74 could passe the Theams with oare, 75 Where I might take my like repaste, 76 with Citron and Bandoare. 77 … … | Full title: A sinfull mans solace most sweete and comfortable, for the sicke and sorowful soule: contriued, into seuen seuerall daies conference, betweene Christ and a carelesse sinner. Wherin, euerie man, from the highest, to the lowest: from the richest, to the poorest: and aboue all, the sorowfull sinner: maye take such sweet repaste of resolution, to amendment of lyfe, and confirmation of fayth: that (in respect of the heauenlie solace, therin faithfully remembered:) all the pompes and pleasures of this wicked worlde, shall be plainely perceiued to be meere miserie. John Norden was an English cartographer, chorographer and antiquary. He planned a series of county maps and accompanying county histories of England, the Speculum Britanniae. He was also a prolific writer of devotional works. | e-Text here | |
| 1587 | Howes Manuscripts | John Howes (fl. 1582-1587) | The foundation deeds of Christ’s Hospital (1552) provide for a teacher of ‘prick-song’ at the annual fee of £2 13s. 4d. (it was only a part time appointment) and in 1587 John Howes justifies the inclusion of music in the curriculum, saying: ‘I also thinck it convenient that the children should learne to singe, to play uppon all sorts of instruments, as to sounde the trumpett, the cornett, the recorder or flute, to play uppon shagbotts[sic], shalmes, and all other instruments that are to be plaid uppon, either w[i]th winde or finger, bycause nature yelds her severall gifts and there is an aptness of conceavinge in some more than in other some, and yett every child apt to learne the one or the other, those qualities cannot be greatly charageable bycause they are the gifts of God in nature, and they are qualities that every honest minde taketh great pleasure and delight in, and no doubt if the children be well taught, plyde, and followed it wil be a redy meane to preferre a number of them haveing theis quallities.’ | The oldest known history of the Royal Hospitals (Christ’s, St Thomas’s and Bridewell), and of Christ’s Hospital in particular, is contained in two small volumes written by John Howes, in 1582 and in 1587, and known as the Howes Manuscripts. John Howes, Renter and Gatherer of Legacies, worked as an assistant to Richard Grafton, the first Treasurer of Christ’s Hospital, and he was resident within the site. The last sentence of the quote above reminds us that Christ’s Hospital tried to place its children as apprentices and servants. That music should be recommendation in a domestic worker may surprise us; but the Elizabethan apprentice or servant lived as a member of the family. Nor was the industrial worker much different … A musical family would value a servant who could join in the music-making (Pattison 1948: 11). Sadly, less than two years after Howes’ suggestion, the governing body ordered: ‘Henceforth none of the children in this Hospital shall be apprenticed to any musyssionar other than such be blinde, lame, and not able to be put to other service.’ | Boyd (1973) Herbert (2006) Pattison (1948) Watson (1908) | |
| 1590 | Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie … (Hunter. Cl.) 27. | Thomas Lodge (c. 1558-1625) | ROSADER beeing thus preferred to the place of a Forester by GERISMOND, rooted out the remembrance of his brothers vnkindnes by continual exercise, trauersing the groues and wilde Forrests: partly to heare the melodie of the sweete birdes which recorded, and partly to shewe his diligent indeauour in his masters behalfe. Yet whatsoueuer he did, or howseoeuer he walked, the liuely Image of ROSALYNDE remained in memorie: on her sweete perfections he fedde his thoughts, proouing himselfe like the Eagle a true borne bird, since as the one is knowen by beholding the Sunne: so was he by regarding excellent beautie. One day among the rest, finding a fit opportunitie and place conuenient, desirous to discouer his woes to the woodes, hee engraued with his knife on the barke of a Myrtle tree, this pretie estimate of his Mistres perfection. Sonnetto Of all chast birdes the Phœnix doth excell, Of all strong beasts the Lion beares the bell, Of all sweete flowers the Rose doth sweetest smell, Of all faire maides my Rosalynde is fairest. etc., etc. | Thomas Lodge was an English physician and author during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. His prose tale Rosalynde printed in 1590, afterwards furnished the story of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. | e-Text here | |
| 1587 | 1592 | The Spanish Tragedy or, Hieronimo is Mad Again[ ii. iv. 28. | Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) | HORATIO. Harke, madame, how the birds record by night, For ioy that Bel-imperia sits in sight! BEL-IMPERIA. No; Cupid counterfeits the nightingale, To frame sweet musick to Horatios tale. | The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Many of its elements found their way into Shakespeare’s Hamlet. | e-Text here |
| 1592 | 1600 | Summers Last Will and Testament: 360. | Thomas Nashe (1567–c. 1601) | SUMMER. Vertumnus, call Solstitium. VERTUMNUS. Solstitium, come into the court: without, peace there below! makeroom for Master Solstitium. Enter Solstitium like an aged Hermit, carrying a payre of ballances, with an houre-glasse in eyther of them – one houre-glasse white, the other blacke: he is brought in by a number of Shepherds playing upon Recorders. SOLISTIUM. All hail to Summer, my dread sovereign lord. SUMMMER. Welcome, Solstitium: thou art one of them, To whose good husbandry we have referr’d Part of those small revenues that we have. What hast thou gain’d us? what hast thou brought in? | Published in 1600 but probably first played in 1592. The recorder is named in the stage directions of only one play produced by the adult companies before 1610 (Lasocki 1983) – and that was of course Hamlet. The association with shepherds (in plays) is new to England – not found with the boy companies of the first decade of the 17th century, or with the Jacobean or Caroline adult companies, or I think with any company until Purcell in the last decade of the century (Lasocki, pers. comm., 2000). Thomas Nashe is considered the greatest of the English Elizabethan pamphleteers. He was also a playwright, poet and satirist. | e-Text here Lasocki (1983) |
| 1592 | Sermons – containing necessarie and profitable doctrine as well as for the reformation of our liues, as for Comfort &c.: 429. | Henry Smith (c.1560-1591) | Like a bird that is taught to record, when he had sung it he sang it again. | Printed for T. Man. ‘Silver-tongued Smith’ was a popular English Puritan preacher whose volumes of sermons were best-sellers in the 1590s. In his notes on Psalm 106 in The Treasury of David (1870: 213), Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) includes the following: Verse 1.—”His mercy.” Many sweet things are in the word of God, but the name of mercy is the sweetest word in all the Scriptures, which made David harp upon it twenty-six times in this Psalm: “For his mercy endureth for ever.” It was such a cheerful note in his ears when he struck upon mercy, that, like a bird that is taught to pipe, when he had sung it, he sang it again, and when he had sung it again, he recorded it again, and made it the burden of his song: “For his mercy endureth for ever.” Like a nightingale which, when she is in a pleasant vein, quavers and capers, and trebles upon it, so did David upon his mercy: “For his mercy endureth for ever.” — Henry Smith | Spurgeon (1870/1990) | |
| 1595 | Wits Fittes and Fancies. Fronted and entermedled with presidentes of honour and wisdome. Also: Loves Owl. An idle conceited dialogue betwene loue, and an olde man. Recta securus. A.C. | Anthony Copley (1567-1607?) | OF OFFICERS A me•rie Recorder of London riding vpon his Mule would needs take the wall of all men, and riding in an euening all too ambitiouslie vnder the pentisses for that prerogatiue, down he fell and his Mule both into an Ale-celler, and sore bruis’d him: Insomuch as euer after hee vs’d to haue a man goe betweene him and the wall as he rid, for feare of any moe the like mis∣chances. The said Recorder passing along the street, and hearing a Souldiour in an Ale-house calling for a Kingston-pot of beere, straight stept in vnto him, and arrested him of high treason, say∣ing: Sir•ha, often haue I heard, and tasted of a pennie-pot of beere, and found good of the price, but of a Kingston-pot of Beere I neuer heard: Sure, it is some counterfeit coyne, and I must know how thou camm’st by it. The said Recorder mistaking the name of one Pepper, call’d him Piper: Whereunto the partie excepting, and saying: Sir, you mistake, my name is Pepper, not Piper: hee answered: Why, what difference is there (I pray thee) between Piper in Latin, and Pepper in English; is it not all one? No sir (reply’d the other) there is euen as much difference betweene them, as is between a Pipe and a Recorder. | Printed by Richard Iohnes, Holborne. The first part of Wits Fittes, and Fancies is derived from Floresta española by M. de Santa Cruz de Dueñas. The second section Loves Owl is a translation of Dialogo entre el amore y un caballero viejo by Rodrigo de Cota. Anthony Copley was a poet and conspirator, who was concerned in the plot for placing Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne and condemned to death but later pardoned. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 113-114) | |
| 1595 | The Old Wives’ Tale: 330. | George Peele (1556–1596) | SACRAPANT. The day is clear, the welkin bright and grey, The lark is merry and records her notes; Each thing rejoiceth underneath the sky, But only I, whom heaven hath in hate, Wretched and miserable Sacrapant. In Thessaly was I born and brought up: My mother Meroe hight, a famous witch, And by her cunning I of her did learn To change and alter shapes of mortal men. There did I turn myself into a dragon, And stole away the daughter to the king. Fair Delia, the mistress of my heart; And brought her hither to revive the man That seemeth young and pleasant to behold. And yet is aged, crooked, weak, and numb. Thus by enchanting spells I do deceive Those that behold and look upon my face; But well may I bid youthful years adieu. See where she comes from whence my sorrows grow! | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 71) | ||
| 1589 | 1592 | The Two Gentlemen of Verona: V, iv. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | VALENTINE 2120 How vse doth breed a habit in a man? 2121 This shadowy desart, vnfrequented woods 2122 I better brooke then flourishing peopled Townes: 2123 Here can I sit alone, vn- seene of any, 2124 And to the Nightingales complaining Notes 2125 Tune my distresses, and record my woes. 2126 O thou that dost inhabit in my brest, 2127 Leaue not the Mansion so long Tenant- lesse, 2128 Lest growing ruinous, the building fall, 2129 And leaue no memory of what it was, 2130 Repaire me, with thy presence, Siluia 2131 Thou gentle Nimph, cherish thy for-lorne swaine. 2132 What hallowing, and what stir is this to day? 2133 These are my mates, that make their wills their Law, 2134 Haue some vnhappy passenger in chace; 2135 They loue me well: yet I haue much to doe 2136 To keepe them from vnciuill outrages. | Believed to have been written between 1589 and 1592. It draws on a number of earlier works. The play was not printed until 1623, when it appeared in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 71) |
| 1596 | Records of the Court of Aldermen, London. | The Waits to be paid for a set of Recordes and six Cornets. | These records are now held by London Metropolitan Archives | Altissimo! Recordings (undated) | ||
| 1590 | 1597 | The Woman in the Moon iii. i. 79. | John Lyly (c.1553/1554–1606) | STESIAS. Blest be the hand that made so happy wound, For in my sufferance haue I wonne thy loue; And blessed thou, that hauing tryed my faith, Hast giuen admittance to my harts desert: Now all is well, and all my hurt is whole, And I in paradise of my delight. Come, louely spouse, let vs go walke the woods, Where warbling birds recorde our happines, And whisling leaues make musick to our myrthe, And Flora strews her bowre to welcome thee. PANDORA. But first sweet husband, be thou ruld by me: Go make prouision for some holy rytes, That zeale may prosper our new ioyned loue, And by and by my selfe will follow thee. | Lyly was an English writer, poet, dramatist, playwright, and politician. The Woman in the Moon is a play in blank verse rather than prose. It was published in 1597. Although most of Lyly’s plays were acted by the children’s company Paul’s Boys, the playing company that acted this particular work is a mystery. However, it is thought to have been first produced between 1590 and 1595, most likely in 1593. | e-Text here |
| 1583 | 1598 | Diana: 475. | Bartholomew Yong [Yonge, Young, Younge] (1560–1612) | One of them played upon a Lute; another on a Harpe; another made a marvellous sweet countertenour upon a Recorder; another with a piece of a fine quill made the silver stringed Cyterne sweetly to sound; others the strings of the basse Viall with rosined haires; others with Virginals and Violins made delicate changes in the aire, and filled it with so sweete musicke, that in a manner it astonished … | A translation from the Spanish of Jorge de Montemayor’s pastoral novel, Los Siete Libros de la Diana. A sixteenth-century bestseller, Yong’s Diana helped launch a vogue for stories about shepherds, shepherdesses, and their amorous experiences. Young was a Catholic man of affairs who travelled in Spain in 1578–1580. | |
| 1599 | 1602 | Antonio and Mellida V, i. | John Marston (1576–1634) | ANDRUGIO Come, be a princely hangman, stoppe my breath. dread thou shame, no more then I dread death. PIERO We are amaz’d, our royall spirits numm’d, In stiffe atonisht wonder at thy prowesle, Most mightie, valiant, and high towring heart. We blush, and turne our hate vpon our selues, For hating such an vnpeer’d excellence. Injoy my state : him whome I loath’d before, That now I honour, loue ; nay more, adore. SD. The still Flutes sound a mournful Cynet. Enter a Cofin. But stay : what tragick spectacle appeares, Whofe bodie beare you in that mournefull hearfe? LUCIO The breathlese trunke of young Antonio. | A fake funeral (for Antonio). Marston was a poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. | e_Text here Manifold (1956: 69) |
| 1600 | 1602 | Antonio’s Revenge IV, iii. | John Marston (1576–1634) | SD. The still flutes sound softly. Enter Forobosco and Castilio; Mellida supported by two waiting women. | In the ensuing scene, Mellida appeals from earthly to heavenly justice; Strotzo stages his repentance; and Mellida swoons and dies. A sequel to Marston’s “Antonio and Mellida. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 69) |
| 1600 | Godfrey of Bulloigne: Or, The Recoverie of Jerusalem Done into English Heroicall Verse. | Edward Fairfax (?1580–1635) | Book 2, XCVII Yet neither sleep, nor ease, nor shadows dark, Could make the faithful camp or captain rest, They long’d to see the day, to hear the lark Record her hymns and chant her carols blest, They yearn’d to view the walls, the wished mark To which their journeys long they had address’d; Each heart attends, each longing eye beholds What beam the eastern window first unfolds. | Translation of Torquato Tasso’s La Gerusalemme liberata in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. | e-text here Welch (1911/1961: 22) | |
| 1577 | The workes of a young wyt trust vp with a Fardell of prettie fancies, profitable to young Poetes, prejudicial to no man, and pleasant to euery man to passe away idle time withall, C3v. | Nicholas Breton (?1555-1626). | From A Farewell to Town And now farewel, thou gallante Luite, with instruments of Musickes sounds, Recorder, Citren, Harpe and Fluyte, and heauenly deskants on sweeete grounds: I now muste leaue you al in deede, and make some Musicke on a reede. | English poet and novelist Nicholas Breton belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton. He was a prolific author of considerable versatility and gift, popular with his contemporaries. | e-Text here Ward (1983) | |
| 1796 | For the Vase at Bath Easton, Dissipation, Verse IV. | Edward Jerningham (?1737-c.1812) | Behold, encircled with afflictions’s gloom, BELINDA watches at her husband’s tomb; Beneath th’oprressive weight of grief she bends, Like the pale lily when the rain descends: But Dissipation, with her soothing aid, Forbinds the beauteous drooping flow’r to fade. The fair intends, in proof of her distress, To wear the mourning of the day of Bess! But in obedience to the present court, Kind Dissipation bids her wear the Short. At her command while tears bedew her cheeks, BELINDA through the veil of mourning peeps; Her pulse gets quicker as she then surveys th’approaching prospect of more happy days: At length the change of mourning brings relief, And at the change she loses half her grief Now on the joys that meet her on the way, The mourner casts a practis’d coy survey; Now less reserv’d, a bolder view she sends, And bolder still she Pleasure’s bark ascends, Where laughing HEBE grasps the glitt’ring helm, To guide the vessel to th’ Idalian realm. Now soft recorders send a soothing sound, And in the notes affliction’s plaints are drown’d; The sails grow pregnant with the wanton air, Not unregarded by the conscious Fair, Who glides obedient to the fav’ring wind, And leaves the gloom of widowhood behind. | From Poems from Mr Jernngham. 1796. A new edition. Vol. 1. London: Printed for J. Robson. Pages 112-115. The Vase at Bath Easton belonged to Lady Anna Miller (1741–1781), English poet, travel writer and salon hostess. She instituted a fortnightly literary salon at her villa. Lee characterised the salon as bearing “some resemblance to the later follies of the Della Cruscans”. In Italy, Lady Miller had purchased an antique vase, dug up at Frascati in 1759. The vase was placed on an “altar” decorated with laurel, and each guest was invited to place in the urn an original composition in verse. A committee was appointed to determine the best three productions, and their authors were then crowned by Lady Miller with wreaths of myrtle. In addition to poems and plays, Jerningham wrote on theological subjects. | e-Text here | |
| 1600 | 1623 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream IV, i, 87. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | Oberon: Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head. Titania, music call; and strike more dead Than common sleep of all these five the sense. Titania: Music, ho, music; such as charmeth sleep! SD. Music, still [Quarto]; Still music [Folio]. Robin: Now when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep! Oberon: Sound, music! | Manifold (1956: 98) Welch (1911/1961: 131) | |
| 1600 | 1623 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream V, i. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government. | Manifold (1956: 98) | |
| 1600 | 1604 | King Henry IV, Part 2. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | I, from the orient to the drooping west, Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The acts commenced on this ball of earth; Upon my tongues continual slanders ride; The which in every language I pronounce Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. I speak of peace, while covert enmity, Under the smile of safety, wounds the world; And who but Rumour, who but only I, Make fearful musters, and prepar’d defence; Whilst the big year, swol’n with some other grief, Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures; And of so easy and so plain a stop, That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, The still-discordant wavering multitude, Can play upon it. But what need I thus My well-known body to anatomize among my household? | Welch (1961: 169-170, 179) | |
| 1600 | 1623 | Hamlet III, ii. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | …… bless’d are those Whose blood and judgement are so well co-mingled, That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger To sound what stop she please. Ah, ha! Come, some music. Come, the recorders. For if the King like not the comedy, Why, then, belike he likes it not, perdy. Come, some music. O, the recorders – let me see one. Will you play upon this pipe? ‘T is as easy as lying; govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you these are the stops. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ‘Sblood! do you think I am easier to played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. | Manifold (1956: 67) Welch (1911/1961: 157-183) | |
| 1618 | French Academie (1618, 3: 760) | T. B[owes] and R. Dolman | The young little nightingales harken to the old, and do record by themselues apart, the songs which they heard. | From a translation of by T. B[owes] & R. Dolman of L’Academie Française by Pierre de La Primaudaye (1546–1619). | ||
| 1601 | A Book of Ayres: ‘Come let us sound with melody the praises/Of the king’s King’. | Thomas Campian [Campion] (1567-1620) | Come, let us sound with melody, the praises Of the King’s King, th’omnipotent Creator, Author of number, that hath all the world in Harmony framed. Heav’n is His throne perpetually shining, His divine power and glory, thence He thunders, One in All, and All still in One abiding, Both Father and Son. O sacred Sprite, invisible, eternal, Ev’rywhere, yet unlimited, that all things Can’st in one moment penetrate, revive me, O Holy Spirit! Rescue, O rescue me from earthly darkness! Banish hence all these elemental objects! Guide my soul that thirsts to the lively fountain Of thy divineness! Cleanse my soul, O God! thy bespotted image, Altered with sin so that heavenly pureness Cannot acknowledge me, but in thy mercies, O Father of grace! But when once thy beams do remove my darkness, O then I’ll shine forth as an angel of light, And record with more than an earthly voice thy Infinite honours. | Thoms Campian was an English composer, poet, and physician. He wrote more than 100 lute songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music. You can listen to a delightful performance of this ayre by the divine Emma Kirkby accompanied by Anthony Rooley (lute) here. | e-Text here | |
| 1601 | The Triumphs of Oriana: Come come blessed Bird and with thy sugred rellish. | Edward Johnson (fl. 1572–1601) | Come come blessed Bird and with thy sugred rellish, Help our declining quire now to embellish, For Bonny bootes, that so aloft would fetch it, Oh he is dead, and none of vs can reach it, Then tune to vs sweet Bird thy shrill recorder, for fault of better will serue in the Corus, Begin and we will follow thee in order, Then sang the Woodborne minstrell of Diana, Long liue faire Oriana. FINIS. | Edward Johnson was an English composer and lyricist. The Triumphs of Oriana is a book of English madrigals, compiled and published in 1601 by Thomas Morley, which first edition has 25 pieces by 23 composers. It was said to have been made in honour of Queen Elizabeth I. Every madrigal in the collection contains the following couplet at the end: “Long live fair Oriana” (the word “Oriana” often being used to refer to Queen Elizabeth). Johnson’s Come come blessed Bird is the final piece in the volume. | e-Text here | |
| 1601 | 1603 | The Cuckqueanes and Cuckolds Errants, Or the Rearing Down the Inne, a Comaedye. The Faery Pastorall Or Forest of Elves III, vi. | William Percy (1574-1648) | Thats a new song now … Shift, did’st ever hear better music in thy days, Shift? No, by the crowd of Apollo, Nim, have I. Why, sirrha, this now was better to me than a pair of recorders, I avow. A pair of disorders, you should have said, gentlemen. | William Percy was an English poet and playwright. He was the third son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland. During 1601-1603, Percy wrote in his own hand in a folio volume six plays. The volume was never published and no duplicates or actors’ compies are known to exist. Of the six plays The Cuckqueanes and The Faery Pastoral were not published until 1796 and 1854. | |
| 1601 | 1603 | The Faery Pastorall I, ii. | William Percy (1574-1648) | The Spartans the better to keep thir ranks, wonted march to the tunes of their pipes. So we embattle ourselves in our march to the wind of our organs likewise. Best of all. And be it to the tune of Gracchus his recorder. | William Percy was an English poet and playwright. He was the third son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland. During 1601-1603, Percy wrote in his own hand in a folio volume six plays. The volume was never published and no duplicates or actors’ compies are known to exist. Of the six plays The Cuckqueanes and The Faery Pastoral were not published until 1796 and 1854. | |
| 1605 | 1606 | The Wonder of Women, or the Tragedy of Sophonisba III. | John Marston (1576–1634) | SD. Organ mixed with recorders for this act. | John Marston was an English playright, poet and satirist whose work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style. | Lasocki (1984) Manifold (1956: 16) |
| 1605 | 1606 | The Wonder of Women, or The Tragedy of Sophonisba V, iii. | John Marston (1576–1634) | SD. Organ and Recorders play to a single voice; enter in mean time the mournful solemnity of Massinissa presenting Sophonisba’s body. | John Marston was an English playright, poet and satirist whose work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style. | Manifold (1956: 68) Lasocki (1984: 5) |
| 1608 | 1609 | Pericles IV, Prologue. | William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | …… to the lute She sung, and made the night-bird mute, That still records with moan. | Manifold (1956: 72, 93) Welch (1911/1961: 22) | |
| 1610 | 1614 | Valentinian II, i. | John Fletcher (1579–1625) | For you are fellows only know by rote As birds record their lessons. | Valentinian is a Jacobean era stage play, a revenge tragedy written by John Fletcher that was that originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play dramatizes the story of Valentinian III, one of the last of the Roman Emperors, as recorded by the classical historian Procopius. Scholars date the play to the 1610–1614 period. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 71) |
| 1608 | 1611 | The Maid’s Tragedy I, iii. | Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) & John Fletcher (1579–1625) | Enter King, Evadne, Aspatia, Lords and Ladies. King Melantius, thou art welcome, and my love Is with thee still; but this is not a place To brabble in; Calianax, joyn hands. Calianax He shall not have my hand. King This is no time To force you to’t, I do love you both: Calianax, you look well to your Office; And you Melantius are welcome home; begin the Mask. Melantius Sister, I joy to see you, and your choice, You lookt with my eyes when you took that man; Be happy in him. [SD. Recorders] Evadne …… O my dearest brother! Your presence is more joyful than this day Can be unto me. | Beaumont & Fletcher collaborated for close to a decade on a number of plays, amongst them this one. The scene in question involves a wedding and is followed by a masque of gods and godesses: Night, Cynthia the moon, Neptune, Aeolus, and a corps-de-ballet of Sea-gods. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984: 9) Manifold (1956: 69) |
| 1611 | The Second Maiden’s Tragedy. British Museum MS (Lansdowne MS. 807). | Thomas Middleton (1580–1627) ) | The spirit [of the Lady] enters again and stays to go out with the body, as it were attending it. [GOVIANUS] Oh, welcome, blessed spirit! Thou need’st not mistrust me; I have a care As jealous as thine own. We’ll see it done And not believe report. Our zeal is such We cannot reverence chastity too much. Lead on! I would those ladies that fill honour’s rooms Might all be borne so honest to their tombs. Recorders or other solemn music plays them out. | The Second Maiden’s Tragedy survives only in manuscript. It was written in 1611, and performed in the same year by the King’s Men. The manuscript that survives is the copy that was sent to Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels and censor. It includes his markings as well as markings by The Kings Men, Shakespeare’s company, who used it as a prompt copy. The manuscript was acquired, but never printed, by the publisher Humphrey Moseley after the closure of the theatres in 1642. In 1807, the manuscript was acquired by the British Museum. Victorian Poet and critic, Algernon Swinburne, was the first to attribute this work to Thomas Middleton; this judgement has since been joined by most editors and scholars. The passage quoted here ends the play. Thomas Middleton (1580 – July 1627) was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson among the most successful and prolific playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in comedy and tragedy. Also a prolific writer of masques and pageants, he remains one of the most notable and distinctive of Jacobean dramatists. | e-Text here | |
| 1612 | 1613 | The Poly-Oblion, Pt 1: 48-58; 356-368. | Michael Drayton (1563-1631). | 48 . . . . . . , like to a curious Maze: 49 Which breaking forth, the tender grasse bedewed, 50 Whose silver sand with orient Pearle was strewed, 51 Shadowed with Roses and sweet Eglantine, 52 Dipping theyr sprayes into this christalline: 53 From which the byrds the purple berries pruned, 54 And to theyr loves their small recorders tuned. 55 The Nightingale, woods Herauld of the Spring, 56 The whistling Woosell, Mavis carroling, 57 Tuning theyr trebbles to the waters fall, 58 Which made the musicque more angelicall: 356 The trembling Lute some touch, some strain the Viol best 357 In sets which thee were seen, the Music wondrous choice; 358 Some likewise there affect the Gamba with the Voice. 359 To show that England could variety afford, 360 Some that delight to touch the sterner wyerie Chord, 361 The Cythron, the Pandore, and the Theorbo strike: 362 The Gittern and the Kit the wandring Fidlers like. 363 So were there some againe, in this their learned strife 364 Loud Instruments that lov’d; the Cornet and the Phife, 365 The Hoboy, Sagbut deepe, Recorder, and the Flute: 366 Even from the shrillest Shawme unto the Cornamute. 367 Some blowe the Bagpipe up, that plaies the Country-round: 368 The Taber and the Pipe, some take delight to sound. | The first quotation first appeared in Drayton’s Endimion and Phoebe (1595). | Manifold (1956: 102-103) Welch (1911/1961: 7-8) |
| 1612 | 1613 | Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that ever was printed for the virginalls. | Hugh Holland (1569-1633) | On his worthy frend W:H: & his Triumuiri of Musicke List to that sweete Recorder; How daintily this BYRD his notes doth vary, As if he were the Nightingalls owne brother: Loe where doth pace in order A braver BULL, then did Europa cary: Nay let all Europe showe me such an other. Orlando though was counted Musicks fathr Yet this ORLANDO parallels di Lasso: Whose triple praise would tire a very Tasso. The heere in one these three men heare yu rather And praise thaire songes: & sing his praise who maried Those notes so well wch they so sweetely varied. | Hugh Holland was an English poet and traveller. Amongst his output were commendatory verses to publications such as Parthenia, the most important of all early publications of English keyboard music. It was written in honour of the betrothal and marriage of Princess Elizabeth Stuart, the only daughter of James I and VI, and her betrothed, the Elector Palatine of Heidelberg, Frederick V. | e-Text here |
| 1613 | 1614 | The teares or lamentations of a sorrowfull Soule. | Sir William Leighton (fl. 1603-1614) | A thankesiuing to God with magnifying of his holy name upon all instruments. 1. Yeeld unto God the Lord onhigh, Praise inthe cloudes & firmament; With heauens & earth’s sweet harmony, And tunes which are from motions sent. 2. His laude be with the stately sound, Of trumpets blast vunto the skye: Let harpe and organes foorth be found With flute and timbrell magnifie. 3.Praise him with Simballs, loud Simballs, With instruments wer vs’d by Jewes: With Syrons, crowdes & virginalls, To sing his praise do not refuse. 4. Praise him upon the claricoales, The Lute and Sinfonie; With dusemers and the regalls, Sweet Sittrons melody. 5. With Drumes & Fife & shrillest shalmes, With gittron and bondore; With the Theorba sing you psalmes, And Cornets euermore. 6. With Vialls and Recorders sing, the praises of the Lord; With Crouncorns musicke laud the king Of Kings with one accord. 7. With shackbuts noate that pierce the skies, With pipe and taberret; What tunes by reedes or canes arise, Do not his praise forget. 8. Let euery thing that yeeldeth sound, By land or eke by sea; The birds in aire or beasts on ground, Sing yea, his praise alway. 9. All instruments deuis’d by art, All liuing things by nature: Praise yee the Lord with ioyfull heart, Of all the world creatour. | An imitation of the 150th Psalm. Leighton was an Elizabethan composer and editor who published The Teares and Lamentatacions of a Sorrowfull Soule which comprised 55 pieces by 21 composers (among them John Bull, William Byrd, John Dowland, Martin Peerson and John Milton), including eight by himself. ‘Crouncorns’ may be crumhorns! | Brydges (1810: 379-380) |
| 1634 | Love’s Mistress, or the Queen’s Masque II, i. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | Act II, Scene i Psiche. – and let me hear some Musick – Loud – And still. Loud Musick, and still Musick. Tell me, how like you this? Astioche. It flies the reach of Admiration. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | ||
| 1613 | 1634 | The Two Noble Kinsmen V, ii. | John Fletcher (1579-1625) & William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | SD. Athens. Three altars prepared and inscribed severally to Mars, Venus and Diana … Still Music of records [sic]. Enter Emilia in white, her hair about her shoulders, [and wearing] a wheaten wreath. | Emilia proceeds to sacrifice and pray to Diana and is accorded a portent. The wreath, made of silver containing incense and sweet odours ‘vanishes under the altar; and in the place ascends a rose tree, having one rose upon it’; later ‘is heard a sudden twang of instruments, and the rose falls from the tree.’ Links between The Two Noble Kinsmen and contemporaneous works point to 1613–1614 as its date of authorship and first performance. It was first printed in 1634. | Lasocki (1984) Manifold (1956: 68, 87) Welch (1911/1961: 131-132) |
| 1613 | 1647 | Bonduca III, i. | John Fletcher (1579-1625) | SD. A Temple of the Druids … Music. Enter in solemnity the Druids singing … Caratacke I sacrifice unto thee [divine Andate]. Bonduca It flames out. SD. Music. Caratacke Now sing ye Druids. SD. Song. Bonduca ‘Tis out again. Caratach He has given us leave to fight yet; we ask no more; The rest hangs in our resolutions: Tempt him no more. Bonduca I would know further, cousin. Caratach His hidden meaning dwells in our endeavours, Our valours are our best gods. Cheer the soldier, And let him eat. Messenger He’s at it, sir. Caratach Away then; When he has done, let’s march.—Come, fear not, lady; This day the Roman gains no more ground here, But what his body lies in. Bonduca Now I’m confident. SD. Exeunt. Recorders playing. | Recorders are used in a scene where Druids pray to the goddess Andate for support against the Roman occupation of ancient Britain. The recorders enhance the atmosphere of mystery and ritual as they accompany the assembly of the Druids, falling silent at the entry of the two soprano voices. The musical directions are found only in the 1647 folio and may therefore represent a later performance. | e-Text here. Lasocki (1984) Manifold (1956: 69) |
| 1616 | Britannia’s Pastorals II: Song 4. | William Browne (c.1590-1645) | The nymph did earnestly contest Whether the birds or she recorded best. …… ’twas her usual sport, Sitting where most loquacious birds resort, To imitate their warbling in a quill Wrought by the hand of Pan, which she did fill Half full with water: and with it hath made The nightingale (beneath a sullen shade) To chant her utmost lay, nay, to invent New notes to passe the others instrument. | A narrative poem in three books in many ways reminiscent of Spenser. Book I was first published in 1613, Book II in 1616, and Book III not until 1852. The story of the shepherdess Marina is intended to give the poem unity, but, as in the Faerie Queene, there are many almost independent episodes. William Browne of Tavistock was an English pastoral poet. He contributed to Britannia’s Pastorals and The Shepheard’s Pipe (1614) | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 22-23) | |
| 1617 & 1624 | Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphisica, physica atque technia historia: tomus primus De Macrocosmi Historia in duo volumina secundum cosmi differentiam divisa. Aere John-Theodori De Bry typis Hieronymi Galleri, Oppenhemii. Page 92. | Robert Fludd (1574–1637) | Behold a remarkable demonstration, never suspected by the inventor, from which it will become clear how vast secrets often lie hidden in common objects. Yet the eyes of the multitude, viewing things superficially rather than radically, will never see through to their reason and foundation. This musical instrument, called a recorder [fistula], surely contains the proportions of the whole world. It is divided into three regions: two lower ones with three holes each denoting their respective beginings, middles, and ends, and an upper one with only one large hole, showing the nature of the supercelestial heaven whose every part is saturated with the divine unity. Now just as this instrument, of its very nature, does not sound or have any virtue without the motion of the breath [anima], so neither the world nor any part thereof can act by itself without the excitation of a vast mind. God, the highest mind, at the apex of the device (and as it were beyond the world’s remotest surface) causes the seams of the world to give forth music, evoking deep tones from the lower parts, and higher and more brilliant ones the closer they approach the summit. Even so the musician breathes life and motion into the top of the recorder from beyond its confines. And the greater the distance of the holes from this inspiring virtue, the lower are the sounds which issue from them: whereas they give forth loftier tones as they ascend closer to the bellows of this spirit. so this single hole gives to the lower ones as it were their life and breath (for certainly without it they would give no sound), just as the Empyrean [gives the same] to all the lower spheres. Oh what great and heavenly contemplation is in this trifling thing, if considered deeply and diligently by the understanding mind. | This quotation is a translation from the Latin. The illustration by Theodore Bry for this entry depicts a duct-flute with a conical profile and a markedly flared, Ganassi-style bell. It has six finger-holes and a thumbhole. It seems that although Fludd clearly had a recorder in mind he has twisted the facts to suit his absurd thesis concerning the divine message hidden in the number three manifested throughout the universe. Fludd was a prominent English Paracelsian physician. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist and Rosicrucian apologist. | Darmstädter and Brown (2006: 51 & fig. 7) Godwin (1973: 12) | |
| 1617 | 1632 | The Fatal Dowry II, i. | Philip Massinger (1583–1640) & Nathan Field (1587–1620) | [Recorders play the solemn music for the funeral of Charalois’ father.] Pantelier See the young son interred a lively grave. | A fake funeral. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) |
| 1614-1618 | 1656 | The Old Law or, A New Way to Please You II, i. | Thomas Middleton (1580–1627), William Rowley (c.1585–1626), Philip Massinger (1583–1640) | SIMONIDES Well, seven-and-fifty, You’ve but three years to scold, then comes your payment. FIRST COURTIER Simonides. SIMONIDES Push, I’m not brave enough to hold you talk yet; Give a man time, I have a suit a-making. Recorders [play]. SECOND COURTIER We love thy form first; brave clothes will come, man. SIMONIDES I’ll make ’em come else, with a mischief to ’em As other gallants do that have less left ’em. Recorders [play again]. EVANDER Hark, whence those sounds? What’s that? Enter Cleanthes and Hippolita, with a hearse. FIRST COURTIER Some funeral It seems, my lord, and young Cleanthes follows. | This is a fake funeral. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) Manifold (1956: 68) |
| 1614-1618 | 1656 | The Old Law or, A New Way to Please You IV, i. | Thomas Middleton (1580–1627), William Rowley (c.1585–1626), Philip Massinger (1583–1640) | GNOTHO Come, come, let’s have some agility: is there no music in the house? DRAWER Yes, sir, here are sweet wire-drawers in the house. COOK Oh! that makes them and you seldom part; you are winde-drawers and they wire-drawers. TAILORAnd both govern by the pegs, too. GNOTHO. And you have pipes in your consort too. DRAWER. And sack-butts too, sir. BUTLER But the heads of your instruments differ; yours are hogs-heads, theirs cittern and gittern-heads. BAILIFF All wooden heads; there they meet again. COOK Bid them strike up, we’ll have a dance, Gnotho; come, though shalt foot it too. | Here the ‘pipes’ may refer to recorders since they have been called for earlier in the play; but they could as well be shawms. | e-Text here |
| 1619-1623 | 1647 | The Little French Lawyer III, i. | John Fletcher (1579–1625) & Philip Massinger (1583–1640) | Dinant Lady, why this? SD. Music. Lamira We must have mirth to our wine, man. Dinant Plague o’ the music! Champerne God-a-mercy, wench! If thou dost cuckold me, I shall forgive thee. Dinant The house will all rise now; this will disturbb all. Did you do this? Lamira Peace, and sit quiet, fool! YOu love me! Come, sit down, and drink. SD. Enter Cleremont above. Cleremont What a devil ail you? How cold I sweat! A hog’s pox stop your pipes! SD. Music. The thing will wake. Now, no, methinks I find His sword just gliding through my throat. What’s that? A vengeance choke your pipes! Are you there lady? Stop, stop those rascals! Do you bring me hither To be cut into minced meat? Why, Dinant? Dinant I cannot do withal; I have spoke; I am betrayed and lost too. Cleremont Do you hear me? do you understand me! Plague damm your whistles! SD. Music ends. Lamira ‘Twas but an oversight; They have done; lie down. Cleremont ‘Would you had done too! you know not In what a misery and fear I lie; You had a lady in your arms. Dinant I would have. SD. The recorders play again. Champerne I’ll watch you, goodman ‘Would-have! Cleremont Remove, for heaven’s sake, And fall to that you came for. Lamira Lie you down; ‘Tis but an hour’s endurance now. Cleremont I dare not; Softly, sweet lady. God’s heart! Lamira ‘Tis nothing but your fear; he sleeps still soundly. Lie gently down. Cleremont Pray make an end. Dinant Come, madam. Lamira These chambers are too near. Champerne I shall be nearer. SD. Exeunt Dinant and Lamira. Well, go thy ways; I’ll trust thee through the world, Deal how thou wilt. That, that I never feel, I’ll never fear. Yet, but the honor of a soldier, I hold thee truly noble. How these things will look, And how their bloods will curdle! Play on, children; Yu shall have pap anon. Oh, thoug grand fool, That thou knew’st but thy fortune! SD. Music ceases. | Recorders play for a comic seduction scene in which the would-be lovers are not married, and there is a reversal of the conventional roles of the lover serenading his lady. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) |
| 1610-1616 | 1639 | Monsieur Thomas. | Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) & John Fletcher (1579–1625) | … By no means; no, boys; I am the man reserved for air, ’tis my part; And if she be not rock my voice shall reach her. Ye may record a little, or ye may whistle, As time shall minister: but for main singing, Pray ye satisfy yourselves: away, be careful. | Welch (1911/1961: 22) | |
| 1619 | 1623 | The Two Noble Ladies and the Converted Conjurer III, iii & V, i. British Library, MS Egerton 1994 | Anonymous | CYPRIAN I have brought the now here to the bank of famous Euphrates of purpose that this solitary place may feast the with such pleasures as shall blunt the sharpest edge of thy conceived sorrow. Fix well thine eye upon the sedgy shore and mark what comes from thence. LYSANDER Dauntless I looke, whatever be thy attempt; pleasures are sweet in sorrow, though but dreamt. Thunder. Enter a Spirit, Like a soldier in armour on his breast a sable shield written on with [golden] letters. CYPRIAN What see’st thou now. LYSANDER I see an armed man. bearing before his breast a sable shield – Filled full with golden letters. CYPRIAN In that plate, read and observe, for there is writ thy fate. LYSANDER (reads) The Soldan’s father, called Archimachus, when first the Syrian land he sought t’ave won, His spies by chance surprised Eugenius, a child of two years old, the only son of stout Archander, Antioch’ king of late. Fair was the child and got the Soldan’s love, and with it life that reached to manly state. The Soldan brought him up like one above common nobility; but changed his name into Lysander, who’s now crowned with fame. Recorders play. The Spirit vanishes. It vanishes, and I can read no more. Recorders still. Enter an Angel shaped like a patriarch; upon his breast a table full of silver letters; in his right hand a red crosier staff; on his shoulders large [wings]. CIPRIAN Whence comes this sound? This heav’nly harmony? What apparition’s this raised without me? ANGEL Thou by whose skill another’s fate was shown shalt find thyself ignorant of thine own. Read here, and learn thine own catastrophe. | Performed by the Red Bull Company. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) |
| 1621 | 1647 | The Pilgrim V, 4. | John Fletcher (1579–1625) | PEDRO Hark, hark! Oh, sweet, sweet! How the birds record too! Mark how it flies now ev’ry way! – Oh love! In such a harmony art thou begotten; In such soft air, so gentle, lulled and nourished. Oh, my best mistress! | Welch (1911/1961: 22) | |
| 1621 | The Double Marriage I, i. | Philip Massinger (1583–1640) & John Fletcher (1579–1625) | ….. The celestial music Such as the motion of the eternal spheres Yields Jove when he sips Nectar. SD. Still music. | ‘Still music’ comes into The Double Marriage by a kind of metaphor, illustrating the ‘godlike’ pleasures of the tyrant of Naples. It looks to me as if the dramatist here were trading on an established and recognized association of still music with deities; the context suggests no other explanation (Manifold). | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 98) | |
| 1620 | 1622 | The Virgin Martyr V, ii. | Philip Massinger (1583–1640) & Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632) | …… who sent down Legions of ministering angels to bear up Her spotless soul to heaven, who entertain’d it With choice celestial music, equal to The motion of the spheres; ……My Lord Sapritius, You were present at her death; did you e’er hear Such ravishing sounds? | Spoken by Theophilus just before his death by torture. As he is dying, Dorothea and his two daughters appear in a glorified state. They are led on by Angelo, who holds out to him a ‘crown of immortality’. The play was associated with dramatic and innovative uses of music in its productions. Its music inspired one of the most striking entries in Pepys’ Diary after he attended the 1668 revival: “but that which did please me beyond any thing in the whole world was the wind-musique when the Angell comes down, which is so sweet that it ravished me; and endeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife. | Welch (1911/1961: 132-134) |
| 1625 | 1633 | The Broken Heart V, iii. | John Ford (1586–c. 1639) | An altar covered with white ; two lights of virgin wax, during which music of recorders ; enter four bearing ITHOCLES on a hearse, or in a chair, in a rich robe, with a crown on his head : place him on one side of the altar. After him enter CALANTHA in a white robe and crown’d; EUPHRANEA, PHILEMA, and CHRISTALLA, in white ; NEARCHUS, ARMOSTES, CROTOLON, PROPHILUS, AMELUS, BASSANES, HEMOPHIL, and GRONEAS. CALANTHA goes and kneels before the altar, the rest stand off, the women kneeling behind, the recorders cease during her devotions. Softmusic. CALANTHA and the rest rise, doing obeisance to the altar. | Ford was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) Manifold (1956: 68, 92 |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries. Century III: 221. | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 221. The figure of a bell partaketh of the pyramis, but yet coming off and dilating more suddenly. The figure of a hunter’s horn and cornet is oblique; yet they have likewise straight horns ; which, if they be of the same bore with the oblique, differ little in sound, save that the straight require somewhat a stronger blast. The figures of recorders, and flutes, and pipes, are straight ; but the recorder hath a less lore and a greater; above and below. The trumpet hath the figure of the letter S : which maketh that purling sound, &c. Generally the straight line hath the cleanest and roundest sound, and the crooked the more hoarse and jarring | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 233). Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1961: 130) |
| 1627 | 1630 | The Cruel Brother V, i. | William Davenant (1606–1668) | Corsa Oh, oh, oh. SD. Recorders: sadly. …… Mercy, heaven. SD. She dies. Still music above. Fores ………… Hark As she ascends, the spheres do welcome her With their own music – Her soul is gone! Hah! whither is it gone? O vast suspense! Madness succeeds enquiry. Fools of nature! SD. Cease Rec. Death. | Davenant (also spelled D’Avenant) was an English poet and playwright. | Lasocki, (1984) |
| 1629 | Micrologia: Characters or Essayes of Persons, Trades and Places, c.1v | R.M. | The Recorder, Flute, Hoboise or any other Pipe the best Musician can inuent, doth yeeld him such content as doth the Tobacco-pipe; or can afford him like Musicke to please his Nostrils; were it the Oaten Reed of that Rurall Shepheard which so sweetly warbled on the Plaines of of Arcadie. | e-Text here. | ||
| 1629 | 1630 | The Grateful Servant IV, v. | James Shirley (1596-1666) | Act IV, Scene III Belinda. He’s a servant, Whose bosom I dare trust ; the son of night, And yet more secret than his mother ; he Hat power to engage me, and I shall Take pride in my obedience : first be pleased to taste, what, in my duty, I prepared For your first entertainment ; these but serve To quicken appetite. Recorders Lodwick I like this well, I shall not use much Courtship. Where’s this music? Belinda. Doth it offend your ear? Lodwick. ‘Tis ravishing ; Whence doth it breathe? Belinda. If you command, we’ll change A thousand airs, till you find one is sweet, And high enough to rock your wanton soul Into Elysian slumbers | An assignation is arranged for which recorder music is provided as an aphrodisiac. | e-Text here Lasock (1984) |
| 1630 | 1631 | The Fair Maid of the West or, a Girle Worth Golde Part 2, I. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | SD. Recorders [for entrance of King of Fesse] Mulliskeg All music’s harsh, command these discords cease, For we have war within us. Bess Mighty King, What is’t offends your Highness ? Mulliskeg Nothing, Bess. Yet all things do. — Oh, what did I bestow. When I gave her away. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| 1631 | 1635 | The Traitor IV, v. | James Shirley (1596-1666) | Act IV, Scene V. Recorders. The Body of AMIDEA discovered on a bed, prepared by two Gentlewomen. 1 Gentleman. This is a sad employment. 2 Gentleman. The last we e’er shall do my lady. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| 1632 | Histriomastix: The Player’s Scourge, or Actor’s Tragedy … I, viii, c. 38. | William Prynne (1600-1669) | Cymbals, Pipes, and filthy songs are the very pomps and hodgpotch of the Devil. If a stage player, be it a man or woman, a Chariotor, gladiator, race-runner, a fencer, a practiser of the Olympian games, a fluteplayer, a fidler, a harper, a dancer, an alehouse-keeper, come to turne Christian; either let him give over these professions, or else be rejected. | Prynne was an English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. He authored some 200 books and pamphlets. Histriomatrix, a puritanical critique of professional theatre and actors, represents the culmination of the Puritan attack on the English Renaissance theatre and celebrations of all kind, even Christmas. Here, Prynne is repeating the attack on the flute by St Clement of Alexandria: ‘Cymbala, tibiae, et cantica turpia Diaboli pompa et farrago’. Clemens Romanus, Const. Apost. i. viii. c. 38. He goes on to show that by the Canons of St Paul, as given in the Apostolical Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. xxxii), flute players were to be refused the rite of Baptism: ‘Scenicus si accedat, sive vir sive mulier, auriga, gladiator, cursor stadii, ludius, Olympius choraules, cytharedus, lyristes, saltator, caupo, vel desistat, vel rejeciatur’. Canons Varii Pauli Apostoli, p. 120. | Welch (1911/1961: 58) | |
| 1632 | Hyde Park V, ii. | James Shirley (1596-1666) | Act V, Scene ii Mis. Car. After to-morrow, name it. This gentleman and I Shall be married in the morning, and you know We must have a time to dine, and dance to bed. Vent. Married? Fair. Yes, you may be a guest, sir, and be welcome. Vent. I am bobbed again! I’ll bob for no more eels ; let her take her course. Lacy. Oh for some willow garlands ! Recorders sound within. Enter Page, followed by BONAVENT in another disguise with willow garlands in his hand. Lord B. This is my boy ; how now, sirrah ? Page. My lord, I am employ’d in a device. Room for the melancholy wight, Some do call him willow knight, Who this pains hath undertaken, To find out lovers are forsaken, Whose heads, because but little witted, Shall with garlands straight be fitted. Speak, who are tost on Cupid’s billows, And receive the crown of willows, This way, that way, round about. BONAVENT goes round the company with the garlands. | Recorders represent the continuing love between husband and wife. Bonavent, the husband, has been presumed lost and his wife plans to remarry. He returns in time for the wedding and reveals himself to the company in a masque. At the stage direction ‘Recorders within’ he enters in disguise with willow garlands in his hand. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| 1634 | Love’s Mistress, or the Queen’s Masque I, i. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | Act I, i Admetus. Stay thy prophane tongue, lest deserved wrath, strick thee with death from his revengeful sphear: Thou must be cloath’d inmourning, so thou art, A mourning habite, and a thought-sick heart: Thou must be left alone on Venus hill: The destinies decree, we must fulfil: Thy husband must want sight, and yet have eyes That flame, and kill; oh leave these mysteries, Until the gods reveal them, come, let’s hence: Change your Arcadian tunes to Lidian sounds Sad notes are sweetest, where deep woe confounds. (Recorders. Enter Venus.) Venus. Cupid my Son, where’s he? | Here, recorders herald the entrance of Venus, goddess. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| 1634 | Love’s Mistress, or the Queen’s Masque I, i. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | Act I, Scene i (Recorders. Enter Admetus, Menetius, Zelotis, Astioche, Petrea, Psiche) Admetus. You Peers and Daughters to th’Arcadian King, we have past the great’st part of our Pilgrimage: listen, oh listen, for these sound that guild the airs light wings, fanning through all our ears immortal tunes, tell us we are arived at sacred Delphos; see the burnish’d Spires advance themselves to welcome our approach: the Temple gates stand ope, and that great Deity, whose tongue speaks nothing less than Oracle, attended by his sibels,daines to appear. (Enter Apollo.) …… | Recorders play for the entrance of Apollo. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| c.1635 | The Lady Mother V, i. | Henry Glapthorne (1610-c. 1643) | Recorders play while Hymen and the lovers enter to ward off death. This play was unpublished until 1883. | Lasocki (1984) | ||
| 1636 | 1640 | The Wasp: or, Subject’s Precedent II, i. | Anonymous | Act II, Scene i Acte: secund: Sollempne Musick Recorders Enter 2: Heralts wth gilt spurrs & Gauntlet, a rich Herse wth 5-pendantes, Armor plumed Helmet & sword vpon it, The countess & yong Gerard as chefe mourners – then Archibald Conon … | Recorders play the solemn music for the funeral of Gilbert, Baron of Claridon, who later returns disguised as the Wasp. | Lasocki (1984) |
| 1625 | Foure Books of Du Bartas in French and English, for the instruction and pleasure of such as delight in both languages. | William Lisle (1569–1637) | 669 Of curious handyworke, quits euery stop and list, 670 That opens when the keyes are tickt by th’Organist; 671 And mounting here and there from out the channell scored 672 Into th’esparsed pipes o’th’Sommier thorow-bored, 673 Alliues, all in a trice, Recorders sweetly-still 674 And Regals eager-tun’d, and Cymballs sounding shrill: 675 So of Gods mouth the breath and Spirit all-aliuing 676 Stirres of the tuned heau’n these wheeles all louely striuing. | Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (1544–1590) was a French soldier-poet. William Lisle (L’Isle) was an English antiquary and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. An earlier edition of this was published in 1596 as Part of Du Bartas, English and French, and in his owne kinde of Verse, so neare the French Englished, as may teach an English-Man French, or a French-Man English. There is a copy of the 1625 volume for sale here. | ||
| 1637 | Microcosmus: A Morall Masque II, i. | Thomas Nabbes (1605-1641) | [Physander, the mortal, awakes in a supernatural world. As recorders sound, he proclaims:] What admiration workes upon my sense! I hear and see such objects as would make Creation doubtfull whether she were perfect Without these parts. Into what strange delights I’m hurried on the sudden? ha! [This heralds the next scene.] The second scene is here discovered, being a perspective of clouds the inmost glorious, where Bellamina sits between Love and Nature, behind her the Bonus and Malus Genius. [A song follows, during which love presents Bellamina to Physander as his bride.] | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | ||
| 1637 | 1640 | The Lady’s Privilege IV. | Henry Glapthorne (1610-c. 1643) | Trivulci. …… Justice calls On me to give your sentence – new interruptions. Recorders. Enter Vitelli, and Sabelli as a lady, Virgins. Trivulci. It is the voyce of musicke, and presages An Omen as harmonious as its notes, Approach faire troops of Virgins, here’s subject Fit for your maiden pity. | Dora is a prisoner awaiting the death sentence. Sabelli asks for the hand of Dora in marriage, which is granted and he is reprieved. The wedding takes place in the next act. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) |
| 1637 | 1640 | The Lady’s Privilege V. | Henry Glapthorne (1610-c. 1643) | Trivulci …… Is the Priest prepared For his hymn after nuptials, and the virgins Ready to gratulate the bride and bridegroom With the appointed dance? Adorni …… The Priest I think Has the song perfect, but it is a question Among the wisest whether in the City There be seven virgins to be found to furnish The dance as’t should be; but you must accept them Recorders. With all their faults; this music speaks their entrance. Enter virgins. Song. Triumphe appears. Hymen invites Thee to wait upon this feast, Mixe thy joyes with his delights, ‘Tis the Generall is chiefe guest. | e-Text here | |
| 1638 | 1640 | The Antipodes V, ix. | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653) | Act 5. Scene ix. A solemne lesson upon the Recorder’s. Ent. Truelocke, Joylesse and Diana, Peregrine and Martha, Doctor, and Barbara, Letoy meets them. Truelocke presents Peregrine and Martha to him, he salutes them. They seeme to make some short discourse. Then Letoy appoints them to sit Peregrine seemes somthing amazed. The Musicke ceases. Letoy. Againe you are welcome sir and welcome all. Peregrine . I am what you are pleas’d to make me; but withall, so ig- norant of mine owne condition; whether I sleepe, or wake, or talke, or dreame; whether I be, or be not; or if I am, whether I doe, or doe not any thing: for I have had (if I now wake) such dreames, and been so far transported in a long and tedious voy- age of sleep, that I may fear my manners can acquire no welcome, where men understand themselves. Letoy. This is Musick, Sir, you are welcome; and I give full power Unto your father, and my daughter here, your mother to make you welcome. Joylesse whispers [to] Peregrine. Peregrine. How! your daughter sir? Doctor. My Lord you’l put him backe againe, if you trouble his braine with new discoveries. Letoy. Fetch him you on againe then: pray are you Letoyor I? Joyless. Indeed it is so sonne. Doctor. I feare your ſhow will but perplex him too. Letoy. I care not sir, ile have it to delay your cure a while, that he recover soundly. Come ſit again, again you are most welcome. | Recorders sound for the procession of two newly reconciled married couples. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) |
| 1641 | The Cardinal, The Triumph of Peace III, ii. | James Shirley | Act II, scene ii Enter King, Cardinal, ALVAREZ, Duchess, CELINDA, VALERIA, PLACENTIA, Lords, and HERNANDO, and take their seats : then enter COLUMBO and five more, in rich habits, rizarded ; between every two a Torch -bearer: they dance, and afterwards beckon to ALVAREZ, as if desirous to speak with him. Alv. With me ! [They embrace and whisper, and exeunt.] King. Do you know the masquers, madam? Duch. Not I, sir. Car. There’s one, but that my nephew is abroad, And has more soul than thus to jig upon Their hymeneal night, I should suspect ‘Twere he … [Aside.] Duch. Where’s my Lord Alvarez ? King. Call in the bridegroom. [Recorders ! sound within.] Re-enter COLUMBO, followed by the five Masquers, bringing in the dead body of ALVAREZ in one of their habits, and having laid it down, exeunt, all but COLUMBO. Duch. What mystery is this ? Car. We want the bridegroom still. King. Where is Alvarez? [COLUMBO turns to the body ; they take off the mask and habit, and find ALVAREZ bleeding. Duch. Oh, ’tis my lord ! he’s murdered ! King. Who durst commit this horrid act ? Colum. I, sir. [Throws of his disguise.] King. Columbo ? Ha ! Colum. Yes ; Columbo, that dares stay To justify that act. Her. Most barbarous ! Duch. Oh, my dearest lord ! King. Our guard ! Enter Guard. Seize on them all : This sight doth shake all that is man within me. Poor Alvarez, is this thy wedding day ? | Just as a wedding masque is to begin, recorders sound and the masquers bring in the body of D’Alvarez, who has just been murdered by the bridegroom, Columbo. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984) | |
| 1650 | Inventory of a house near Bury St Edmunds. | In the room where the musicians play: One borded chest with lock and key with 6 viols One borded chest with 6 violins One case of recorders (7) One great bass lute and a mean lute, without cases One treble lute and a mean lute with cases One bandore and sitherne with a double case Two flutes without cases One pair of little virginals Two luting books covered with leather Six books covered with parchment containing six sets in a book with songs of 4, 5,6, 7 and 8 parts Five books covered with parchment containing three sets in a book with songs of 5 parts | Geffrye Museum, London. (1965) | |||
| 1654 | 1689 | Table Talk: CXI Preaching, p. 117 | John Selden (1584–1654) | 17. ‘Tis good to preach the same thing again ; for that’s the way to have it learned. You see a Bird by often whistling to, learn a Tune, and a Month after record it to her self. | Selden was an English jurist and legal scholar. His Table Talk, a collection of his utterances in the last 20 years of his life, was published in 1689 by his secretary, Richard Milward. | e-Text here |
| 1657 | The History of Polindor and Flostella: 21-29; 1295-1301. | John Harrington (1561-1612) | 21 By strength, or slight o’er-throw the Adversary: 22 Third, who could Musicks speciall honour carry, 23 Like some quaint-curl’d Apollo, mounted on 24 Rays’d Skaffold, Stage; prove eminent alone 25 For th’ sweet-tongu’d Harp, Recorder, Lute and voyce: 26 Each goodly Prize surrendred by their choyce 27 May-Ladies hand; though sundry Judges still 28 Sate by, conjoyn’d Commissioners, whose skill 29 Determin’d all. 1295 with their vigorous shrill Sounds, fright the Shades; 1296 Whilst horrid fear those Plumed Fry invades 1297 Through their green bowry Cabins. These, for close, 1298 Seem’d swallow’d up by Sackboats (joyn’d with those 1299 Wild goblin-throats) Recorders, big-mouth’d Shalms; 1300 To which (ere-long) an Antick of Wood-dames, 1301 Satyrs rush’d nimbly forth (those ruder Lovers) | Sir John Harrington was the inventor of England’s first flushing toilet, which dubious honour he seems share with a number of other worthies. | e-Test here | |
| 1667 | The Spiteful Sister. | Abraham Bailey (fl. 1667) | This was printed in 1667 without prologue, epilogue, or dedication. It is likely that it never made an appearance on the stage (Hazlitt et al.) Mentions the recorder (Lasocki). | Harbage et al. (1989: 128) Hazlitt et al. (1892) Lasocki (1984) | ||
| 1667 | Paradise Lost I, 549-567. | John Milton (1608–1674) | …… Anon they move In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders; such as raised To highth of noblest temper heroes old Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved With dread of death to flight or foul retreat, Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, Breathing united force with fixed thought, Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed Their painful steps o’er the burnt soil; and now Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise Of warriors old with ordered spear and shield, Awaiting what command their mighty Chief Had to impose. | Milton was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. | e-Text here | |
| 1668 | Diary, February 27. | Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) | 27th. All the morning at the office, and at noon home to dinner, and thence with my wife and Deb. to the King’s House, to see “The Virgin Martyr,” the first time it hath been acted a great while: and it is mighty pleasant; not that the play is worth much, but it is finely acted by Becke Marshall. But that which did please me beyond any thing in, the whole world was the wind-musique when the angel comes down, which is so sweet that it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife; that neither then, nor all the evening going home, and at home, I was able to think of any thing, but remained all night transported, so as I could not believe that ever any musick hath that real command over the soul of a man as this did upon me: and makes me resolve to practice wind-musique, and to make my wife do the like. | e-Text here | ||
| 1668 | Diary, 2 March. | Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) | 2nd. Up and betimes to the office, where I did much business, and severalcome to me, and among others I did prepare Mr. Warren, and by and by SirD. Gawden, about what presents I have had from them, that they may notpublish them, or if they do, that in truth I received none on the accountof the Navy but Tangier, and this is true to the former, and in both thatI never asked any thing of them. I must do the like with the rest. Mr. Moore was with me, and he do tell me, and so W. Hewer tells me, he hears this morning that all the town is full of the discourse that the Officers of the Navy shall be all turned out, but honest Sir John Minnes, who, God knows, is fitter to have been turned out himself than any of us, doing the King more hurt by his dotage and folly than all the rest can do by their knavery, if they had a mind to it. At noon home to dinner, where was Mercer, and very merry as I could be with my mind so full of business, and so with my wife, her and the girl, to the King’s house to see the “Virgin Martyr” again, which do mightily please me, but above all the musique at the coming down of the angel, which at this hearing the second time, do still commend me as nothing ever did, and the other musique is nothing to it. Thence with my wife to the ‘Change, and so, calling at the Cocke ale house, we home, and there I settle to business, and with my people preparing my great answer to the Parliament for the office about tickets till past 1 a o’clock at night, and then home to supper and to bed, keeping Mr. Gibson all night with me. This day I have the news that my sister was married on Thursday last to Mr. Jackson; so that work is, I hope, well over. | e-Text here | ||
| 1668 | Diary, April 8. | Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) | 8th. Up, and at my office all the morning, doing business, and then at noon home to dinner all alone. Then to White Hall with Sir J. Minnes in his coach to attend the Duke of York upon our usual business, which was this day but little, and thence with Lord Brouncker to the Duke of York’s playhouse, where we saw “The Unfortunate Lovers,” no extraordinary play, methinks, and thence I to Drumbleby’s, and there did talk a great deal about pipes; and did buy a recorder, which I do intend to learn to play on, the sound of it being, of all sounds in the world, most pleasing to me. Thence home, and to visit Mrs. Turner, where among other talk, Mr. Foly and her husband being there, she did tell me of young Captain Holmes’s marrying of Pegg Lowther last Saturday by stealth, which I was sorry for, he being an idle rascal, and proud, and worth little, I doubt; and she a mighty pretty, well-disposed lady, and good fortune. Her mother and friends take on mightily; but the sport is, Sir Robert Holmes do seem to be mad too with his brother, and will disinherit him, saying that he hath ruined himself, marrying below himself, and to his disadvantage; whereas, I said, in this company, that I had married a sister lately, with little above half that portion, that he should have kissed her breech before he should have had her, which, if R. Holmes should hear, would make a great quarrel; but it is true I am heartily sorry for the poor girl that is undone by it. So home to my chamber, to be fingering of my Recorder, and getting of the scale of musique without book, which I at last see is necessary for a man that would understand musique, as it is now taught to understand, though it be a ridiculous and troublesome way, and I know Ishall be able hereafter to show the world a simpler way; but, like the old hypotheses in philosophy, it must be learned, though a man knows a better. Then to supper, and to bed. This morning Mr. Christopher Pett’s widow and daughter come to me, to desire my help to the King and Duke of York, and I did promise, and do pity her. | Welch (1911/1961: 1) e-Text here | ||
| 1668 | Diary, April 9. | Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) | 9th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning sitting, then at noon home to dinner with my people, and so to the office again writing of my letters, and then abroad to my bookseller’s, and up and down to the Duke of York’s playhouse, there to see, which I did, Sir W. Davenant’s corpse carried out towards Westminster, there to be buried. Here were many coaches and six horses, and many hacknies, that made it look, methought, as if it were the buriall of a poor poet. He seemed to have manychildren, by five or six in the first mourning-coach, all boys. And there I left them coming forth, and I to the New Exchange, there to meet Mrs. Burroughs, and did take her in a carosse and carry elle towards the Park, kissing her … but did not go into any house, but come back and set her down at White Hall, and did give her wrapt in paper for my Valentine’s gift for the last year before this, which I never did yet give her anything for, twelve half-crowns, and so back home and there to myoffice, where come a packet from the Downes from my brother Balty, who, with Harman, is arrived there, of which this day come the first news. And now the Parliament will be satisfied, I suppose, about the business they have so long desired between Brouncker and Harman about not prosecuting the first victory. Balty is very well, and I hope hath performed his workwell, that I may get him into future employment. I wrote to him this night, and so home, and there to the perfecting my getting the scale of musique without book, which I have done to perfection backward and forward, and so to supper and to bed. | e-Text here | ||
| 1674 | Ariadne, or the Marriage of Bacchus. | Composer: Robert Cambert (c. 1628–1677); Arranger Louis Grabu; Librettist Pierre Perrin | SD. … they all with hoboyes, flutes and violins sing and dance. | Cambet was a French composer principally of opera. In England, he was warmly received at the court of King Charles II, and was quickly appointed to Master of the King’s Band. Cambert’s Ariane was adapted for a London performance in 1674 by Louis Grabu, as Ariadne. Librettos in both French and English were attributed to ‘le sieur P.P.’, Pierre Perrin. | Bashford (1991) | |
| 1675 | Calisto, or the Chaste Nymph. | John Crowne (1641–1712) | Crowne was a British dramatist and a native of Nova Scotia. Contemporary account of performances of this masque mention ‘recorders’, ‘hoboyes’ and ‘flageoletts’, indicating the confusion due to the introduction of the new-styled woodwind instruments. The music itself was composed by Nathaniel Staggins (m. 1700). | e-Text here | ||
| 1676 | The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter, II, i | George Etherege (c. 1636-1692) | Act II, Scene i EMILIA. Here has been Mrs Loveit, so uneasy and out of humour these two days. LADY TOWNLEY. How strangely love and jealousy rage in that poor woman! MEDLEY. She could not have picked out a devil upon earth so proper to torment her; he has made her break a dozen or two of fans already, tear half a score points in pieces, and destroy hoods and knots without number. LADY TOWNLEY. We heard of a pleasant serenade he gave her t’other night. MEDLEY. A Danish serenade, with kettledrums and trumpets. EMILIA. Oh, barbarous! MEDLEY. What, you are of the number of the ladies whose ears are grown so delicate since our operas, you can be charmed with nothing but flutes douces and French hautboys. EMILIA. Leave your raillery, and tell us is there any new wit come forth, songs or novels? | Etherege’s portraits of 17th-century fops and beaux are considered to be the best of their kind. | Manifold (1956: 122). e-Text here | |
| 1676 | The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter IV, i. | George Etherege (c. 1636-1692) | Act IV, scene i HARRIET. What are these masqueraders who stand so obsequiously at a distance? SIR FOPLING. A set of balladins whom I picked out of the best in France, and brought over with a flute douce or two, my servants; they shall entertain you. | Manifold (1956: 127). e-Text here | ||
| 1675 | Psyche. | Librettist: Thomas Shadwell c. 1642–1692); Composer: Mathew Locke; Dances by Giovanni Battista Draghi | This is a semi-opera in five acts, loosely based on Jean-Baptiste Lully’s 1671 tragédie-ballet Psyché. The libretto mentions recorders. | e-Text here | ||
| 1679 | Diary, 10 November. | John Evelyn (1620–1706) | 20th November, 1679. I dined with Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint, with my wife, invited to hear music, which was exquisitely performed by four of the most renowned masters: Du Prue, a Frenchman, on the lute; Signor Bartholomeo, an Italian, on the harpsichord; Nicholao on the violin; but, above all, for its sweetness and novelty, the viol d’amore of five wire strings played on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin, played on lyre-way, by a German. There was also a flute douce, now in much request for accompanying the voice. Mr. Slingsby, whose son and daughter played skillfully, had these meetings frequently in his house. | Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist who, like his contemorary Samuel Pepys, cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time. | e-Text here | |
| 1679 | A True Widow I, i. | Thomas Shadwell (c. 1642–1692) | Act I, Scene i BELLAMOUR. But how go matters in France? What new foppery is turned up trumps there? CARLOS. What with governors. ladies’ eldest sons, ambassadors and envoys, you have ’em here almost as soon as the French themselves. STANMORE. No alteration since we were there? CARLOS. Wit and women are quite out of fashion, so are flûtes douces and fiddlers: drums and trumpets are their only music. BELLAMOUR. ‘Tis but ill music for their neighbors. | Surely women are never out of fashion! | Manifold (1956: 127). e-Text here | |
| 1680 | Theodosius or, the Force of Love: ‘Prepare! the rites begin’. | Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653–1692); Composer: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Recorders flourish. Prepare! the rites begin; Let none unhallowed enter in; The Temple with new Glory shines Adorn the altars, wash the Shrines And purge the place from sin. | A scene representing a purification ceremony. The priest Atticus sings first in recitative, the words of which are repeated by a trio of priests (alto, tenor, bass) accompanied by two recorders and continuo. | Manifold (1956: 125). e-Text here | |
| 1680 | Theodosius or, the Force of Love, I, i: ‘Hark! Hark! Behold the Heavenly Quire’. | Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653–1692);Composer: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Act I, Scene i Atticus sings Hark! Hark! Behold the Heavenly Quire, They cleave the air in bright attire, And see his lute each Angel brings, And hark divinely thus he sings! To the pow’rs divine all glory be given, By men upon earth and angels in heav’n. Scene shutts, and all the Priests with Marina and Flavilla dissappear. | The priest Atticus introduces a group of votaries to the religious life; the descent of the angelic chorus which lifts the scene on to a supernatural plane is the cue for recorders. Scored for bass, two recorders & continuo. | Manifold (1956: 125). e-Text here | |
| 1681 | Welcome Ode, Z. 336: Swifter Isis, swifter flow: Land him safely on her shore. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Land him safely on her shore, Who his long absence does deplore, He with joy her walls does fill, As high spring tides your channels swell, Fills her walls to that excess, As lovers’ hearts with happiness, Tender lovers when returned To those dear arms whose loss they mourn. | Celebrates Charles II’s return from Newmarket. Song for bass, two recorders (often associated by Purcell with plaintive or amorous themes) and continuo. | ||
| 1634 | Love’s Mistress, or the Queen’s Masque III, i. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | Act III, Scene i (Recorders. Cupid descends.) Cupid. Admetus stay, chide thy conceit, it offers wrong unto thy daughter Psiche. Psiche. Oh what heavenly tongue will once vouchsafe to sound poor Psiches name torn with disgrace, doubly expos’d to shame. Cupid. Psiche, his tongue, whose charge hadst thou obey’d, thy prosperous state had not been so betray’d; nor hadst thou bin a subject to that shame which now attends thee. | Recorders play as Cupid descends. | Lasocki (1984: 8) e-Text here | |
| 1682 | Hark Damon, hark! | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Hark, Damon, hark! what music’s this I hear? Gods! what melodious noise invades my ear? The flocks are wonder-struck; birds, as they fly, Ravish’d with these sweet strains fall down and die. Mark how from yonder hill it does rebound! Hark how the fainting echoes all around, Charm’d with delight, repeat the pleasing sound. Orpheus perhaps is from the shades below Return’d, and strikes his lyre to let us That since he play’d upon Parnassus’ hill He has improv’d his fancy and his skill. Come, shepherds, come, his pipe let each one take, And try what kind of music we can make. I’ll warrant you, boys, we play louder than he: Though our pipes may but jar, yet our humours agree, And Orpheus himself’s not so merry as we. | Symphony for 2 sopranos, bass, choras, 2 recorders, 2 violins & continuo. | ||
| 1691 | Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness …: CHAP. XXI …. Of the Power and Virtue of Mental, Vocal, and Instru∣mental Harmony; that it can pacifie Wrath, and the contrary | Thomas Tryon (1634-1703) | Waits are under the Dominion of Iupiter, in the Sign Libra; the Sounds and harmonious Consorts of this Instrument are great, noble, and pleasing to Nature; but if the Players thereon be not well skilled, they quick∣ly awaken Mars’s property, which causeth the Sounds to be a little too loud, rough, ratling, or jarring. Flutes or Recorders are a brave noble Instrument, be∣ing skilfully handled, and make some of the best Har∣monies of Pipes, being agreeable to both Vocal and In∣strumental Musick; their Sounds and harmonious Tones are grave, and full of Majesty, attractive and delightful, especially in open Fields, and near Rivers and Foun∣tains of Water, being under the Dominion of Iupiter and Mercury, in the Sign Sagitary. Flagolets are under the Dominion of Mercury and the Moon, in the Sign Cancer; this Instrument is not so no∣ble as the former; its Sounds and Harmonies are more Youthful than Grave, being a good Field-Musick, more proper for Shepherds and Herds-men, or Carters, and drivers of Horses, and the like, than for Consorts in Houses, being shrill, loud, penetrating and violent; but if well handled, it makes pleasant Harmony in open clear still Airy places. Hautboys are much of the Nature of the last, being under the Dominion of the Moon and Mars, in Cancer, a good Field-Musick, for such as look after Cattel; but not proper for House-Consorts, unless the Player have greater skill, and a better hand than is common; its Sounds being wild, loud, and penetrating. | Full title is: A way to health, long life and happiness, or, A discourse of temperance and the particular nature of all things requisite for the life of man as all sorts of meats, drinks, air, exercise &c., with special directions how to use each of them to the best advantage of the body and mind : shewing from the true ground of nature whence most diseases proceed and how to prevent them : to which is added a treatise of most sorts of English herbs … the whole treatise displaying the most hidden secrets of philosophy … / communicated to the world for the general good by Thomas Tryon. It was printed by H.C. for R. Baldwin and published in 1691 as a second edition of Health’s Grand Preservative; or, The Women’s Best Doctor (1682). Thomas Tryon was an English merchant, author of popular self-help books, and early advocate of vegetarianism. | e-Text here | |
| 1684 | Venus and Adonis. | John Blow (1649–1708) | The Curtain opens and discovers Venus and Adonis sitting together upon a Couch, embracing one another. | Scored for recorders. This semi-opera or masque is Blow’s only stage composition. The librettist has been variously surmised to have been Aphra Behn or Anne Kingsmill (1661-1720), Countess of Winchilsea. | e-Text (score) here Manifold (1956: 125). | |
| 1684 | The Grecian Story | John Harington (1561-1612) | 1592 … Grove to tear 1593 With pow’rful piercing Blast, and Fright those small 1594 Plumed Inhabitants (rare-voic’d withal) 1595 Through their Green branched Cabins. These for Cloze, 1596 Seem’d swallow’d by Recorders Sound, with those 1597 Strong, larger Throats, Sackbots and Shalms, unview’d: 1598 When Wood-Nymphs came, by Satyrs strait pursu’d, 1599 From Shaded part, (feign’d wild-bred Silvan Lovers) 1602 Door lock’d again, now Gall’d o’re-whelmed Heart, 1603 She trod the Room, to th’ window Glance in part: 1604 Till nigh Ten’s Hour, more Wonder caused there 1605 Loud Musick’s noise: Cornets, Recorders were 1606 Shalm, Sackbuts heard, great trampling through the Court: 1607 This Pageant saw beneath of stranger sort. 1914 In Linnen cloth’d, like Spirits of the Air, 1915 Wing’d Servitors; first Task Philaura’s share: 1916 That done, the Boys danc’d strait their nimble Round, 1917 So flutter’d forth to loud Recorder’s Sound. | This seems almost incoherrent. It is hard to imagine recorders sounding loudly. Harrington was an English courtier, author and translator popularly known as the inventor of the flush toilet (a dubious honor shared with a number of other worthies). He became a prominent member of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, and was known as her “saucy Godson”. But because of his poetry and other writings, he fell in and out of favour with the Queen. | ||
| 1685 | Albion and Albanius. | Composer: Louis Grabu; Librettist: John Dryden (1631–1700) | Albanius. Let our tuneful accents upwards move, Till they reach the vaulted arch of those above; Let us adore them; Let us fall before them. Acacia. Kings they made, and kings they love. When they protect a rightful monarch’s reign, The gods in heaven, the gods on earth maintain. Both. When they protect, &c. Albanius. But see, what glories gild the main! Acacia. Bright Venus brings Albanius back again, With all the Loves and Graces in her train. A machine rises out of the sea; it opens, and discovers Venus and Albanius sitting in a great scallop-shell, richly adorned. Venus is attended by the Loves and Graces, Albanius by Heroes; the shell is drawn by dolphins; it moves forward, while a symphony of flutes-doux, &c. is playing, till it lands them on the stage, and then it closes and sinks. Venus sings. Albion, hail! the gods present thee All the richest of their treasures, Peace and pleasures, To content thee, Dancing their eternal measures. [Graces and Loves dance an entry. But, above all human blessing, Take a warlike loyal brother, Never prince had such another; Conduct, courage, truth expressing, All heroic worth possessing. [Here the Heroes’ dance is performed. Chorus. of all. But above all, &c. Whilst a Symphony is playing, a very large, and a very glorious Machine descends; the figure of it oval, all the clouds shining with gold, abundance of Angels and Cherubins flying about them, and playing in them; in the midst of it sits Apollo on a throne of gold; he comes from the machine to Albion. | Manifold (1956: 125). e-Text here | ||
| 1685 | Soft Notes and gently rais’d | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Solo Tenor: Soft notes, and gently rais’d, Let some harsh sound the fair Corinna’s Rest do rudely Wound; Diffuse a Peaceful Calmness through each Part, touch all The Springs of a soft Virgin’s Heart. Tune ev’ry Pulse and kindle all her Blood, and svell the Torrent of the living Flood; glide thro’ her Dreams, and o’re her Fancy move, and Stir up, Stir up all the Images of Love. Symphony for two flutes Solo Tenor: Thus feeble Man does his advantage take, to gain in Sleep what he must lose awake, when Night and shades shut up Corinna’s Charms, Then is the prop’rest time to take up Arms: But Night and Shades the Beauties can’t conceal. Night has peculiar Graces to reveal. Chorus: Ten thousand, thousand Raptures do attend, Ten thousand thousand Raptures do attend this time, too strong for Fancy, too strong for Fancy and too full, and too full, and too full, and too full for Rhime; Too strong for Fancy and too full for Rhime. Too strong for Fancy and too full for Rhime. | The ‘flutes’ in the interlude are recorders. The final chorus is scored for soprano, bass, recorder & continuo. | e-Text, score & parts here | |
| 1686 | Welcome Ode: Ye tuneful Muses: ‘To music’s softer but yet kind and pleasing melody.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | To music’s softer but yet kind And pleasing melody, Music from care and danger free Music, the sweet unblender of the mind To music, and to love he comes. | Trio for two altos and bass, two recorders & continuo. Preceded by a chorus singing the words: From the rattling of the drums and trumpets loud sounds …| | ||
| 1687 | 1693 | A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, 1687. | John Dryden (1631-1700) | The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers The woes of hopeless lovers Whose dirge is whisper’d by the warbling lute. | Famously set to music by Handel. | |
| 1688 | The Squire of Alsatia, Act II, SceneI. | Thomas Shadwell (c. 1642–1692) | SD. Enter Singing-Master and his Daughter. Bellford. Come, master, let your daughter sing the song you promised me. Solfa. Come Betty. Betty. Please to put in a flute, sir. Bellford. Come on. Song with two Flutes and a Thoroughbass. The Expostulation Still wilt thou sigh, and still in vain A cold neglectful Nymph adore; No longer fruitlesly complain, But to thy self thy self restore. In Youth thou caught’st this fond disease, And shouldst abandon it in age; Some other Nymph as well may please, Absence or bus’ness disingage. On tender hearts the wounds of Love, Like those imprinted on young Trees, Or kill at first, or else they prove Larger b’ insensible degrees. Business I try’d, she fill’d my mind; On others Lips my Dear I kist; But never solid Ioy could find, Where I my charming Sylvia mist. Long Absence, like a Greenland night, Made me but wish for Sun the more; And that inimitable light, She, none but she, could e’re restore. She never once regards thy Fire, Nor ever vents one sigh for thee. I must the Glorious Sun admire, Though he can never look on me. Look well, you’ll sind she’s not so rare, Much of her former Beauty’s gone; My Love her Shadow larger far Is made by her declining Sun. What if her Glories faded be, My former wounds I must indure; For should the Bow unbended be, Yet that can never help the Cure. Bellford. ‘Tis very easie and natural: Your Daughter sings delicately. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 126). | ||
| 1688 | How Pleasant is this flowery Plain Z. 543: Symphony. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Scored for 2 recorders & continuo, Z. 543 | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 127). | ||
| 1688 | How Pleasant is this flowery Plain, Z. 543: ‘Ah happy, happy life!’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Ah happy, happy life! Ah blest Retreat! Void of the troubles that attend the Great! From Pride and courtly Follies free, From all their gaudy pomp and vanity; No guilty Remorse over their Pleasures annoy, Nor disturb the Delights of their innocent Joy Crown’d Monarchs, whom Cities and Kingdoms obey, Are not half so contented or happy as they. | Duet for soprano & tenor, two recorders & continuo. | e-Text here | |
| 1689 | Celestial Muse did the Gods inspire (Mr Maidwell’s Ode), Z332: ‘Her charming strains expel tormenting Care’. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | Her charming strains expel tormenting Care And weakened Nature’s wasted strength repair. | Song for alto, two recorders & continuo. | ||
| 1689 | 1691 | All for Love or, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, II,ii & III, ii. | John Dryden (1631-1700) | Antonio pulls out his flute and plays to attract the attention of his master’s daughter. Later he takes out his recorder again and plays it as loud as he can, possibly in order to drown out a woman with whom is quarreling. | Manifold (1956: 126). | |
| 1690 | Dioclesian or, The Prophetess I: ‘Charon the peaceful shade invites’ Z627/6. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Thomas Betterton (c. 1635-1710) | Charon the peaceful Shade invites, He hastes to waft him o’er Give him all necessary Rites To land him on the shoare. | Scored for soprano, 2 recorders & continuo. Betterton’s text for this semi-opera was based on based on the play The Prophetess, by John Fletcher (1579–1625) and Philip Massinger (1583–1640), which in turn was based very loosely on the life of the Emperor Diocletian. In Greek mythology, Charon ferried the dead to the underworld. | e-Score (and parts) here | |
| 1690 | Dioclesian or The Prophetess, Z627: ‘Since the toils and the hazards of war’s at an end.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Thomas Betterton (c. 1635-1710) | Since the toils and the hazards of war’s at an end, The pleasures of Love should succeed ’em The fair should what the Senators send, And complete what they decreed ’em. With dances and songs, with tambours and flutes, Let the maids show their joy as they meet him; With cymbals and harps, with viols and lutes, Let the husbands and true lovers greet him. | Scored for alto, two recorders & continuo. Betterton’s text for this semi-opera was based on based on the play The Prophetess, by John Fletcher (1579–1625) and Philip Massinger (1583–1640), which in turn was based very loosely on the life of the Emperor Diocletian. | ||
| 1690 | Dioclesian or The Prophetess, Z627, III: Chaconne, ‘Two in one on upon a Ground’. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Thomas Betterton (c. 1635-1710) | Precedes Act III. A compositional masterpiece scored for recorders & continuo. Betterton’s text for this semi-opera was based on based on the play The Prophetess, by John Fletcher (1579–1625) and Philip Massinger (1583–1640), which in turn was based very loosely on the life of the Emperor Diocletian. | |||
| 1690 | Birthday Ode: Arise my Muse, Z320: ‘But ah, I see Eusebia drown’d in tears.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695); Thomas D’Urfey (1653-1723) | But ah, I see Eusebia drown’d in Tears; The sad Eusebia mourning wears; And in dejected state Thus moans here hapless Fate; Ah wretched me, must Caesar for my sake, These fatal dangers undertake, No, no, ye awful powers, no, no, Fate must not let him die. | Scored for alto, two recorders & continuo. Davis (1996:13) notes that the original text concludes with a chorus which Purcell has not set: Exalt, exalt your voices high, And with your skilful melody, Raise Glairness grief to joy, Bring warlbling lutes to hush her Cares Bring moving flutes to charm her ears. The reference to the flute led Davis to suggest that the presence of recorders as not only expressing the sentiments contained in that aria, but also expressing the consolation implied by the words not set. | Davis (1996: 13) | |
| 1690 | Ode, The Yorkshire Feast Song: The Bashful Thames, Z. 333/3 | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | The Bashful Thames for beauty so reknown’d, In hast ran by her puny Town; And poor Augusta was asham’d to own. August then did drooping lye; Tho’ now she rears her Tow’ring Front so high. | Aria for alto, 2 recorders, viol & continuo. | Score & parts here | |
| 1691 | King Arthur Z628: ‘How blest are shepherds.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & John Dryden (1631-1700) | Act II Philidel and the spirits go off singing, with King Arthur and the rest in the middle of them. Enter Emmeline led by Matilda. Pavilion Scene. Emmeline and Matilda discuss King Arthur. Matilda entreats Emmeline to forget her cares and let a group of Kentish lads and lasses entertain her while she awaits Arthur’s return. Enter shepherds and shepherdesses. SHEPHERD How blest are shepherds, how happy their lasses, While drums and trumpets are sounding alarms. Over our lowly sheds all the storm passes And when we die, ’tis in each other’s arms All the day on our herds and flocks employing, All the night on our flutes and in enjoying. CHORUS How blest are shepherds, how happy their lasses, etc. SHEPHERD Bright nymphs of Britain with graces attended, Let not your days without pleasure expire. Honour’s but empty, and when youth is ended, All men will praise you but none will desire. Let not youth fly away without contenting; Age will come time enough for your repenting. CHORUS Bright nymphs of Britain with graces attended, etc. Here the men offer their flutes to the women, which they refuse. Symphony TWO SHEPHERDESSES Shepherd, shepherd, leave decoying: Pipes are sweet on summer’s day, But a little after toying, Women have the shot to pay. Here are marriage-vows for signing: Set their marks that cannot write. After that, without repining, Play, and welcome, day and night. Here the women give the men contracts, which they accept. CHORUS Come, shepherds, lead up a lively measure The cares of wedlock are cares of pleasure: But whether marriage bring joy or sorrow. Make sure of this day and hang tomorrow Hornpipe The dance after the song, and exeunt shepherds and shepherdesses. | The accompaniment to the Shepherdess’ song includes parts for 2 recorders as does the preceding instrumental Symphony. Paired recorders are often associated with marriage. | e-Text here | |
| 1691 | King Arthur, Z628, III: ‘Ye blustering bretheren of the skies.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & John Dryden (1631-1700) | Act III A consort of trumpets within, proclaiming Arthur’s victory. While they sound, Arthur and Oswald seem to confer. Arthur commands Oswald to return to Saxony with his men. Emmeline is restored to Arthur. Merlin imprisons Osmond and proclaims the triumph of British sovereignty, faith and love. Merlin waves his wand; the scene changes, and discovers the British Ocean in a storm. Aeolus in a cloud above: Four Winds hanging, etc. AEOLUS Ye blust’ring brethren of the skies, Whose breath has ruffled all the wat’ry plain, Retire, and let Britannia rise In triumph o’er the main. Serene and calm, and void of fear, The Queen of Islands must appear. Aeolus ascends, and the Four Winds fly off. The scene opens, and discovers a calm sea, to the end of the house. An island arises, to a soft tune; Britannia seated in the island, with fishermen at her feet, etc. The tune changes; the fisher men come ashore, and dance a while; after which, Pan and a Nereid come on the stage, and sing. | Scored for bass, strings,2 recorders & continuo. | e-Text here | |
| 1692 | Ode to St Cecilia: Hail Bright Cecelia, Z328: ‘Hark! Hark! each Tree its silence breaks’. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Nicholas Brady (1659–1726) | Hark! Hark! each Tree its silence breaks, The Box and Fir to talk begin! This is the sprightly Violin That in the Flute distinctly speaks Twas Sympathy their listening Brethren drew, When to the Thracian lyre with leafy Wings they flew. | Duet for alto and bass, two recorders, bass recorder, two violins & continuo. The music is a sarabande on a ground. Its instrumentation is a direct illustration of the text: box and fir were timbers commonly used to make recorders and violins respectively. Brady was an Irish-born Anglican divine and poet. | ||
| 1692 | Ode to St Cecilia: Hail Bright Cecelia, Z328: In vain the Am’rous Flute and soft Guitar.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Nicholas Brady (1659–1726) | In vain the Am’rous Flute and soft Guitar Jointly labour to inspire Wanton Heat and loose Desire: Whilst they chaste Airs do gently move Seraphic Flame and Heav’nly Love. | Duet for alto and tenor, two recorders & continuo. Brady was an Irish-born Anglican divine and poet. | ||
| 1692 | The Fairy Queen, Z629: ‘The Song of Secrecy: One charming night.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & John Dryden (1631-1700) | One charming Night Gives more delight Than a hundred lucky Days. Night and I improve the taste, Makes the pleasure longer last, A thousand several ways. | In Act II, a sequence of songs presented by four allegorical characters representing Night, Mystery, Secrecy and Sleep, two recorders are used to accompany the character of Secrecy, their sole appearance in the whole opera, and that in a context which is clearly supernatural. However, Secrecy’s song express both the delight and mystery of love. | ||
| 1693 | Celebrate this Festival, Z321: ‘Return, fond muse.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Nahum Tate (1652-1715) | Return fond Muse, the thoughts of war On this auspicious day forbear, When Britains should her joy proclaim And to disarm approaching harm Repeat, repeat Maria. | Birthday Ode for Queen Mary. This s song is scored for alto, two recorders, viola & continuo. Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became England’s poet laureate in 1692. | ||
| 1694 | Birthday Ode, Come Ye Sons of Art, Z323: ‘Strike the viol’. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Nahum Tate (1652-1715) | Strike the viol, touch the lute, Wake the harp, inspire the flute Sing our patroness’s praise In cheerful and harmonius lays. | Birthday Ode for Queen Mary. This song was scored for alto, two recorders, strings & continuo. Tate was an Irish poet who became England’s poet laureate in 1692. | ||
| 1694 | Ode, Great Parent Hail, Z327: ‘Thy Royal Patron sung: Repair.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Nahum Tate (1652-1715) | Thy Royal Patron sung: Repair To Illustrious Ormond’s Tomb: As, Living, He made Thee His Care, Give Him, next thy Caesar’s, Room. Then a Second Ormond’s Story Let astonisht Fame recite; But she’ll wrong the Hero’s Glory, Till with equal Flame she write To that which he displays in Fight. | Song for soprano, two recorders & continuo; introductory symphony scored for two alto recorders and viola. Tate was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became England’s poet laureate in 1692. | ||
| 1694 | Timon of Athens, Z362: ‘Hark! how the songsters of the grove.’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695), Thomas Shadwell (c.1642-1692), William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | Hark! how the songsters of the grove Sing anthems to the God of Love. Hark! how the amorous winged pair With Love’s great praises fills the air. On every side the charming sound Does from the hollow woods rebound. | Scored for two sopranos, 2 recorders & continuo. Music for a revival of Shakespeare’s Play, revised by Shadwell. | ||
| 1694 | Timon of Athens, Z362: Love in their veins inspires’. | Henry Purcell (1659-1695), Thomas Shadwell (c.1642-1692), William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | Love in their little veins inspires Their cheerful notes, their soft desires. While heat makes buds and blossoms spring These pretty couples love and sing. But winter puts out their desire And half the year they want Love’s fire. | A brief coda to this song for soprano and bass is provided by 2 recorders & continuo. | ||
| 1695 | Bonduca or, The British Heroine Z574: ‘Sing! sing ye Druids!’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) & Thomas Shadwell (1642?-1692) | Sing, sing, ye Druids; all your voices raise to celebrate divine Andates Praise | Scored for two sopranos, two recorders & continuo. | Manifold (1956: 125). | |
| 1695 | The Indian QueenZ630: ‘Why should men quarrel here?’ | Henry Purcell (1659-1695), John Dryden (1631-1700) & Sir Robert Howard | Why should men quarrel here? Where all possess as much as they can hope for by success. None can have most where Nature is so kind As to exceed Man’s use, though not his Mind. | Scored for soprano, two recorders & continuo. The two recorders bicker throughout this piece. | e-Text (score & parts) here | |
| Song: ‘We reap all the pleasures we freely enjoy’, Z547 | Henry Purcell (1659-1695) | We reap all the pleasures we freely enjoy The delights of each melody and Grove. With innocent pastimes our minds we employ, And we fly from the mischief of love. | Symphony for two recorders & continuo. Trio for soprano, tenor & bass, recorder & continuo. An undated fragment. The author of the text is unknown. | |||
| 1695 | Music on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell: ‘Mr Purcell’s Farewell.’ | Jeremiah Clarke (c. 1674-1707) | An overture followed by dances and songs which are interrupted by a shepherdess bringing news of Purcell’s death, whereupon the music turns to mourning and lamentation in a most moving way. Scored for three soloists, chorus & orchestra including recorders and trumpets. | |||
| 1695 | Ode … upon the Death of Mr H.P. | Godfrey Finger (c. 166 –1730) & John Dunton (1659–1733) | THIRD ACCOMPANIMENTFlute and Theorbo Mark how the melancholy Flute Joins in sad concert with the amrous Lute, Lamenting Damon’s hapless fate: From him they learn’d to tell the Lover’s care, With soft complaints to move the cruel Fair, To calm her anger, and change her hate. | The accompaniment to this song is for flute (= recorder) and theorbo. H.P. is, of course, Henry Purcell. The entire text of this Ode (complete with instrumentation) appears as The Nightingale; or, an Ode upon the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell … in Dunton (1705, 2: 662-663). Finger was a Moravian Baroque composer and viol virtuoso who worked in London for some years. Dunton (1659–1733) was an English bookseller and author. | Dunton, J. (1705/1818). The life and errors of John Dunton: late citizen of London … Vol. 2. Nichols & Bentley, London. e-Text here | |
| 1695 | 1698 | Music on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell: ‘Yes, my Aminta, ’tis too true’ | Henry Hall (c. 1656-1707) | Yes my Aminta, ’tis too True; Daphnis has bid the world adieu Silent is now that charming tongue That once so soft and …etc., etc. | Soprano & baritone soloists with two recorders & continuo. Hall was an English poet and composer. The text of this tribute, derived from two of his earlier poems, is in the form of a dialogue between a shepherd and a shepherdess. | Pickering, O. (1994). Henry Hall of Hereford’s Poetical tributes to Henry Purcell. Library s6-16 (1): 18-29. |
| 1696 | The works of Capt. Alex. Radcliffe : in one volume : viz, Ovid’s travestie, or, A burlesque upon Ovid’s Epistles, likewise his Ramble, an anti-heroick poem, with several miscellanies: 34-35. | Alexander Radcliffe (1608-1664) | From CANACE to MACAREUS lately translated ouit of OVID Now BURLESQ’D Nurse, in her Apron took the little Brat, Swathed up in Linnin, Rushes over that; Quite through the Hall she went her usual pace, And, unconcern’d her self, humm’d Chevy-Chase. Just to the door s’had safely carry’d him, When the unlucky Wretch began to screme: His little Organ made a shriller noise Than all the Fluits, Recorders, or Ho-boies: The old man prick’d his ears up, like a Hare, And after Nurse ran nimbly, as the Air: Whither so fast, said he, old Mother Trundle? Pray, let us see, what have you in your Bundle: Quoth Nurfe,’Tis Mristress Canny’s dirty Smoak, Men into Womens secrets should not look. He puff ‘d away the Rushes from her Lap, And there appear’d the little sprauling Ape. ‘Zounds, saies my Father, What is Here? A Kid! My daughter Canny’s finely brought to bed. | Radcliffe was an English verse-writer and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629. In verse, he was a disciple of the Earl of Rochester whom he rivaled in ribaldry. | e-Text here | |
| 1696 | Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell. | John Blow (1649-1708) & John Dryden (1631-1700) | Mark how the Lark and Linnet Sing, With rival Notes They strain their Warbling Throats, To welcome in the Spring. But in the close of Night, When Philomel begins her Heav’nly lay, They cease their mutual spight, Drink in her Musick with delight, And list’ning and silent, and silent and list’ning and list’ning and silent obey. Struck dumb they all admir’d the God-like Man, The God-like Man, Alas, too soon retir’d, As He too late began. We beg not Hell, our Orpheus to restore, Had He been there, Their Sovereigns fear Had sent Him back before. The pow’r of Harmony too well they knew, He long e’er this had Tun’d their jarring Sphere, And left no Hell below. The Heav’nly Quire, who heard his Notes from High Let down the Scale of Musick from the Sky: They handed him along, And all the way He taught, and all the way they Sung. Ye Brethren of the Lyre, and tunefull Voice, Lament his lott: but at your own rejoyce. Now live secure and linger out your days, The God’s are pleas’d alone with Purcell’s Layes, Nor know to mend their Choice. | Scored for two countertenors, two recorders & continuo. | e-Text (full score) here | |
| 1736 | Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music, HWV 75 | George F. Handel (1685-1789) & John Dryden (1631-1700) | Tenor Thus long ago, Ere heaving bellows learn’d to blow, While organs yet were mute, Timotheus to his breathing flute, And sounding lyre, Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. | Includes an obbligato for recorder duo. The libretto was adapted by Hamilton from John Dryden’s ode Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music (1697) | e-Text here | |
| 1697 | Aesop | John Vanbrugh (1664–1726) | Why, sir, we are stage-players; that’s or calling: Though we play upon other things too; Some of us play upon the fiddle; Some play upon the flute; we play upon one another; We play upon the town; And we play upon the patentees. | Vanbrugh was a playwright and architect. Vanbrugh’s Aesop was adapted from Les fables d’Ésope by Edme Boursault (1638-1701). The whole of this scene is a burlesque view of the quarrel which led to the secession of the Lincoln’s Inn Field group from the patentees of Drury Lane in 1695. | e-Text here | |
| 1701 | 1703 | The Judgement of Paris: Symphony for Venus: Hither turn thee, garde Swain | John Eccles (1668-1735) | Symphony for Venus. Venus. Hither turn thee, gentle Swain, Let not Venus sue in vain; Venus rules the Gods above, Love rules them, and she rules Love. Hither turn thee gentle Swain. | Score includes two recorders. One of three settings of Congreve’s poem for a competition held in 1701. | e-Text here |
| 1701 | The Judgement of Paris: Symphony of Flutes for Venus | Daniel Purcell (c. 1664–1717) | Symphony of Flutes for Venus. Venus. Hither turn thee, gentle Swain, Let not Venus sue in vain; Venus rules the Gods above, Love rules them, and she rules Love. Hither turn thee gentle Swain. | Recorders for appearance of Venus, and a ‘symphony’ for recorders and oboes. One of three settings of Congreve’s poem for a competition held in 1701. | e-Text here | |
| 1701 | 1703 | The Judgement of Paris: Symphony for Venus | John Weldon (1676–1736) | A pastoral symhony by Paris &other shepherds on Ida’s Top,while Mercury descends. The scene is a landskip of a beautiful pasture supposed on Mount Ida. The shepherd Paris is seen seated under a tree, and playing on his pipe; his crook and scrip, &c. lying by him. While a symphony is playing, Mercury descends with his caduceus in one Hand, and an apple of gold in the other. After the symphony he sings. | The masque opens with a canon 4 in 1 for recorders and oboes. One of three settings of Congreve’s poem for a competition held in 1701. | e-Text (score, libretto) |
| 1706 | 1707 | Cantata: Nel dolce dell’oblio | George F. Handel (1685-1789) | Recitativo Nel dolce dell’oblio benché riposi la mia Filli adorata veglia coi pensier suoi e in quella quiete Amor non cessa mai con varie forme la sua pace turbar mentr’ella dorme. Aria Giacché il sonno a lei dipinge la sembianza del suo bene, nella quiete ne pur finge d’abbracciar le sue catene. RecitativoCosì fida ella vive al cuor che adora e nell’ombre respira la luce di quel sol per cui sospira. Aria Ha l’inganno il suo diletto se i pensier mossi d’affetto stiman ver ciò che non sanno. Ma se poi si risveglia un tal errore il pensier ridice a noi ha l’inganno il suo dolore. | Recorder obbligato. Composed whilst Handel was in Rome. | |
| 1707 | Cantata: Delerio amoroso: Da quel Giorno Fatale, HWV 99 | George F. Handel (1685-1789) | Aria Lascia omai le brune vele, negro pine de Flegetonte. Io faro che un zeffereto per diletto spiri intorno a te fedele; e che movai bianchi nini pellegrini, in Acheronte. Translation Leave now the dark brown sails, black boat of the fiery river of Hades, Phlegethon. I will see that a light breeze, for your delight, breathes constantly around you; and that it moves the white canvas, on its way, along the river Acheron. | Scored for soprano, recorder, two violins, continuo. The recorder is featured throughout this long and very fine da capo aria. This extensive cantata is an evocation of hallucinatory madness in which Clori imagines she enters the realm of the dead to conduct her disdaining lover to the Elysian fields. Composed whilst Handel was in Rome. The librettist was Handel’s patron, Benedetto Pamphili (1652-1730), an Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist. | e-Text (score) here | |
| 1634 | Love’s Mistress, or the Queen’s Masque II, i. | Thomas Heywood (early 1570s–1641) | Act II, Scene i Psiche. Home, home, more musick there, I must to rest: (Recorders. Enter Zephirus with bags.) Ho Zephirus, come forth, and bring me brim full bags of gold: Hold up your laps, tho’ them you cannot see That bring this gold, this larges take from me: Adieu, adieu: my duty to the King, I needs must stop mine eares when Syrens sing. | Recorders imitate the singing of Sirens. | Lasocki (1984: 8) e-Text here | |
| 1707 | Cantata a tre: Cor fedele Clori Tirsi e Fileno, HWV 96: ‘Son come quel nocchiero’ | George F. Handel (1685-1789) | Fileno Son come quel nocchiero che dopo la procella in questa parte, in quella finché non bacia il lido sempre penando va. E benché men severo mostra Nettun il ciglio, la vista di periglio finché non giunge al porto sempre timor gli da | This aria is scored for alto two violas, two recorders (doubling at the octave), and continuo. The pastoral cantata Cor fedele depicts an attractive shepherdess who through discord and deception causes pain and unresolved tension for two honest but simple shepherds. Written when Handel was in Rome in the service of the Marquis Francesco Maria Ruspoli, . | e-Text (score) here | |
| 1711 | 1731 | Rinaldo, HWV 7: Augelletti, che cantate’. | George F. Handel (1685-1789) | From Act I, scene ii Almirina Augelletti, che cantate, Zefiretti che spirate Aure dolci intorno a me, Il mio ben dite dov’e! [recitativo] Adorato mio sposo, Vieni a bear quest’alma! | As Rinaldo and Almirena sit together, she sings of her love to the breezes that float by. Scored for soprano voice, Flageolett (print and later versions: flauto piccolo), two flutes (i.e. alto recorders), two violins, viola, & continuo, the effect is delightful in every way. The obbligato part is usually performed on the sopranino recorder, today. It can be heard here, sung by the great Cecilia Bartoli. Rinaldo was the first Italian language opera written specifically for the London stage. The libretto was prepared by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill (1685-1750) . In this famed scene caged birds were loosed on-stage to the detriment of the audience’s attire, reported by Joseph Addison in The Spectator, 6 March 1711 (see here.) | |
| 1714 | English Cantatas: Book 1, ‘Corydon’. | Johann C. Pepusch (1667–1752) & John Hughes (1677–1720) | RECITATIVE While Corydon, the lonely shepherd, try’d His tuneful flute and charmed the Grove; The jealous nightingales, that strove To trace his notes, contending died; At last he hears within a myrtle shade, An echo answers all his strain; Love stole the pipe of sleeping Pan and play’d: Then with his voice decoys the list’ning swain. AIR WITH A FLUTEGay charmer to befriend thee, Here pleasing scenes attend thee, O this way speed thy pace! If Music can beguile thee, Or visions fair invite thee, This bow’r’s the happy place. RECITATIVE The Shepherd rose, he gaz’d around, And vainly sought the magick sound; The wanton God his motion spyes, Lays by the pipe and shoots a Dart, Thro Corydons unwary heart; Then smiling from his Ambush flies; While in his Room, divinely bright, The Reigning Beauty of the Groves Surpriz’d the Shepherd’s sight. AIR Who from his love his heart securing, Can avoid th’enchanting pain? Pleasure calls with voice alluring. Beauty softly binds the chain. | The two arias in this cantata are scored for soprano, recorder & continuo. | e-Text (verse) here e-Text (score) here | |
| 1720 | English Cantatas: Book 2, ‘When Loves soft passion’. | Johann C. Pepusch (1667–1752) & James Blackley | Aria: When Loves soft passion has usurp’d my breast, And Caelias haughty scorn destroy’d my rest; To silent groves and murm’ring streams I fled, To sooth my pain and thus Complaining said. Recitativo: Love thou know’st my anguish, come ease me of my pain. No longer let me languish, no longer Sigh in vain. Recitativo: The God of Love who hear’d my pray’r this answer gave: Cease, cease to be a Slave, with bold disdain try to regain or quit the Cruel fair. Aria: Why shou’d I Love the fair that fly’s me and deny’s me what alone can cure my smart. Her charms no longer shall detain me nor disdain me I’ll regain my wounded heart. | Scored for soprano, alto recorder & basso continuo. This volume was dedicated to James Duke of Chandos, himself a recorder player. James Blackley (?dates) was a high tenor for whom both Handel and Pepusch wrote. | ||
| 1720 | English Cantatas: Book 2, ‘Menaloas, once the gayest Swain’. | Johann C. Pepusch (1667–1752) & Mr Gee | Recitativo: Menaloas, once the gayest Swain on all Arcadias happy plain, grown wise by cares and many years. Thus to young Thyrsis sung, but sung in vain. Aria: Beware my Thyrsis how you prove the soft deluding ways of love. fly, fly the artful smiling fair. Kind they’l seem and then deceive you, then to Cruel anguish leave you sharp repentance and despair. Recitativo: Soon alass, the heedless youth forgot the long experienc’d truth. Soon he fell a Sacrifice to cruel Enrelindas eyes who thus insults her trembling prize. Aria: Ah, simply Boy, your boasted sence from mighty Love is no defence. The wisest heart resists in vain soft Beauties ever Conqu’ring Chain. | Scored for soprano, alto recorder & basso continuo. This volume was dedicated to James Duke of Chandos, himself a recorder player. Nothing seems to be known of the librettist. | ||
| 1720 | English Cantatas: Book 2, ‘Myra’. | Johann C. Pepsuch (1667–1752) & John Hughes (1677–1720) | AIR. Love frowns in beauteous Myra’s eyes; ah, Nymph! those cruel looks give o’er: While Love is frowning Beauty dies, And you can charm no more. RECITATIVE Mark how when sullen clouds appear, Andwint’ry storms deface theyear, The prudent cranes no longer staty, But take the wing, and thro’ the air From the cold region fly away, And far o’er land and seas to warmer climes repair. Just so my heart – But see – Ah no! She smiles & ndash; I will not; cannot go. AIR. Love and the Graces smiling, In Myra’s eyes beguiling, Again their charms recover. Would you secure our duty, Let kindness aid your beauty, Ye Fair! to sooth the lover. | Scored for soprano, alto recorder & basso continuo. This volume was dedicated to James Duke of Chandos, himself a recorder player. | e-Text (verse) here | |
| 1720 | English Cantatas: Book 2, ‘Cleora’. | Johann C. Pepusch (1667–1752) & Inigo Slaughter | Recitiative Cleora sat beneath a shade, her wanton Flock forgat to play and listen to the lovely maid while thus she mourns her shepherds stay. Aria Sure time and love are both asleep or Dorus wou’d his promise keep Hast gentle shepherd hither move and we`ll awake both time and love Recitative Dorus wing’d with swift desire came hast’ning o’re the neigh’bring plain, approching Joys the maid inspire and thus she meets the panting Swain. Aria Fly care and anguish far away while pleasures bless this happy day. Let ev’ry Lover joyful be and e’ry Pair as kind as we | Scored for soprano, alto recorder & basso continuo. This volume was dedicated to James Duke of Chandos, himself a recorder player. | ||
| 1717 | The Bird Fancyers Delight, or Choice Observations, and Directions Concerning the Teaching of all Sorts of Singing Birds, after the Flagelet & Flute . . . | Richard Meares | The flute of the title is a miniature recorder, ‘rightly made as to size and tone’. | |||
| 1717 | Pan and Syrinx: ‘How Sweet the Warbling Linnet Sings’. | Johann Ernst Galliard (1680-1749). | How sweet the warbling linnet sings, to usher in the newborn day. While gentle winds on balmy wings difuse around the vocal sound, and make the groves and forest gay. | This aria was scored for soprano, ‘flauto piccolo’ (sopranino recorder or bird flageolet), strings & continuo. The opera Pan and Syrinx was first given at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in 1717. The air ‘How Sweet the Warbling Linnet Sings’ was probably added for a later performance. Gaillard was a German composer and also a capable oboe and recorder player. He moved to England where he became chapel-master of Somerset House. | ||
| Cantata: Celladon. | William Croft (1678-1727). | By purling streams poor Celladon was laid while sighing Iris, lovely charming maid. See in thy absence how thy lover dyes, while to his sigh, the Echo still replyes. The wate’ry element, as though his discourse ’twere mov’d, To Iris sweiftly bent its liquid course, On ev’ry curling and murmur’d pity to the cruel fair. At last she relented conside’ring his grief, Remov’d his despair, and gave him relief. With a smile she reviv’d him, no more seeming coy, And his suff’rings now past serve to heighten his joy. | There are two manuscript of this cantata in existence: one, in the British Museum, stipulates Flute’ (i.e. a recorder), while the other, in St Michael’s College, Tenbury, gives the same part to an oboe.| | |||
| 1718 | Acis and Galatea, HWV 49: ‘Heart, the seat of soft delight’ | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & John Gay (1685-1732) | Galatea Heart, the seat of soft delight, Be thou now a fountain bright! Purple be no more thy blood, Glide thou like a crystal flood. Rock, thy hollow womb disclose! The bubbling fountain, lo! it flows; Through the plains he joys to rove, Murm’ring still his gentle love. | Scored for soprano voice with recorder duo obbligato doubling two violins at the octave, & continuo. This is the closing aria of the opera, where Galatea exerts her powers to enact the transformation of Acis’ corpse into a beautiful fountain, ending with the chorus celebrating his immortalisation.. The English poet, dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club, John Gay, is best remembered as the librettist of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. | e-Text (libretto) here e-Text (score) here | |
| 1718 | Acis and Galatea: ‘Hush ye pretty warbling Quire.’ | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & John Gay (1685-1732) | Galatea Hush, ye pretty warbling quire! Your thrilling strains Awake my pains, And kindle fierce desire. Cease your song, and take your flight, Bring back my Acis to my sight! Hush … da capo | In the autographed score, the accompaniment to this charming aria includes a ‘flauto piccolo’ (sopranino recorder) obbligato. The English poet, dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club, John Gay, is best remembered as the librettist of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. | e-Text (libretto) here e-Text (score) here | |
| 1718 | Acis and Galatea: ‘O, ruddier than the cherry.’ | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & John Gay (1685-1732) | Polyphemus I rage — I melt — I burn! The feeble god has stabb’d me to the heart. Thou trusty pine, Prop of my godlike steps, I lay thee by! Bring me a hundred reeds of decent growth To make a pipe for my capacious mouth; In soft enchanting accents let me breathe Sweet Galatea’s beauty, and my love. AIR Polyphemus O ruddier than the cherry, O sweeter than the berry, O nymph more bright Than moonshine night, Like kidlings blithe and merry. Ripe as the melting cluster, No lily has such lustre; Yet hard to tame As raging flame, And fierce as storms that bluster! O ruddier … da capo | Sung by Polypheme, the giant who kills his rival Acis with a rock. (Note that Galatea is a half-goddess.) Scored for bass with flauto piccolo octavo (sopranino recorder) obbligato. The English poet, dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club, John Gay, is best remembered as the librettist of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. | e-Text (libretto) here e-Text (score) here | |
| 1698 | 1720 | Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy IV, 94: ‘The Wanton Trick’. | Thomas D’Urfey (1653-1623) | …… The string of his viol She put to the trial, Till she had the full length of the stick; Her white bellied lute She set to his flute, Oh, ’tis but a wanton trick. Thus she with her lute And he with his flute, Held every crotchet and prick; She learnéd at leisure Yet payed for the pleasure, Oh, ’tis but a wanton trick. His viol string burst, her tutor she cursed However, she played with the stick From October to June she was quite out of tune Whoop, `Tis but a wanton trick And then she repented that e’er she’d consented To have either note or prick For learning so well made her belly to swell Whoop, `Tis but a wanton trick You maids that make trial Of a lute or a viol, Take care how you handle the stick, If you like not this order, Come try my recorder, Oh, ’tis but a wanton trick. | D’Urfey was an English writer and wit. He composed plays, songs, and poetry, in addition to writing jokes. He was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the Ballad opera. 10 of the 68 songs in The Beggar’s Opera were D’Urfey’s. His multi-volume Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, written between 1698 and 1720, is a collection of songs and ballads. | e-Text here |
| 1720 | Chandos Anthems 8: Psalm 95. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) | O Come let us Worship … | This gem uses material from the aria, Dolce nume de ‘mortali in Silla. Scored for two recorders doubling two violins at the octave, continuo. | ||
| 1720 | Chandos Anthems: 10: Psalm 27. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) | One Thing have I desired of the Lord … | Scored for two recorders, two violins, continuo. | ||
| 1727 | Riccardo Primo, Re d’Inghilterra: V’adoro, oh luci belle’. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) | Oronte: V’adoro, oh luci belle … | A very extended da capo aria scored for male alto, violin, viola, continuo with a continuous sopranino recorder (flauto picciolo) obbligato. Another bird piece. The text portrays a figurative bird: the lover flying to her beloved’s nest. | ||
| 1732 | Esther: ‘Breathe Soft ye Gales’ | George F. Handel (1698-1759) | Esther: Breath Soft ye Gales … | Scored for soprano voice, two recorders, orchestra, harpsichord, theorbo, harp, organ. | ||
| 1733 | Athalia, HWV 52, II, i: ‘Through the Land as lovely blooming’. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & Samuel Humphreys (c.1697–1737) | Josabeth Through the land so lovely blooming, Nature all her charms assuming, Wakes the soul to cheerful praise. Verdant scenes around us rising, Each delighted sense surprising, Softly crown the circling days. Through the land… da capo | This extended aria is scored for soprano voice, two recorders & orchestra. The libretto is based on the play Athalie by the French dramatist Jean Racine (1639–1699). Listen to it here | e-Text (libretto) here. e-Text (score) here | |
| 1707 | 1757 | Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, HWV 46a: ‘Pleasure’s gentle Zephyrs playing’. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1730) | Disinganno Se la bellezza perde vaghezza, Se cade o more non torna più. E un sol momento ride contento Il vago fiore di gioventù. Se la bellezza … da capo Translation (Thomas Morell, 1757) Counsel The beauty smiling, All hearts beguiling, Soon drooping, dying, Returns no more. The youth, now blooming, And still presuming, Few moments flying, Shall charm no more. The beauty … da capo | This aria is scored for alto voice, 2 alto recorders (doubling the violins at the octave), strings & continuo. The librettist was an Italian Cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist. Listen to the entire oratorio here. In 1753, Handel expanded this work as l trionfo del tempo e della verità (HWV 46b), and it was revived yet again in 1757 with an English text by the librettist, Thomas Morell as The Triumph of Time and Truth (HWV 71). | e-Text (libretto, 1707) here e-Text (libretto, 1757) here |
| 1707 | 1757 | Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, HWV 46a: ‘Più non cura valle oscura’. | George F. Handel (1698-1759) & Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1730) | Disinganno Più non cura valle oscura chi dal monte saggio vede ch’ella siede in basso orror. E d’averla un giorno amata è cosi l’alma sdegnata che detesta il proprio error. Più non cura … da capo Translation (Thomas Morell, 1757) Counsel Vain the delights of age or youth, Without the sanction and applause of Truth. And as the soul more bright appears Than the frail earthly form she wears, So much true pleasures, from this glass, All other sublunary joys surpass. | scored for alto voice, two recorders doubling violins at the octave, & continuo. The librettist was an Italian Cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist.Listen to the entire oratorio here.In 1753, Handel expanded this work as l trionfo del tempo e della verità (HWV 46b), and it was revived yet again in 1757 with an English text by the librettist, Thomas Morell as The Triumph of Time and Truth (HWV 71). | e-Text (libretto, 1707) here e-Text (libretto, 1757) here |
| 1755 | The Morning: ‘The Lark his warbling matin sings’ | Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778). | The lark his warbling matin sings, Each flower in all its beauty springs. The village up, the shepherd tries His pipe, and to the woodland hies. | Scored for ‘German flute or small flute,’ strings and basso continuo. One of Six Cantatas For a Voice and Instruments. The ‘small flute was probably a sopranino recorder, used to imitate bird song in the first air, ‘The Lark his warbling matin sings’. The text is by John Milton. You can listen to a charming recording of the complete cantata here, sung by Anastasia Terranova, obbligato recorder played by Emile ter Schegget. Arne composed incidental music, masques, pastoral works, secular vocal music and two operas in the Italian style. | ||
| The Complete Works. | Edward Young (1683-1765). | 89 Dominions, powers, and chiefs sate next the throne, 90 Robed for the day, with all their coronets on; 91 Waiting the signal too, and longing to be gone. 92 Hark! the glad trumpet sounds: the’ eternal King 93 Bids every saint touch every tender string; 94 And all th’ harmonious seraphs soft recorders sing. 95 Anon a full-blown clarion swells the sound; 96 While stronger levets from the hills rebound, 97 And bolder martial airs the softer music drown’d. 98 Shouting, the armies move in dread array: 99 A God! a God! Ye lightnings, clear the way. | This extract is not to be found in The complete works of Edward Young (1870), or The Poetical Works of Edward Young (1859), or The complete works, poetry and prose of the Rev. Edward Young (1854). | |||
| 1915 | Arnold Dolmetsch | Ezra Pound | Pound recounts his experiences with retrocognition in an essay on Arnold Dolmetsch whom he sought out in 1914: “So I had two sets of adventures. First, I perceived a sound which was undoubtedly derived from the Gods, and then I found myself in a reconstructed century- in a century of music, back before Mozart or Purcell, listening to clear music, to tones clear as brown amber.” Pound was drawing on or participating in what he determined to be the soul’s eternal memory. His essay begins with a description of his first adventure: “I have seen the God Pan and it was in this manner: I heard a bewildering and pervasive music moving from precision to precision within itself. Then I heard a different music, hollow and laughing. Then I looked up and saw two eyes like the eyes of a wood- creature peering at me over a brown tube of wood. Then someone said: Yes, once I was playing a fiddle in the forest and I walked into a wasps’ nest. Comparing these things with what I can read of the Earliest and best authenticated appearances of Pan, I can but conclude that they relate to similar experiences. It is true that I found myself later in a room covered with pictures of what we now call ancient instruments, and that when I picked up the brown tube of wood I found that it had ivory rings upon it. And no proper reed has ivory rings on it, by nature … “When a man is able, by a pattern of notes or by an arrangement of planes or colours, to throw us back into the age of truth, a certain few of us – no, I am wrong, everyone who has been cast back into the age of truth for one instant – gives honour to the spell which has worked, to the witch-work or the art-work, or whatever you like to call it. Therefore I say, and stick to it, I saw and heard the God Pan; shortly afterwards I saw and heard Mr. Dolmetsch.” | Reprinted with minor stylistic changes in Pavanes and Divisions (1918), and again in Literary Essays (1954). The New Age was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938), inspired by Fabian socialism, and credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief political commentators of the day, such as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and Arnold Bennett. | Pound & Schafer (2008) | |
| 1728 | 1741 | Cyclopedia or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences … 2: 969. | Ephraim Chambers (c. 1680-1740) | RECORD, among Flowlers: A Bird is said to record, when it begins to tune or sing within itself; to form its Notes, and dispose its Organs for singing. The Cock Thrush is distinguished from the Hen in recording; the first being more loud and frequent than the second. | Chambers Cyclopedia was one of the first general encyclopedias to be produced in English. It became the inspiration for the landmark Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. | e-Text here |
| 1747 | Judas Maccabeus HWV 63, II: ‘Wise man, flatt’ring, may deceive us’. | George Frederic Handel (1685-1789) & Thomas Morell (1703–1784) | Donna Israelita Wise men, flatt’ring, may deceive us With their vain, mysterious art; Magic charms can ne’er relieve us, Nor can heal the wounded heart. But true wisdom can relieve us, Godlike wisdom from above; This alone can ne’er deceive us, This alone all pains remove. Wise men flatt’ring … da capo | This aria is scored for soprano voice, two recorders, orchestra & continuo. Thomas Morell was an English librettist, classical scholar, and printer. | e-Text (libretto) here e-Text (score) here | |
| 1768 | A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr Yorick. | Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) | From The Letter. Amiens Madame de L***, in passing from her brother’s apartments to her own, hearing so much jollity below stairs, rung up her fille de chambre to ask about it; and hearing it was the English gentleman’s servant who had set the whole house merry with his pipe, she ordered him up. … when the sun went down I would say my prayers, and when I had done thou shouldst play thy evening song upon thy pipe; nor would the incense of my sacrifice be worse accepted for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart. … She was dress’d in white, and much as my friend had described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk net. – She had, superadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green ribband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe. – Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a string to her girdle: as I look’d at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string. – ‘Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio,’ said she. I look’d in Maria’s eyes, and saw she was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for as she utter’d them, the tears trickled down her cheeks. … Shorn indeed! and to the quick, said I; and wast thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it and shelter thee: thou shouldst eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup – I would be kind to thy Sylvio – in all thy weaknesses and wanderings I would seek after thee and bring thee back – when the sun went down I would say my prayers; and when I had done thou shouldst play thy evening song upon thy pipe, nor would the incense of my sacrifice be worse accepted for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart. … I touched upon the string on which hung all her sorrows – she looked with wistful disorder for some time in my face; and then, without saying anything, took her pipe, and played her service to the Virgin – The string I had touched ceased to vibrate – in a moment or two Maria returned to herself – let her pipe fall – and rose up. | There is a painting by Joseph Wright in the Art Gallery, Derby entitled Maria and her Dog Silvio (1781), a portrait of Mary Waterfield (1759-1833), wife of Richard Bassano (1750-1815). The literary reference is to the melancholic young widow in Lawrence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey who played a ‘pipe’. In the portrait she clearly holds in her right hand a descant recorder, the instrument on which her ancestors-in-law had such a distinguished career (Lasocki & Prior 1995: 248 & 249, footnote 5). | Sterne, L. (1768). A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr Yorick. Renascence Editions. http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/sterne.html e-Text here | |
| 1773 | Experiments and observations on the singing of birds | Daines Barrington (1727/8–1800) | The next stage in the notes of a bird is termed, by the bird-catchers, recording, which word is probably dervied from a musical instrument, formerly used in England, called a recorder†. This attempt in the nestling to sing, may be compared to the imperfect endeavour in a child to babble. I have known instances of birds beginning to record when they were not a month old. ….… A young bird commonly continues to record for ten or eleven months, when he is able to execute every part of his song, which afterwards continues fixed, and is scarcely ever altered. ….… I have tried several experiments, in order to observe from what circumstances birds fix upon any particular note when taken from the parents; but cannot settle this with any sort of precision, any more than what period of their recording they determine upon the song to which they will adhere. †It seems to have been a species of flute, and was probably used to teach young birds to pipe tunes. Lord Bacon describes this instrument to have been strait, to have had a lesser and a greater bore, both above, and below, to have required very little breath from the blower, and to have what he calls a fipple, or stopper. See his second Century of Experiments. | Barrington was a laywer, antiquary, and naturalist and friend of Gilbert White whose Natural History of Selborne takes the form of letters to Barrington and Pennant. Barrington’s footnote is interesting. In fact, the English verb ‘to record’ meaning to get by heart, to commit to memory, to go over in one’s mind, or to repeat or say over as a lesson’, dates from as early as 1225 (OED). The earliest instance of the use of this verb in the context of bird-song I have encountered is in Barclay’s Mirror of Goodly Manners of ca 1510. | Daines, B. (1773). Experiments and observations on the singing of birds. Philosophical Transactions LXIII: 249-291. | |
| 1776 | A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, IV, ch. vi | Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) | The flute appears to be an instrument of great antiquity in this kingdom; it is frequently mentioned by Chaucer; and it seems by the description of it in Mersennus, that there was a species of it, which by himself and other foreigners was termed the English Flute, ‘Fistula dulcis seu Anglica’. The proper andmost discriminating appellation for it is that of the Flute à bec, or beaked flute; nevertheless we meet with ancient books of instructions for the instrument, wherein it is termed, but very improperly, as it is conceived, the Recorder. Milton could never mean that they were one and the same instrument, when in the same line he mentions ‘Flutes and soft Recorders.’ Among bird fanciers the word record is used to signify the first essays of a bird in singing; and it is well known that Bullfinches and other birds are taught to sing by a flajolet. Lord Bacon, in his Natural History, Cent. III. Sect. 221, speaks of Recorders and Flutes at the same instant, and says that the Recorder hath a less bore and a greater, above and below; and elsewhere, Cent. II. Sect. 187, he speaks of it as having six holes, in which respect it answers to the Tibia minor or flajolet of Mersennus. From all which particulars it should seem that the Flute and the Recorder were different instruments, and that the latter in propriety of speech was no other than the flajolet. Nevertheless the terms are confounded; and in a book of instructions and lessons for the flute, so old that the mention is by dots, the instructions for the instrument are entitled directions for the Recorder. | At this time ‘flute’ referred to the recorder rather than the transverse flute. Hawkins was an English author and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and Horace Walpole. | e-Text here | |
| 1787 | The Farmer. | William Shield (1748–1829) | Calls for ‘small flute’ and ‘8th flute’ which may refer to recorders (Simpson 1995: 102). Shield was an English composer, violinist and violist. He wrote many operas, of which The Famer is one. Contrary to popular belief, he was not the composer of the music to Auld Lang Syne; but he did compose The Ploughboy, famously re-arranged by Benjamin Britten in modern times. | Simpson, A. (1995) | ||
| 1788 | On the Death of Mrs Throckmorton’s Bullfinch. | William Cowper (1731-1800) | YE Nymphs, if e’er your eyes were red With tears o’er hapless favourites shed, Oh share Maria’s grief! Her favourite, even in his cage (What will not hunger’s cruel rage?) Assassined by a thief. Where Rhenus strays his vines among The egg was laid from which he sprung; And though by nature mute, Or only with a whistle blessed, Well-taught, he all the sounds expressed Of flageolet or flute. The honours of his ebon poll Were brighter than the sleekest mole, His bosom of the hue With which Aurora decks the skies, When piping winds shall soon arise To sweep away the dew. etc., etc. | English poet and hymnodist William Cowper was one of the most popular poets of his time. Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In November 1788, in a letter to his friend Samuel Rose, Cowper announced that Weston has not been without its tragedies since you left us. Mrs. Frog’s piping Bull-finch has been eaten by a rat, and the villain left nothing but poor Bully’s beak behind him. It will be a wonder if this event does not at some convenient time employ my versifying passion. And indeed he lost no time at all in writing his ode in mock-heroic couplets. | e-Text here | |
| 1789 | The Poetical Works. | Samuel Colvill (1673-1707) | And now, with other throng, the hall rebounds, The bright assemblage hear celestial sounds; The warbling lute, and soft recorders clear, With clanging trumpets pierce the echoing air, Whilst from a golden cloud, with concourse bright, Unfolds the state of sov’reign Amphitrite. | |||
| 1791 | The Illiad of Homer translated into English blank verse X, 1-18. | Transl. William Cowper (1731-1800) | Diomede and Ulysses enter the Trojan host by night, and slay Rhesus. All night the leaders of the host of Greece Lay sunk in soft repose, all, save the Chief, The son of Atreus; him from thought to thought Roving solicitous, no sleep relieved. As when the spouse of beauteous Juno, darts His frequent fires, designing heavy rain Immense, or hail-storm, or field-whitening snow, Or else wide-throated war calamitous, So frequent were the groans by Atreus’ son Heaved from his inmost heart, trembling with dread. For cast he but his eye toward the plain Of Ilium, there, astonish’d, he beheld The city fronted with bright fires, and heard Pipes, and recorders, and the hum of war; But when again the Greecian fleet he view’d, And thought on his own people, then his hair Uprooted elevating to the Gods, He from his generous bosom groan’d again. | English poet and hymnodist William Cowper was one of the most popular poets of his time. Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside | e-Text here | |
| 1834 | Gleanings in Natural History, Ser. ii. 84. | Jesse (E.) Glean | This tune … I could distinctly hear it inwardly whistle, or, in the language of bird-fanciers, record it. | |||
| 1871 | The Descent of Man I: 55. | Charles Darwin (1809-1882) | The young males [birds] continue practising, or, as the bird-catchers say, recording, for ten or eleven months. | e-Text here | ||
| 1885 | 1888 | The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night: When it was the Sixteenth Night | Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) | Then they made me sit down upon a high divan and said to me, This day thou art our lord and master, and we are thy servants and thy handmaids, so order us as thou wilt. And I marveled at their case. Presently one of them arose and set meat before me and I ate and they ate with me whilst others warmed water and washed my hands and feet and changed my clothes, and others made ready sherbets and gave us to drink, and all gathered around me, being full of joy and gladness at my coming. Then they sat down and conversed with me till nightfall, when five of them arose and laid the trays and spread them with flowers and fragrant herbs and fruits, fresh and dried, and confections in profusion. At last they brought out a fine wine service with rich old wine, and we sat down to drink and some sang songs and others played the lute and psaltery and recorders and other instruments, and the bowl went merrily round. Hereupon such gladness possessed me that I forgot the sorrows of the world one and all and said: This is indeed life. O sad that ’tis fleeting! | Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton was an English geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, Egyptologist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages. | e-Text here |
| 1954 | Lucky Jim. Gollancz, London. | Sir Kingsley William Amis (1922-1969) | ‘Flute and piano; not recorder and piano.’ Welch laughed briefly. ‘Now a recorder, you know, isn’t like a flute, though it’s the flute’s immediate ancestor, of course. To begin with, it’s played, that’s the recorder, what they call à bec, that’s to say you blow into a shaped mouthpiece like that of an oboe or a clarinet, you see. A present-day flute’s played what’s known as traverso, in other words you blow across a hole instead of …’ ‘They made a silly mistake, though,’ the Professor of History said, and his smile, as Dixon watched, gradually sank beneath the surface of his features at the memory. ‘After the interval we did a little piece by Dowland,’ he went on, ‘for recorder and keyboard, you know. I played the recorder, of course, and young Johns …’ He paused, and his trunk grew rigid as he walked; it was as if some entirely different man, some imposter who couldn’t copy his voice, had momentarily taken his place; the he went on again; ‘… young Johns played the piano.’ | It is surely more than mere co-incidence that the bumbling, ineffectual academic is named after the first modern scholar to delve into the history of the recorder, namely Christopher Welch (1832-1915). Kingsley Amis was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism. | ||
| 1954 | A Present from Brunswick. In Jizzle, Dennis Dobson, London. Repr. Four Square Books (The New English Library), Holborn (1962: 30-42). | John Wyndham (1903-1969) | A modern gloss on The Pied Piper in which Mrs Ethel Claybert receives the unexpected present of an antique recorder from her son, Jem, on service in Germany. ‘The whole length of its dark body was carved with an intricacy of vines and leaves in low relief. The sharpness of the pattern was softened as though by much handling. The polished wood, of darkest chestnut shade, gleamed like satin.’ But when she plays it, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary recorder.’ ‘From the first breath it was clear that something was not well. One by one the others faltered and stopped, leaving Mrs Claybert with a long, sweet note proceeding from her instrument, and an astonished look about her eyes. Mrs Partland drew an admonitory breath, but before she could speak Mrs Claybert’s white fingers began to skip delicately on the dark wood. A tune, light, lilting, and lovely as a May morning danced through the room. Mrs Claybert’s comfortable body began to sway lissomely as she played. She posed one foot forward. The air was enchanting, irresistible. She began to dance. Lightly as a ballerina she crossed the room, and whisked beyond the door. After her swept and swayed the ladies of the Pleasantgrove Cultural Club, like nymphs upon a sward …’ After a brush with the local police the redoubtable Mrs Partland forbids her friend from playing the instrument again. At home, as Mr Calybert scrutinises the instrument, the possibilities of its unique powers dawn on him and he finds himself turning over the idea of ridding Pleasantgrove of rats, and certain other commercial activities. But his wife snatches the recorder from him to put a halt to any further speculation of this kind. The next day she determines to take herself and her recorder to an isolated clearing in the nearby forest. ‘In spite of the sunshine there was a tinge of gentle eighteenth-century melancholy. In her pleasant mood Mrs Claybert found that not unpleasant … After a bit Ethel Claybert picked up the recorder. She stroked the smooth wood with her fingertips because it was Jem who had sent it. She looked beyond it, beyond the trees, smiling a little. Then, still smiling, she put the ivory mouthpiece to her lips, and began to play …’ Later that day at the cross-roads opposite the house of Pleasantgrove’s mayor no less than 3,000 children appear from nowhere … | You can probably guess the rest, though Wyndham gives it a twist of his own. I imagine the instrument that Wyndham had in mind must have been very like the alto recorder by Johann Benedikt Gahn, Nürnberg (before 1711) now safely under lock and key in America’s Shrine to Music Museum in Dakota (Catalog no. 4142). Admire it from a distance if you will, but don’t touch! | ||
| 1955 | Serpent in the Midst: Cad, Sir!, Recorder News, New Series 12: 6. | Eric Halfpenny (1906-1979) | A recordist not given to Piety Fingered notes of quite doubtful propriety, The unpleasant result Was an F sharp in alt So they asked him to leave the Society. | Halfpenny was a banker was one of the founders of the Galpin Society. He played a wide range of instruments including double bass, recorder, bassoon, trumpet and even the serpent. | ||
| 1957 | Noyes Fludde, Op. 59 | Benjamin Britten (1931-1976) | Calls for recorders, used to great effect with flutter-tonguing to accompany the doves, and in the storm scene trills to represent the wind whilst scales in the string section signify waves. The libretto is based on an edition by Alfred W. Pollard of an early 15th-century mystery play from the Chester Mystery Cycle, The Thirde Pageante of Noyes Fludd as presented by the Waterleaders and Drawers of Dee. | |||
| 1960 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 64 | Benjamin Britten (1931-1976) | A small stage band includes 2 sopranino recorders. The libretto was adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare’s play. You can watch and listen to the entire opera here | |||
| 1964 | Season of Ponies. Dell Publishing, New York. | Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1927-) | Pamela is angry at her father for abandoning her at Oak Farm with two strict aunts. She discovers joy and self-acceptance when she meets Ponyboy who emerges from the mist, riding a horse and playing a flute that appears to be a recorder in an illustration and is described as a small flute [hanging] from a cord around his neck. The music he plays produces a strange wild sound that was not quite a tune, as if all the sounds of the forest were shaped to the clear sweet tones of the flute. Ponyboy’s flute music is magical, and the ponies lifted their feet higher and arched their slender necks more sharply when they heard him play. | Snyder is an American author of books for children and young adults. | ||
| 1967 | 1968 | Film: Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Paramount Pictures. | Roman Polanski (1933-) | You can hear them singing through the wall … Guy said it was Dr Shand, one of these people playing a recorder. Now, how did he know it was Dr Shand unless he was there with them. They’re very clever people. They planned everything right from the beginning. They probably made some sort of deal with Guy. They gave him success and he promised them our baby to use in their rituals. I know this sounds crazy, but I’ve got books here. Look. There was another actor like him, Donald Baumgart and they put a spell on him. They cast a spell on him and made him blind so that Guy could get his part. Look, here. (She shows Dr. Hill the Witchcraft book excerpt) I had this friend, Edward Hutchins. Maybe you heard of him, a writer. He wrote stories for boys. Anyway, he was my good friend since I first came to New York … Anyway, once Mr. Hutchins came to visit me…It was the time I was having this pain, Doctor. I was suffering severe – you can’t imagine how much I was suffering. And they wouldn’t help me, nobody would. They were giving me a drink with tannis-root in it, also witches’ stuff, tannis-root. Hutch came and he immediately saw something was wrong. He knew about witches, you see. Suddenly, Guy rushed home with his make-up still on, which he never did. They probably called him to come home and steal one of Hutch’s belongings – which he did. Took his glove. And they put a spell on him too. Put him in a coma. Three months later, he died. Now, maybe all of this is coincidence, but one thing is for sure, they have a coven and they want my baby. | Based on Ira Levin’s novel Rosemary’s Baby, Random House, New York (1967). ISBN 39444308X. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is impregnated by the Devil who is aided by a group of people living in the flat below her. The tormented mother rambles incoherently about her fantastic suspicions that her next-door neighbors hold rituals and that her husband participates with them. A lengthy summary of the film is available here. | |
| 1973 | The Three Doctors. | Bob Baker (1939-) & Dave Martin (1935-2007), script-writers | On one of his televised escapades, The Three Doctors, Dr Who allows his trusty plastic recorder to fall into the force-field generator of the tardis just before getting stuck in a black hole. Thus the recorder remains the only positive matter in a universe of anti-matter. With his usual flair for celestial mechanics, Who is able to use this unique recorder to bring about the downfall of the sinister Omega, a rogue Time Lord. Omega is induced to dash the force-field generator to the ground thereby dislodging the recorder which goes off with a ‘big bang’ and creates a supernova! Needless to say, Who and company make good their escape a nano-second before this tumultuous event. | What is fascinating here is how, after a lapse of nearly two hundred years all the old associations reappear – the presence of immortals (Time Lords), conflict (on a cosmic scale), death (Omega’s), symbolic rebirth (Who and company escape the black hole), and miraculous events (the creation of a supernova). It is my sad duty to report that Who’s brief tootle on the recorder can only be described as deplorable and that nothing he says or does gives any inkling that he is aware that the instrument is of serious musical intent. Novelisation by Terrance Dicks (1975). | Howe et al. (1994) Howe & Waler (1996) Pixley, A. (1998) | |
| 1980 | Arthur, For the Very First Time. Harper Trophy, New York. | Patricia MacLachlan (1938-) | Ten-year old Arthur Rasby moves in with his great uncle and aunt during the summer because his pregnant mother is irritated by his presence. Angry at his parents and initially uncomfortable with his eccentric relatives, Arthur is elated when he discovers a recorder in travelling merchant Yoyo Pratt’s donkey cart full of trinkets. There was something Arthur wanted. The minute he had seen the long canvas case he had known what was inside. His mother had a recorder, a wooden one, that she kept in such a case. once she’d let him play it, showing him how to tinger some of the notes. He remembered the mellow, sad notes that had made the hair on his neck rise when his mother had played. He also remembered the rasping squawks when he had played. Arthur bargains successfully with Yoyo for the recorder. There was cold beet soup for supper with a hot dish of cut-up greens that Arthur suspected were dandelions. But he didn’t care. He had his recorder. After supper: Arthur practiced the recorder all evening, sitting cross-legged on his bed. His joyfulness is ended when his favourite chicken disappears after following him into a neighbour’s house where he shows off his new instrument. Arthur blames his recorder and rejects it: ‘It was my dumb recorder’, said Arthur tearfully. He sat up suddenly. ‘All I could think about was that recorder and playing it And showing Moira I could do something.’ Arthur decides he must sacrifice his recorder to save his chicken, and after dashing upstairs: Arthur appeared with his recorder. He ran into the kitchen, opening the devil’s end of the stove. Aunt Elda stops Arthur, shouting at him: Here’s the hatchet. Go chop the recorder into pieces so it will burn better. That will be more likely to bring Pauline [the chicken] back home. Feeling foolish, Arthur runs to his room, opens the window and throws his recorder out. He immediately feels better, and his chicken soon reappears. | A rather peculiar childrens story. Doubtless the ancient association of the recorder with a bird (albeit a chicken) and with a miraculous event of sorts (the chicken’s re-appearance) is of profound significance here. MacLachlan is an American children’s writer. | ||
| 1980 | My Music. Penguin, Harmondsworth. | Steve Race (1921-2009) | Q. What is the basic difference between playing the flute and playing the recorder? A. If you are standing with your right shoulder up against a wall, you can play the recorder, but you can’t play the flute. | Race was a British composer, pianist and radio and television presenter, well-known for hosting the BBC’s My Word on Radio 4. | ||
| 1980 | The Girl in a Swing, Ch. 22. Allen Lane (Penguin), London; Knopf, New York | Richard Adams (1920-) | ‘Well, just do what you can, Mrs Taswell, and finish the rest to-morrow. That’ll be quite all right.’ ‘Well, you remember you did very kindly say I could have to-morrow off, Mr Desland. I saw in the paper that someone in Reading is offering a set of recorders at a very reasonable price. I’ve been thinking for some time of learning to play the recorder. My niece plays the treble recorder, of course, but she’s in London and in any case I think I heard that that’s not in the same key as the one they call the descant recorder –’ | Set in the Berkshire countryside of the 1970s, this story revolves around a passionate love-affair, threathened by intimations of a frightening supernatural dimension which mount in tension to a terrible and horrifying climax. | ||
| 1981 | Musical Bumps. Dent, London. | Antony Miall | One of the earliest instruments available to the aspiring musician … was undoubtedly some kind of whistle or flute. Throughout the Middle Ages these were made and played with monotonous regularity. In every conceivable size, there were transverse flutes, played by blowing across, and fipple flutes, played by blowing down, all existing side by side in complete harmony. Fashion, however, dealt the fipple flute a deadly blow in the eighteenth century. For some unknown reason sticking one end of your flute in your mouth began to be thought of as indelicate and the recorder had to wait until the invention of primary schools before it regained anything approaching its former popularity. | |||
| 1982 | Unsuitable Attachment, Ch. 7. Macmillan. | Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (1913-1980). | The limpid notes of a recorder playing Brother James’s Air. | Penelope hears Jocasta playing Brother James’ Air. It may or may not have had a calming effect on her collapsing beehive hairdo! | ||
| 1982 | One More River. Merrow Jr. Books, New York. | Lynne Reid Banks (1929-) | The main thing that kept her going was music … Music was a big thing here. A lot of the kids played in the youth orchestra. The music teacher asked her if she’d like to learn the recorder. At first she refused. She just didn’t have the confidence. But Shula said, ‘Music is good, recorder is easy. Why you don’t try?’ So without much hope, Lesley tried … She found she liked it. It gave her comfort. When she couldn’t talk to anyone, she could always practice. And when, after a few weeks, Ofer said, ‘You play good’, it was balm to her soul. | A children’s story which chronicles Lesley Shelby’s move from Canada to an Israeli kibbutz in 1966 where a recorder comforts her in a Middle Eastern war zone. Banks is a British author of books for children and adults. | ||
| 1983 | Working Trot. Greenwillow, New York. | Jessie Haas | James began to see. He had to learn the foundations, not only as exercises but also as art. It was the art of line drawing, of recorder music – purity, simplicity, concentration which approached Zen. | A children’s book concerning the equestrian sport of dressage rather than music. The main character, James McLiesh, yearns to train horses as a career and realises (via a sequence of mixed metaphors) that dressage is something of an art. Haas is an American author of horse books for all ages; historical novels; contemporary novels; nonfiction; poetry; and history for adults. did I mention that many of her books concern horses? Her web-site is here. | ||
| 1984 | The Stone Silenus. Philomel Books, New York. | Jane Yolen (1939-) | Panpipes indeed. It was just her sister Melanie playing the recorder … [Melanie] put her lips to the recorder again and began to blow … [Melissa] knew she had to be thankful. The year before, Mel had played the ukulele. Mel had tried everything and stuck to nothing except her passion for movies. | A children’s story in which fifteen year old Melissa Stanhold mourns her deceased poet father who was famous for his faun imagery. Dreaming of panpipes that help her cope, she is disappointed upon awakening to learn it is just her sister playing the recorder. Yolen is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children’s books. She is the author or editor of more than 280 books, of which the best known is The Devil’s Arithmetic, a Holocaust novella. | ||
| 1985 | Maggie, Too. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. | Joan Lowery Nixon (1927-2003) | A chldren’s story in which Margaret, the main character, is not enchanted with recorders, barely tolerant when … a sharp, piercing noise came from the living room where her cousins … Debbie and Jason [were] sitting upright in front of their mother with small, wooden recorders in their mouths. … Since they were only hitting half the notes, Margaret didn’t want to hear any more. Margaret’s cousins are exuberant about their instruments: ‘We’re going to play our recorders!’ Jason yelled. Later, when Jason throws a temper tantrum, his grandmother reprimands: ‘I can’t hear you playing your recorder if you’re going to keep crying.’ Although the chldren tootled carefully spaced notes that sounded vaguely like ‘All Around the Mulberry Bush,’ … There was a pleased smile on Grandma’s face, the kind of smile that meant she’d rather be listening to this wobbly concert that doing anything else in the world. But Margaret only hears noise and enters her grandmother in a raffle trip for a trip to Cancun, thinking that she can escape from her noisy house. | Nixon was an American journalist and author, specializing in historical fiction and mysteries for children and young adults. | ||
| 1988 | The Man Who Became a Soprano. The New Yorker, 26 December: 28-35. Reprinted in The Afterlife and Other Stories by John Updike, Knopf (1994) & Fawcett Crest, New York (1995). | John Hoyer Updike (1932-2009) | Fritz told him, ‘The recorder is the easiest instrument in the world, next to the triangle and the tambourine. And I suppose the marracas.’ There was a German pedantry to Fritz. | The story awards the recorder an honoured place in late twentieth-century life … Updike paints a serious picture of the birth and subsequent death of a recorder group among middle-class Americans somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard; and typically for him, it is about marriage relationships and broken loyalties … The story continues the recorder’s association with love and facility – even, very obliquely, with death – but it is also a beautifully sensitive, humorous, and above all, loving picture of an activity which the secretary of a local orchestra in Norwich recently informed me disdainfully was ‘very much on the margin’ of the world of music (Ron Skins 1996). The Man Who Became a Soprano, welcome for its relatively offbeat character, shows a weekly recorder group trying to remain intact in spite of innumerable inner conflicts. The only way anybody can enjoy the transitory beauty of the music is if they are permitted to change instruments occasionally or change who they stand next to, and so on. Thus, the group karma continually vascillates between harmony and discord. When the permutations are all exhausted, the group, of course, dissolves in a flurry of bad feeling. The story is not just a lesson in group dynamics: it convincingly illustrates the delicate diet demanded by our psyches. Note that the ‘soprano’ in question refers to the descant recorder. The alternative is too painful to contemplate! American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic John Updike is considered one of the greatest American fiction writers of his generation. Both he and his wife were members of a recorder consort. | Tidings: Passing Notes. American Recorder 50: 8 (2009). | |
| 1991 | Song of the Gargoyle. Snyder, Dell Publishing, New York. | Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1927-) | Thirteen-year old Tymmon’s father, the court jester of Austerneve, has been kidnapped. Tymmon hides in the forest where a dog-like gargoyle adopts him. Forced into town for food and shelter, Tymmon relies on a flute, beautifully carved of dark satiny wood that his father gave him when was four years old. Playing folk tunes on the flute, which seems to be a recorder, for noble audiences, Tymmon earns enough money to support himself. His sweet but sad melodies soothe him when he attempts to rescue his father and learns his true identity and the tragic fate of his mother. Although he has the option of abandoning his recorder, Tymmon protects it not only as the source of his income but also for the voice it gives him. | A story for chldren. The cover illustration shows the protagonist playing a recorder. Snyder is an American author of books for children and young adults. | ||
| 1991 | Reluctantly Alice. Atheneum, New York. | Phillis Reynolds Naylor (1933) | I woke up one morning remembering that while we had General Music, we didn’t have to sing unless we wanted to. We could play a tune on a recorder instead. | A children’s book which revels the irony of tone-deaf Alice coping with her musical family, including her father who manages a music store. Acknowledging that she sings out of tune, self-conscious Alice remembers that there is an alternative. Naylor is an American writer of children’s and young-adult fiction. Naylor is best known for her children’s-novel trilogy Shiloh and for her “Alice” book series | ||
| 1954 | Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, London. | Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) | They went in through the hall and up the stairs. The ocarina-like notes of a recorder playing a meagre air were distantly audible; perhaps Welch had breakfasted in his room. Dixon found, with a pang of relief, that he could open the bathroom door. | Lucky Jim is an early example of the Campus novel. | ||
| 1995 | CBC Radio (USA), Music Presenter. | You know you’re listening to a recorder if it sounds like a piece of wood with a hole in it. | Marvin (1995) | |||
| 1994 | 1995 | L’isola del giorno prima / The Island of the Day Before, Chapter 20: Wit and the Art of Ingenuity: 231-233. BCA, London. Translated from the Italian by Wiliam Weaver. | Umberto Eco (1932-2016) | It was early morning, and Roberto again was dreaming. He dreamed of Holland. It was while the Cardinal’s men were conducting him to Amsterdam to put him on the Amaryllis. During the journey they stopped at a city, and he entered the cathedral. he was impressed by the cleanliness of the naves, so different from those ot Italian and French churches. Bare of decorations, only a few standards hanging from the naked columns, the glass windows plain and without images: the sun created there a milky atmosphere dotted only by the few black forms of the worshippers below. In that peace a single sound was heard, a sad melody that seemed to wander through the ivory air, born from the capitals or the keystones. Then he noticed in one chapel, in the ambulatory of the choir, a man in black, alone in one corner playing a little recorder, his eyes staring into the void. When the musician finished, Roberto went over to him, wondering if he should give him something; not looking into Roberto’s face, the man thanked him for his praise, and Roberto realized he was blind. He was the master of the bells (der Musicyn en Directeur van de Klokwerken, le carillonneur, der Glockenspieler, he tried to explain), but it was also part of his job to delight with the sound of his flute the faithful who lingered at evening in the yard and the cemetery beside the church. he knew many melodies, and on each he developed two, three, sometimes even five variations of increasing complexity, nor was it necessary for him to read notes: born blind, he could move in that handsome luminous space (yes, he said luminous) of his church, seeing, as he said, the sun with his skin. He explained how his instrument was so much a living thing, that it reacted to the seasons, and to the temperature of morning and sunset, but in the church there was always a sort of diffuse warmth that guaranteed the wood a steady perfection – and Roberto reflected on the notion of diffuse warmth a man of the north might have, for he himself was growing cold in this clarity. The musician played for him the first melody twice more, and said it was entitled Doen Daphen d’over schoone Maeght. He refused any offering, touched Roberto’s face and said, or at least Roberto understood him to say, that Daphne was something sweet, which would accompany Roberto all of his life. Now, on the Daphne [a sailing ship], Roberto opened his eyes, and without doubt heard coming from below, through the fissures in the wood, | The recorder player Eco describes is, of course, Jacob van Eyck. Eco, too, is a keen amateur recorder, to judge from the clip of his playing in Signs and Wonders, a film documentary about his work. Eco is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1980 historical mystery novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. | |
| 1995 | Arianna, Op. 58 | Alexander Goehr (1932-) | The opera Arianna is set to the libretto (in Italian), by Ottavio Rinuccini, used by Claudio Monteverdi in his 1608 opera, L’Arianna, all of which survives is Arianna’s Lament. In Goehr’s score two recorders are used to great effect as an integral part of the accompanying orchestra. Goehr is a German-born English composer and academic. | |||
| 1996 | The Island in the Mind. Chapter 1, Terra Incognita: 141-142; 198. Macmillan, Sydney. | Rodney Hall (1935-) | An orchestra rehearses for a performance of an opera to be performed before Louis XIV (pp. 141-142): The orchestra played a vigorous march which they were required to begin several times until their entry was exact enough, then a charming suite of hunting pieces on oboes and bassoons. I took no notice of the architect’s nearness. Instead, I consulted our notes taken at the last meeting. So I knew that the long sigh of the gambas and great basses signified sunset. A recorder consort had barely announced the gentle rocking rhythms of a siciliano when the most terryifying thing occurred – out from behind the completed side of the arch loomed a huge ghostly shape. Like a living monster big enough to consume us all, it writhed voicelessly, but with curious clicks and creakings. So tremendous was the effect, an effect evidently to be read in Monsieur Scarron’s face, the players faltered. Alarmed, they twisted round in their seats to look behind them, one lad dropping his recorder in fright. He blushed as he retrieved the instrument and checked that it had not cracked. Later the performance itself is described (pp. 198): Next came that moment of terror, fresher than before because the dimness made it huger and eerier, when from one side the first immense billow loomed and writhed with ghostly effect, drifting across stage and rolling there. The audience fetched a gasp of disbelief. Someone among us supressed sobs. A horned shape appeared among the folds of cloud, a creature with body swaddled in garments somewhat between a corpse’s bandages and a wedding gown: a woman in certain respects and a stag in others. the mixture of this creature’s parts was as strange as those curiosities in the Cabinet of Art, diverse forms yet all one whole. This was not the singer I had heard at rehearsal. This Beast stood silent, gazing at the men asleep on her shore. Then she tilted her head and turned it our way a little. My heart stopped. Marie. Marie — her deathly white face simplified. (With second shock I imagined what her appearance must suggest to His Majesty.) Recorder music, haunted by its history of funerals and the supernatural, hooted and piped. Then the cold wrapped her round, wafting her off so she swept away without the least effort of movement. Gone. She had given no sign. And sung no note. The curtains closed. | A novel full of adventure and speculation that was the 17th century, a time when all Europe was fascinated with the notion of discovering a great southern land. Not unexpectedly, there are several references to recorders – the author is himself a recorder player. Nor is it strange that he is familiar with their symbolism, for Hall is the author of a biography of John Manifold whose The Music in English Drama from Shakespeare to Purcell (1956) remains amongst the most interesting treatments of this topic to date. | ||
| 1997 | Patsy’s Discovery. Pocket Books, New York. | Elizabeth Massie | Patsy Black assists her parents in running their tavern. Patsy helps prepare for the weekly dances where: … a small ensemble of musicians, usually a harpsichord, a violin, and a recorder, would play in one corner while the men and women danced. | A children’s book set during the American Revolutionary War; the first title in The Daughers of Liberty series. Massie is the author of horror novels and short fiction, including historical fiction for young adults as well as mainstream fiction, media tie-ins, and non-fiction for American History textbooks and educational readers. | ||
| 1997 | Got those flute douce blues! | Raymond Dessy | I’ve got a flute douce full of music, And a mouth full of moans; My fingers want to frolic, But I’m all alone. I’m an alto player, And my flutes all hot; Lookin’ for that one song, Lord, that is all I’ve got. Oh Mama, It’s just a little stick of wood. Mama, Just a lot of bitty holes and wood. But, Mama, it’ll let my soul leak out if it could. Woke up this mornin’ with a sound in my head. Woke up to new sounds, rattlin round in my head. Singin’ of things, things that were long, long dead. Gotta bend those notes both up and down, Need to move their time around and ’round, Cause that’s where the blues are found. | Dessy is an American research chemist and Prof. Emeritus at Virginia Tech. College of Science. | ||
| 1997 | Limerick. | Sue Roessel Dura | Some folks are addicted to pot A chemical high is their lot But the recorder so sweet Sweeps me off my feet I’m hooked and refrain I cannot. | |||
| 1998 | The Last Deception of Palliser Wentwood. Jonathan Cape, London. Chapter 9. | Imogen de la Bere | A novel in which the action flits between Hertfordshire in England and Kaikoura on the NE coast of New Zealand’s South Island. A Christmas party given by the Lovelaces of Thule Hall (Hertfordshire) includes music by the Thule Early Music Group featuring a performance of Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin on the treble (alto) recorder by Fr Jocelyn Startup. Imogen de la Bere is a novelist who divides her time between England and New Zealand. | |||
| Kaatskill Life. | Medieval and Appalachian music for voices, recorder, … banjo and mandolin. | |||||
| 1986 | Anime: Dream Hunter Rem, OVA 3. | An animated Magical Girl movie. Ayanokoji Rem is a very unusual young lady. Despite her youthful appearance, she is a full-fledged private investigator. Due to some very unusual abilities, her particular specialty is to investigate dream-related manifestations of the spirit world. Rem has the unique ability to enter other people’s dreams. In the dream state, she acts as a Dream Guardian, defending peoples’ dreams from evil powers that lurk in the spirit realm. In addition, she has two mascots that act as her partners: a small cat & dog named Alpha & Beta. They also have special powers, and can become giant-sized, tearing apart most spirits, as well as defending Rem. In the normal world, Rem uses a .44 Magnum with VERY special bullets, and a souped-up car with back-seat & side-door rocket launchers to defeat evil spirits that cross over from the dream world to our world. In OVA 3, Rem is able to break the possession of a magistrate by playing a recorder. The recorder was from her ancestor, who was also a Dream Guardian. Rem’s ancestor played the recorder and impressed the magistrate so much, he married her. When Rem played it, the magistrate remembered who he was, and passed on to the next realm. | Thomas, M. (2001). Symbolism Used in Animae: Music, Symbolism and Dance. http://www.three-musketeers.net/mike/music.html | |||
| 2001 | Recorder Jody Call | Raymond & Lee Dessy | Your recorder was great when you left, You’re right, Your timbre was hot when you left, You’re right, Your volume was high when you left, You’re right, Your whistle was wet when you left, You’re right, But now there’s nothing left, You’re right, So Sound-Off, One, two; Sound-Off, Three, four One-two – Three-four. | Jody calls, or simply jodies, as those little songs soldiers often sing as they march … are about as basic to soldiering as rifles and shower shoes. See Miles (1995). Ray Dessy is an American research chemist and Prof. Emeritus at Virginia Tech. College of Science. | Dessy, R. & L. (2001). Sound-Off: Recorder Mikes: What Sounds Good, Is Good! http://www.iinet.net.au/~nickl/mikes.pdf Miles, D. (1995). Jodies: Songs on the move. Soldiers Magazine: June 1995. http://users.erols.com/loriryan/history.html | |
| 1688 | The Academie of Armorie | Randle Holme III (1627–1700) | Flute: It is made of three peeces made to goe in one another: the mouth part is made after the maner of the flagilet mentioned (above) having a mouth, a plug, and a throat in the first peece; the middle peece hath 6 holes in the uper side, and One under; the bottome peece hath a hole in the lower side of the garnish or Bosse where it receives the midle peece into it. It is played with other wind musick by stopping and opening the holes with the finger ends according to the musical notes described in wind musick. | Holme printed parts 1 and 2 and some of book 3 at his house in 1688 but the venture proved too expensive to complete. The rest of book 3 and book 4 were published in 1905 by the Roxburghe Club. Book 1 relates completely to heraldry and the other books form a kind of encyclopaedia. Much of The Academie of Armorie was made available in 2000 on a CD produced by the British Library entitled Living and Working in Seventeenth Century England: an Encyclopedia of Drawings and Descriptions from Randle Holme’s Original Manuscripts for The Academy of Armory’ (1688). Holme’s description seems confused, combining the six finger-holes of the flageolet and the thumb-hole of the recorder. | Halfpenny (1952). | |
| <1952 | American Magazine | The recorder is a common instrument, of small sorority. | Halfpenny (1952). | |||
| <1953 | American Catalogue | Sole Agents for . . . . . . Recorders. Finest woods! Finest tone quality! English or Swiss fingering. | Halfpenny (1953). | |||
| ca 1628 | Vincenzo Guistiniani (1564-1637) | People used to entertain themselves with a consort of viols or recorders, but the practice has now fallen into disuse, because it is difficult to keep the instruments constantly in tune – unless you tune them frequently they become quite useless – and hard to get enough people together to form a consort. Experience has taught us that, because all the instruments sounded alike, such an entertainment most often led to boredom, and succeeded rather in inducing sleep than as a pastime for a hot afternoon. | Translated by Nigel Fortune, Galpin Society 5. (before 1953). Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled at Palazzo Giustiniani, close by the Pantheon, Rome, and at the family palazzo at Bassano by Vincenzo and his brother, Cardinal Benedetto,and for his patronage of the artist Caravaggio. | Halfpenny (1953). | ||
| 1953 | St Cecilia | Eric Halfpenny (1906-1979) | At the hautoby, no doubt, I’m the ace, But it keeps getting caught in my lace, So, as Mr Purcell Can’t get to rehearsal – I’ll bring the Bass Flute – just in case. | Halfpenny was a banker was one of the founders of the Galpin Society. He played a wide range of instruments including double bass, recorder, bassoon, trumpet and even the serpent. | Halfpenny (1953). | |
| 1953 | Esurientes | Eric Halfpenny (1906-1979) | There’s no doubt the Traversa’s the quietest, Quoth the eminent Lutheran Pietist, Let’s keep the recorders To scare off marauders Or sound the alarm in a fire test. | Halfpenny was a banker was one of the founders of the Galpin Society. He played a wide range of instruments including double bass, recorder, bassoon, trumpet and even the serpent. | Halfpenny (1953). | |
| 1955 | An account of Peter Brook’s music for his Stratford production of Titus Andronicus. | Evening Standard, 24 August 1955. | For the play’s funereal moments, he stamped rhythmically on the sustaining pedal of his Strohmenger to make all the piano strings shudder and moan at once. Monstrously amplified and deepened, the Brook Stomp, as I suppose we must call it, accompanies a death-march tune (Three notes only – very like Three Blind Mice) on recorders which have been so contorted and slow-recorded that they sound 20 feet long and as breathy as blast furnaces. | Recorder News, New Series 13: 8-9 (1955). | ||
| 1955 | The Times Crossword Puzzle, No. 7921. | Instruments for reproducing soprano songs? (6,9) | Surely this could only be a voice flute or tenor recorder in d’. | Recorder News, New Series 13: 8-9 (1955). | ||
| 1955 | Whatever you hear I’ll marry Marlon Brando. Daily Express, 26 April 1955. | Josanne Mariani (1933-) | Just to play back one spool of the recording machine was like a thumbnail sketch of Marlon. It might start with a bit of medieval music and Marlon accompanying it on his recorder. Then John Barrymore reciting Shakespeare and Marlon’s version of the same. Then Marlon impersonating an iceman or a television repairman before the tape blared forth mambo music, with Marlon on the bongos. | In 1954, 19-year-old artist’s model Josanne Mariani-Bérenger, the daughter of a French fisherman, was the fiancée of Marlon Brando, albeit briefly. Later, she found work modeling lingerie, as a pin-up girl, and as an actress in TV plays and films. | Recorder Magazine, New Series 13: 10 (1955). | |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries. Century III., 159 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 159. Soft bodies damp sound much more than hard ones. Thus, if a bell be wrapped round with cloth or silk, it deadens the sound more than if the bell were surrounded with wood. Trial was made in a Recorder and varied in several ways: the bottom of it was stopped (1) with wax; (2) set against the palm of the hand; (3) against a damask cushion; (4) placed in sand; (5) placed in ashes; and, (6) set half-an-inch deep in water, close to the bottom of a silver bason, and still the tone remained; but when the bottom of it was set against (1) a woollen carpet; (2) a plush lining; (3) a lock of wool, though loose; and, (4) against snow; the sound of it was quite deadened, and no more than a breath. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 195). | e-Text here Holmes (1966) |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries.. Century III, 161 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 161. Let a Recorder be made with two fipples, at each end one; the trunk as long as two Recorders, and the holes answerable towards each end: let two persons play the same lesson upon it in unison; and observe whether the sound be confounded, or augmented, or deadened. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733; 196). | e-Text here Holmes (1966) |
| 1595 | Endimion and Phœbe. | Michael Drayton (1563-1631). | Out of this soyle sweet bubbling Fountains crept, As though for ioy the sencelesse stones had wept; With straying channels dauncing sundry wayes, With often turnes, like to a curious Maze: Which breaking forth, the tender grasse bedewed Whose siluer sand with orient Pearle was strewed, Shadowed with Roses and sweet Eglantine, Dipping theyr sprayes into this christalline: From which the byrds the purple berries pruned, And to theyr loues their small recorders tuned. The Nightingale, woods Herauld of the Spring, The whistling Woosell, Mauis carroling, Tuning theyr trebbles to the waters fall, Which made the musicque more angelicall: | This same passage appears again in Drayton’s The Poly-Oblion (1612-1613). | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 102-103) | |
| 2002 | On receiving the Prins Bernhard Cultuur Fonds Music Prize, Niewe Kerke, Amsterdam, 31 October 2002. | Walter van Hauwe (1948-) | I still can’t imagine a father who is happy when his daughter comes home with a recorder player … | Hauwe, a student of Frans Brüggen, is a well-known Dutch recorder player and teacher. In 2002 he received the prestigious Dutch Prins Bernard Music Award for his complete oeuvre. | Wind, Thiemo (2002: 165) | |
| 2003 | Flûtes à bec, American Recorder 44 (1): 21 (2003). | Emilie George | Discovered in a Neolithic burial site in Jiahu, Henan province, China, flutes made of wing bones of the red-crowned crane – six found intact, fragments of thirty others. – American Recorder, Nov. 1999 Opening a tomb, when archaeologists release the captured moth-breath of centuries, feel its rise toward a new light, do they want to net this artifact of resurrection, be uplifited with it? The dig at Jiahu revealed a flute at the shoulder in each grave – amphoras of brath. Some spaces are hallowed as a human skull’s kiva, apertures echoed in tone-holes carved in wing bones of the red-crowned crane. Musician Taoyng Xu played a song on one – its voice heard again after 9,000 years, arcing the immensity that cannot be possessed, but was caressed – flutes piped for ritual dance and chant in celebration or mourning, their melismas of awe. Red-crowned cranes ascend to three miles flying the Himalayas from Siberiat to Southeast Asia, heads branded by the sun, leave a white and black wake, day and night enmeshed in their barbed feathers. At dawn, pairs trumpet in Gabrielian response – antiphonal aubades! One starts to dance, the flock joins in, scarlet heads bobbing, bodies deep bowing, leaping fifteen feet in the air – passamezzi, saltarelli of joy! Across the room, hollowed from hearts of trees, the grove of my recorders asembled on a rack: sopranino’s bubinga wood sounds thin as the Indian-pipe plant it resembles; soprano’s sweet, high song sleeps in a boxwood glow; tulip wood alto’s authoritative voice ready to flow through the veined grain, Ganassi tenor’s dark-stained maple with its large-throated call, pear wood bass’ probing soft tone. Perched on the precipice of breath wait to ride harmonic thermals. They stand straight as cranes on one leg beaks pointing upward. | Excavations at the early Neolithic site of Jiahu in the Henan Province, China, have produced six complete vertical flutes made from the ulnae of the red-crowned crane which, curiously, have variously 5, 6, 7 and 8 holes. On one of these 9,000-year-old flutes which has holes for 7 fingers, that for the lowermost finger is doubled with a very small vent immediately above the main hole. Indeed the latter instrument can actually be sounded and thus represents the world’s oldest playable musical instrument. Note. These are all end-blown flutes rather than duct-flutes. For a photograph and sound files, click here. | Castellano,Michèle (2000) Fountain, Henry (1999) Zhang et al. (1999) | |
| 1801 | The Complaynt of Scotland: Written in 1548. With a Preliminary Dissertation and Glossary. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and sold by Mess. T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, London. Pp. 156-158. | John Leyden | The Recordar was a small species of flute or rather flageolet, and has always been a favourite instrument of the Scotish shepherds In Cockelbys Sow, the “floyt” is the appropriate instrument of the shepherds, as is the pipe of “borit bourtre” is that of the “nolt hirdis.” The Recordar was sometiems made of the elderbough, and denominated Sambuca. “Sambuca,” says Trevisa in his translation of Bartholomaeus de Proprietat. Rerum, “is the ellerne tree brotyll, andthe bowes thereof ben holowe and voyde and smothe, and those same bowes ben pipes made and also some maner symphony.” The Recordar is mentioned in the description of a concert in an ancient metrical romance When silence beine of wind and minstrellie, And burd beine servit by and by, The luitis beine sayit and stringis, The squyeris dansing alway in the springis; The harpis beine sayit a the full, To make hartis mirrie tha war dull; The Guthtrone. with triumph did record; The cleare symball with the mirrie cord; The Dulcat playit also with portatiue, Sad hevie myndis to make exultatiue. The dulse base fiddell with the recordour, Assayit war, and set at ane missoure; Out of Irland there was ane clerscheo. … .. According to Hall, the Recordar was one of the favourite instruments of Henry VIII. | Leyden does not give the source of the “ancient metrical romance” but his quote is from John Irving’s transcription of the early sixteenth-century metrical romance Clariodus. | e-Text here Leyden (1801) | |
| 1776 | A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, ch. CLIII | Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) | And to come nearer to our own times, it may be remembered by many now living, that a flute was the pocket companion of many who wished to be thought fine gentlemen. The use of it was to entertain ladies, and such as had a liking for no better music than a song-tune, or such little airs as were then composed for that instrument; and he that could play a solo of Schickhard of Hamburg, or Robert Valentine of Rome, was held a complete master of the instrument. A description of the mutual compliments that attended a request to one of these accomplished gentlemen to perform, or a recital of the forms of entreaty or excuse, with a relation of the apologies, the bows, the congees that passed upon such an occasion, might furnish matter for a diverting scene in a comedy … | At this time ‘flute’ referred to the recorder rather than the transverse flute. Hawkins was an English author and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and Horace Walpole. | e-Text here | |
| 1776 | A General History of the Science and Practice of Music | Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) | The only thing that can sound worse than a flute is two flutes. | At this time ‘flute’ referred to the recorder rather than the transverse flute. Hawkins was an English author and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and Horace Walpole. | e-Text here | |
| >1680 | Les Plaisirs de Versailles (H480) | Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645-1704). | The story, such as it is, concerns an argument between La Musique and La Conversation as to which is more important in social life, appealing finally to Comus who happily resolves the matter. The final chorus describes how well they entertain Le plus charmant des rois: Grand roi tout couvert de lauriers Si pour te déclasser de tes travaux guerriers, Nos flûtes et nos voix te semblent impuissantes, Prend nos désirs pour des effets Et puissent sans tarder les armes florissants, Malgré les têtes renassantes De cette hydre opposée au bonheur de la paix Remplir les généreux souhaits. | The librettist may have been Charpentier himself. The flûtes here refer to the recorders in the score which range from petite to basse. | e-Text (with score) here Les Arts Florissants [William Christie], Erato CD 0630-14774-2 (1996). | |
| 1943 | Film: Destination Tokyo. | Delmer Daves, Director (1943); based on a story by Steve Fisher (1912-1980) | Stars Cary Grant as a submarine captain on a secret mission to penetrate Tokyo Bay in support of Jimmy Dolittle’s famous raid, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The movie depicts all those American values held dear in the middle of the last century. In a scene near the film’s beginning, as the sailors are settling in to life on the boat, we are shown the high level of camaraderie and respect they share. One of the sailors is lying in his bunk, playing a musical instrument. And it’s not a trumpet or clarinet. Not a guitar nor a ukulele. No, it’s a Renaissance tenor recorder with fontanelle. Chided by one of his shipmates who exclaims, ‘… Cryin’ out loud, whatta you think you are, the pipes of Pan?’ The sailor retorts, ‘It’s a genuine Nazi flute. I paid an Atlantic sailor five bucks for it.’ His buddy retorts, ‘Five bucks? You can pick those things up in Frisco for four bits.’ | A propaganda film from WW II, starring Cary Grant. | Robbins (2003). | |
| 1549 | The Complaynt of Scotland | Robert Wedderburn (c.1510–c.1555-1560) | Thir scheiphirdis ande there vyuis [wifes] sang mony vthir molodi sangis the quhilkis i hef nocht in memorie, than eftir this sueit celest armonye tha began to dance in ane ring … Ther vas viij scheiphyrdis and ilk ane of them hed ane syndry instrament to play to the laif, the fyrst hed ane drone bag pipe, the nyxt hed ane pipe maid of ane bleddir and of ane reid, the thrid playit on ane trump, the feyrd on ane corn pipe, the fyft playit on ane pipe maid of ane gait horne, the sext playt on ane recordar the seuint plait on ane fiddil, and the last playt on ane quhissil … | Wedderburn wrote a number of sacred parodies on popular ballads; he succeeded his uncle, John Barry, as vicar of Dundee in 1546.The Complaynt of Scotland is a Scottish book printed in 1549 as propaganda during the war of the Rough Wooing against England, and is an important work of the Scots language. In it, Wedderburn recounts his meeting with a group of shepherds and their wives who seem to be in possession of a large repertoire of ballads. | e-Text here The Complaynt of Scotland by Robert Wedderburn, Dundee ca 1550. Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh 1979 Dauney (183): 131) | |
| 1717 | Pan and Syrinx: Scene 9th | Johann Ernst Galliard (1680-1749). | Pan: Surprising change! Must I the Charmer lose? Ah! Cruel Fate, thus to oppose my Love. Soft murmurs issue from the wonderous Reeds; The plaintive sound seem to condemn, The rashness of my Flame. Oh never cease, oh never cease, And Pan will join with you lost Syrinx to Lament. Yet shall her mem’ry live, and these fair Reeds To future times transmit her name and Praise. | Voice accompanied two alto recorders, strings, bass recorder & continuo. | Printable score here. | |
| 1717 | Pan and Syrinx: Scene 10th: Diana descends | Johann Ernst Galliard (1680-1749). | Pan: But see the Goddess comes; How shall I her resentment meet? Diana descends | Scored for two altos and a bass recorder, strings & continuo. | Printable score here. | |
| 1737 | Giustino, HWV 37: I, ii | George F. Handel (1685-1759) | Atto Prima, Scena II Campagna con alberi fruttiferi. Giustino con l’aratro. Aria di Giustino Può ben nascer tra li boschi Nobil alma, e regio core. Dà il natale la Fortuna Sol ‘l ciel dona il valore. E’ felice chi nell’alma Prova lieto il bell’ardore. Può ben nasce, etc. Recitativo Giustino Ah! Perché non poss’io Cangiar l’Aratro in un guerrier u sbergo! Poiché sento nel core Un glorioso e marziale ardore. Ma già un dolce Morfeo Mi chiama a riposar. Franger le Glebe Questa per me è sol l’arte. Seguir Cerere io devo, e non già Marte. Si addormenta sull’aratro Aria di Giustino Bel ristoro dei mort ali Su quest’occhi spiega l’ali Dolce sonno vieni a me | Scored for oboe and alto & tenor recorders & viola or bass recorder. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Charles VI’s court poet Pietro Pariati’s libretto for ?Scarlatti’s Giustino (1711), after the much older original libretto of Nicolò Beregan (1682). | e-Text (score) here e-Text (libretto) here | |
| 1735 | Alcina, HWV 34, Act III, divertissement: ‘Tambourin’ | George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) | CORO Dall’orror di notte cieca, chi ne reca colla vita la smarrita libertà? Io fui belva… Io sasso… Io fronda… Io qui sciolto erravo in onda… Chi ne ha resa umana voglia? Chi ne spoglia la già appresa ferità? BALLO CORO Dopo tante amare pene già proviam conforto all’alma; ogni mal si cangia in bene, ed alfin trionfa amor. Fortunato è questo giorno, che ne rese bella calma; dell’inganno e insidie a scorno già festeggia il nostro cor. | Scored for flauto piccolo (soprano recorder), violins, viola and continuo. This joyous dance seems entirely appropriate to conclude an opera where the perverted moral world of a dangerously seductive sorceress (Alcina) is overturned. | e-Text (score) here e-Text (libretto) here | |
| 1542 | Westminster: Inventory of goods of Henry VIII. | Item sixe cases with Flutes and in every case iiij flutes. [marginal note: Ex’ one case wth iiij flutes in it and j small; flute taken out of an’ other of the said cases fo. 71. to thuse of my lorde protector his grace Anno primo Res Ed sexti And the rest to the said phip’ vanwilder ut supra] Item oone other case furnisshid with xv flutes in hit. Item oone other case with x flutes in it. Item oone case with vij flutes in it. Item fyve flutes of Ivery tipped with golde enna-muled blac with a case of purple vellat ganisshid at both thendes with silver and gilt. Item foure flutes of Ivery tipped with Golde in a case coveryd with grene vellat. …. [in the right margin each succeeding group of instruments without notations concerning missing instruments is marked off: Ex’ to the said phip’ vanwylder ut supra.] … Item fyve [crossed out and replaced by: sixe] Recorders of Ivery in a case of blac vellat. Item oone great base recorder of wodd in a case of wodd. Item four recorders of walnuttre in a case couered with blac vellat. Item nyne Recorders of wodde in a case wodde. Item oone case with vj recorders of boxe in hit. Item oone other case with vij Recorders of walnuttre in hit. [marginal note: Ex’ the said cace wth vij Recorders fo. 27 to the kes mates owne vse Anno xxxiijto Res h. viijui] Item sixtene Recorders great and smale in two cases coveryd with blac lether lyned with cloth [marginal note: Ex’ one case wth viij Recorders in it fo. 71 to the L protector A jmo Res E vjti And therest to phipp van wilder ut supra] Item two base Recorders of walnuttre oone of them tippid with Silver. Item foure Recorders made of oken bowes. Item oone pipe for a Taber in a case of blac lether. | [Item, six cases with flutes and in every case four flutes.* (Marginal note: one case with four flutes in it and one small flute taken out of another of the said cases, f. 71, to the use of My Lord Protector His Grace, 1 Edward VI. And the rest to the said Phillip Van Wilder ut supra.) Item, one other case furnished with fifteen flutes in it. Item, one other case with ten flutes in it. Item, one case with seven flutes in it. Item, five flutes of ivory tipped with gold enameled black with a case of purple velvet garnished at both the ends with silver and gilt. Item, four flutes of ivory tipped with gold in a case covered with green velvet. . . . Item, six recorders of ivory in a case of black velvet. Item, one great bass recorder of wood in a case of wood. Item, four recorders of walnut in a case covered with black velvet. Item, nine recorders of wood in a case (of) wood. Item, one case with six recorders of box in it. Item, one other case with seven recorders of walnut in it.* (Marginal note: the said case with seven recorders, f. 27, to his King’s Majesty’s own use, 34 Henry VIII.) Item, sixteen recorders great and small in two cases covered with black leather lined with cloth.* (Marginal note: one case with eight recorders in it, f. 71, to the Lord Protector, 1 Edward VI, and the rest to Phillip Van Wilder ut supra.) Item, two bass recorders of walnut, one of them tipped with silver. Item, four recorders made of oaken bows. Item, one pipe for a tabor in a case of black leather.] | Ashbee (1993: 387-388). Lasocki (2005, A listing: 436-437. Pearsall (1986: 271-273). | ||
| 1721 | The Young Ladies Conduct: Or, Rules for Education, under Several Heads; with Instructions upon Dress, Both before and after Marriage, and Advice to Young Wives. John Brotherton, London. Pp. 84-85. | John Essex (c.1680-1744) | The Harpsichord, Spinet, Lute and Base Violin, are Instruments most agreeable to the Ladies: There are some others that really are unbecoming the Fair Sex: as the Flute, Violin and Hautboy; the last of which is too Manlike, and would look indecent in a Woman’s Mouth; and the Flute is very improper, as taking away too much of the Juices, which are otherwise more necessarily employ’d, to promote the Appetite, and assist Digestion. | Essex was an English dancer, choreographer and author who promoted the recording of dance steps through notation as well as performing in London theatre. It’s difficult to believe anybody could take such drivel seriously! Perhaps nobody ever did. | David Lasocki (2004, pers. comm.) | |
| 1786 | Epitaph, from Collected Works. | John Collier [Tim Bobbin, pseudonym] (1708-1786) | A yard beneath this heavy stone, Lies Jack-of-all-trades, good at none. A weaver first, and then school-master; A scrivener next; next poetaster. A painter, graver, and a fluter. And fame doth whisper, a C––r; An author, Carver , and hedge-clark: E whoo-woo-whoo, whot whofoo wark! He’s left um aw, to lie ith dark! | Tim Bobbin was a Lancashire dialect writer and village school master of Milnrow, near Rochdale. There, according to a memoir in an 1862 edition of his works, ‘at liesure hours he amused hmself by lessons in the art of drawing, and in playing upon the hautoby and English flute, and soon became such a proficient as to be qualified to instruct others in these amusing and ornamental arts’. In Tom Bobbin’s satirical proclamation (January 1767) dispensing charity to the poor, every gift is so hedged round with conditions that the final outlay is nil. It is signed with four symbols, namely a bird, an ant, a recorder and the monogram ‘LS’ in a circle and thus was probably directed at Robin Entwistle, member of a local land-owning family. The recorder leaves no doubt as to the identity of Bobbin’s ‘flute’. Tom Bobbin’s tombstone in Rochdale is inscribed with another epitaph (ie, not the above) which he is said to have written himself twenty minutes before he died. | Kenworthy (1965). | |
| 1444 | [Glasgow] … tribus de villa Glascinensis pulsatis cum fleutis et citara. | Bradley (1992: 435) Polk (2005: 26). | ||||
| 1501 | London, 5 March; Court. | Payment to Guilliam (van der Burgh), a member of the trombone (and shawm) consort: … for new recorders 53s. 4d. | Sharpe (1986, 2: 38). Lasocki (2005: 424). | |||
| 1538 | Houshold accounts of Thomas Cromwell, London, 3 August. | Payment to William Myles, apparently a household musician, for acquiring a case of recorders £4. | The recorders are likley to have been made by Anthony Bassano I, who settled in England that summer (Lasocki, 2005: 432). | Ashbee (1993: 416). Gairdner & Brodie (1895: 334 & 337). Lasocki (2005b: 432). | ||
| 1568 | Corporation of London Records Office, Repertory of the Court of Aldermen 16, f. 407. | Payment for instruments acquired by the London Waits: a whole set of recorders by and for them provided for the City’s service £4 and for 6 cornetts by and for them provided for the said use, [and] service 20 French crowns. | Clerk and sometimes Master of the Musicians Company 1967-1987, Crewsden (2000) charts the eventful and often troubled life of the Company since 1500, and the earlier years when the London minstrels attempted to organise themselves into a guild. | Crewsden, R. (2000). Lasocki (2005b: 456) The International Guild of Town Pipers (undated). The Waits Website: History: Instruments played by the Waits. Last accessed 9 April 2014. http://www.townwaits.org.uk/history_instruments.shtml | ||
| 1575 | Hooker’s Description of the Citie of Exeter, 1590. | The[y] shall trewlye & in salfftie redelyver at all tymes when the same shalbe required of theym such setts & Noyses of instrumentes as they have of the Citie aswell Recordes as others Bought at the Cities charages … Whiche sayde Instrumentes ar as followethe / A Doble Curtall / A Lysterden, Too tenor hoyboyes, a Treble hoboyes / A cornet / A sett or case of ffower Recorders / Bowght by mr Nicholas Martyn. | They shall truly and in safety redeliver at all times when the same shall be required of them such sets and noises of instruments as they have of the city, as well recorders as others bought at the city’s charges … Which said instruments are as follows: a double curtal, a lysard, two tenor hautboys, a treble hautboy, a cornetto, a set or case of four recorders; bought by Mr Nicholas Martyn. | Wasson (1986: 172). Lasocki (2005b: 462). | ||
| 30 January 1576 | Will and probate inventory of Harry Smythe. | Harry Smythe | Item I will and bequethe unto my wyff Katheryne whom I do make my Sole exsekutrix all my goods withe in my howse movable and unmovable that is my owne / also I geve vnto her all my tymber where soever yt dothe lye & my wares that are readie made & all my tolles / also I geve vntu my boyes all my instruments both vyalls & Recorders & theyr boks vupon the consyderazion that they will vse thyr selfes well towards theyr dame … Iventory: Items for the recorders valewed at ij li. | Item, I will and bequeath untio my wife Katherine, whom I do make my sole executrix, all my goods within my house, moveable and unmoveable, that is my own; also I give unto her all my timber, wheresoever it doth lie, and my wares that are ready made and al my tools; also I give unto my boys all my instruments, both viols and recorders and their books upon the consideration that they will use themselves well towards their dame … Iventory: Item, for the recorders, valued at £2 Smythe was apparently an instrument-maker and probably one of the Worcester Waits. | Klausner (1990: 444-445). Lasocki (2005b: 464). | |
| 1584 | 1585 | Inventory | In the Custody of the Waytes … Item v Recorders, beeyng A Whoall noyse | In the custody of the Waits … Item, five recorders, being a whole noise | Galloway (1984: 78). Lasocki (2005b: 472). | |
| 1584 | 1585 | Inventory | In the Custody of the Waytes … Item v Recorders, beeyng A Whoall noyse | In the custody of the Waits … Item, five recorders, being a whole noise | Galloway (1984: 78) Lasocki (2005b: 472) | |
| 22 May 1590 | Inventory: Household of Lord Lumley, Nonesuch. | A summarye of certayne stuffe wthin your Lo:houses the xxiith of May Anno 1590 the Inventoryes of the particulars remaying in bookes subscribed by John Lambton, gentleman, steward of household to you’Lo: and under than handes of the severall wardropers there …. Recorders xv | A summary of certain stuff within your Lordship’s houses the 22nd of May 1590, the inventories of the particulars remaining in books subscribed by John Lambton, gentleman, steward of the household to your Lordship and under the hands of the several wardrobers there. … Recorders 15 | Cust (1917-1918: 29). Lasocki (2005b: 480). Warren (1968: 50). | ||
| 28 May 1591 | 1590-1 Mayors’s Books CCALS: ZMB 25 F 45 (28 May) | Session held before William Massey, mayor … … At which day matter was in question betwene Ales Williamz late wief of Thomas Williamz late one of the waytsmen of the said Citie vupon thone party and chrisofer Burton and William Madock the other waiteseme nof the said Citie for and Concerninge their instrumentes of muisck viz the ho boies the Recorders the Cornetes and violens whereof the said Ales Claymeth a parte as to her said late husband in his lief type belonginge which they deny to yeld vunto: But are Contented and soe are now Agreed and it is now fully ordered by Assent that the said instrumentes shall from hensfurth forever remayne Continue and bee the owne proper goodes of the said Waitesmen and of the survivour of them and of William Wiliamz late sonne of the said Thomas Williamz And of henry Burton sonne of the said christofer When they shall hauve served out their yeres as Apprentices to the said exercise and to the survivour of them and the survivour of euery of them and of the survivinge sonne of euery of them experienced or to be experienced in the said exercise and Apt an dfitt for the same servinge within the said Citie or ells to remayne foreuer to the said Citie At the Apponyntment and Admittance of the major of the said Citie for the tyme beinge. | Baldwin et al. (2007: 231-232). Lasocki (2005: 481). | |||
| March-April 1603 | [Inventory] | on Sir Thomas Kytson’s death: included: In ye chamber where ye musicyans play. … Inststrewments and Books of Musicke. … Item, one case of recorders, in nomber vij. … Item, two flewtes, wthout cases. | Gage (1822: 23-24). Lasocki (2005: 491). | |||
| 21 March 1607 | Lincoln Record Office INV 105/101. | Lincoln Record Office | Probate inventory of musician Arthur Ondum included: … one doblle curtall Instrument the fowrthe p[art]te of a noyse of recorders, the one halfe of a noyse of old violens with theire cases [all together valued at £4] | Fleming, M. (2000: 311). Kilbey, M. (2002: 36). Lasocki, D. (2005: 493). | ||
| 31 March 1608 | Borthwick Institute, York, Wills/30b, fol. 628. | Francis Fitton (c.1532-1608) | Will of Francis Fitton: Item I will and bequeath to my cosid Edmund fflyton sonne and heire to my late nephew william fitton the somme of Twenty poundes in money And also I do further bequeath to him a somme of tenn poiundes in money which I did lend to him at his going into Spaine with sir Richard leveson in consideracion of a sett of violles de la gamba of his late fathers and also a sett of Recorders and a great Syterne a Lute and a paire of virginalles which were all of his said late fathers and by him left in my keeping which said sett of vialles I did lend to Sir John Davers knight deceased and were were sithence in the handes of dame Elizabeth davers his late widow and since then also in the handes of of Sir Charles davers knight hir sonne attaintd by whose fall the said vialles may fortune to be lostee but the virginalles and lute are ready for him my said nephew Edmund fitton and also the said great Systerne in my owne now lodging in the Strand the red cocke nere the Savoy. And the said somme of Twenty poiundes formerly bequeathed to him, my will is shall be deluered to him my said cosin Edumund ffitton within six monethes next after my decease, if the said Instruments shall not be deliured to him within that thime of the said six monethes or before, safe and sound which I am greatly in doubt will not be donne and so deliuered to him, But if he shall so receiue backe the said instruments Then the said legacy of twenty poundes to him to cease and to be void. | Sir Charles Danvers was attainted because of his part in the Essex rebellion and was executed 18 March 1601. As a result his large estate in Wiltshire was escheated to the crown. The fate of the recorders is not mentioned. | Baldwin & Mills (2002: 138-149). Lasocki (2005: 494-495). | |
| 24 October 1617 | Iventory of Edward Jefferies, musician | Edward Jefferies | in the parlor in the howse the intestate late dwelt … Item one old Lute & a flute & old instrumentes vjs. | Lasocki (1983: 734-735) Lasocki (2005b: 500) | ||
| 27 November 1622 | 4 December 1622 | Inventory | 27 November Citty instrvmens … ffower Howbyes and an old Howbye broken / Two Tenor Cornettes / j Tenor Reocrder / Two Counter Tenor Recorders / Two Tenor Cornettes /fiue Chaynes & fiue fflagges 4 December The waites are permitted to againe to vse their profession vntill Christmas next And they promise to bringe in iiij li. or a sufficient Sackbutt before the end of Christmas next And before they receiue theier wages to giue security for bringinge in teh Citties Instrumentes, fflagges and Cheynes whensoeuer they shalbe required one Howboy A treble Recorder a tenor howboy one Chaines and a flagge deliuered to Thomas Quashe / … Two tenor Cornettes ij tenor howboys a tenor Recorde a chaine & a flagge to Edward Iefferis | Edward Jefferies Junior (d. 1669) replaced his father in 1617, then served until at least 1659. Thomas Quash (1586-1638) served from 1609/10 to his death. Peter Sandlyn was appointed in 1617 and served until at least 1630. | Galloway (1984: 174). Lasocki (1983, II: 735, 737-741). Lasocki (2005b: 503-504). | |
| 13 July 1625 | Will of John Hussey (op. 1613-1629) | John Hussey (1613-1629) | … unto Mr Finch in St Martines Lane Seavens shillings for a Chamber to put in certayne neccesaries the wch I could not take with me to Greenwch, where you are to call for them at the signe of the two crsse gunnes – there is a paire of great harpesrecord Virginalls worth well seaven or eight pounde, there is a case-full of Flutes, a bdesteed, a canopie with the curtaynes of darney, three high leather stooles, one leather chaire, two little lowe stooles, a large pistoll, a paire of Andirons cast … | Hussey served as a member of the Court recorder consort from 1613 to 1629, thus the flutes could have been recorders in this case. | Ashbee et al. (1998, I: 617-618). Lasocki (2005b: 506). | |
| 1626 | 1627 | Inventory | Insvmentes in the cvstody of the waites … Item Three Recorders | Galloway (1984: 193). Lasocki (2005b: 509). | ||
| 1644 | A Declaration, p. 10. London. | Sir Edward Dering (1598-1644) | … one single groan in the spirit, is worth the diapson of all the church music in the world. Organs, sackbuts, recorders, cornetts, etc. and voices, are mingled together, as if we would catch God Almighty with the fine ayre of an anthem, whilst few present do or can understand. | Dering was an English antiquary and politician. In this passage, he was fulminating against what the believed to be musical excess within the Anglican Church. | Parrott (1978: 184) Lasocki (1984: 134) | |
| 1776 | A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, ch. CXLV | Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) | And we are told that at the churching of the queen, after the birth of lady Mary, daughter of Janes I, in the Boyal Chapel sundry Anthems were sung with organ, comets, sack buts, and other excellent instruments of music. Vide Stow’s Annals, 864. Lastly, Charles I, when at Oxford, had service at the Cathedral with organs, sackbuts, recorders, comets. | Hawkins was an English author and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson and Horace Walpole. In this passage he is quoting Jospeh Brookband, The Well tuned Organ (1660). | Lasocki (1984: 134). e-Text here | |
| 2005 | What did you learn at sex school today? | Caitlin Elizabeth Moran (1975-) | The concept of love has been almost synonymous with the rise of mankind, yet after all these millennia there are still few rules on the subject of which we can be certain. Personally, I have observed from friend’s relationships that love can easily weather infidelity, cruelty, neglect, addiction, celibacy and one partner learning to play descant recorder. | Moran is a provocative British broadcaster, TV critic and a Times columnist who writes three columns a week: one for the Saturday Magazine, a TV review column, and the satirical Friday column Celebrity Watch. | Moran, C. (2005). What did you learn at sex school today? Timesonline: Times2: Women. 18 October 2005. | |
| 1889 | The Century Dictionary. De Vinne & Co., New York. | William Dwight Whitney, ed. (1827–1894) | recorder – A musical instrument of the flageolet family, having a long tube with seven holes and a mouthpiece. In some cases an eighth, covered with gold-beaters’ skin, appears near the mouthpiece, apparently to influence the quality of the tone. The compass of the instrument was about two octaves. | Whitney was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer. An instrument shown in a Loan Collection of Musical Instruments at South Kensington with a hole in the beak covered with a thin skin is described and illustrated by Welch who found that the membrane responded to the humming of the player, like that of a mirliton. | Welch (1911/1961: 1, 124-127 & fig. 59). The Century Dictionary 1895 Online (2005). | |
| 1875 | The Diary of Samuel Pepys. | Mynors Bright, ed. (1818–1883) | … a recorder was a large flute, blown through a mouthpiece, like a clarionet in the present day | Bright was an English academic, president of Magdalene College, Cambridge, from 1853 to 1873. He was the decipherer of the coded diary of Samuel Pepys | Welch (1911/1961: 1-2). | |
| 1893 | 1899 | The Diary of Samuel Pepys. | Henry Benjamin Wheatley, ed. (1838-1917) | The recorder is stated to be ‘a reed instrument, but in the side near the mouthpiece there was a hole covered with a piece of bladder, which modified the quality of the sound. | Wheatley was a British author, editor, and indexer. | e=Text here Welch (1911/1961: 2) |
| 1575 | 1580 | A letter: whearin, part of the entertainment vntoo the Queenz Maiesty, at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwik Sheer in this soomerz progress 1575. iz signified: from a freend officer attendant in the coourt, vntoo hiz freend a citizen, and merchaunt of Lo | Robert Langham (c. 1535-1579/80) | When Queen Elizabeth visited Kenilworth, in 1575, there awaited her a magnificent reception … erected at the sides of the road by which she would pass, as she approached the castle, were seven pairs of posts … ‘On the seventh posts, the last and next too the Castl wear thear plight [i.e. placed] too saer Bay bruanchez of a four foot hy, adourned on all sides with lutes, viollz, shallmz, cornets, flutes, recorders, and harpes, az preszents of Phoebus, the god of Muzik for rejoycing the mind, and of phizik for health to the body.’ | There are two copies of this letter in the Bodleian Library (38 Jur. Seld. and M. 8 Act. B.S.) It is addressed to Humfrey Martyn, the son of Sir Roger Martyn, a master of the Mercers’ Company Robert Langham was a mercer and keeper of the privy council chamber, based on the author’s references to himself in the letter as “Lanham” or “Laneham”, “Langham”, “Ro. La.”, and “R. L. Gent. Mercer”, and other biographical details, such as his self-description as a “Merchauntaventurer, and Clark of the Councell chamber doore”, for which office he writes that he obtained through the patronage of Leicester. Council records confirm that he was paid £10 each April from 1573 to 1579 as keeper of the council chamber. It has been argued that it this letter was written by author, scholar and government official William Patten (c. 1510 – after 1598) as a joke at Langham’s expense, a view which has been accepted by some authorities. The argument for Patten’s authorship is based on similarities of form, style, subject matter, and phraseology common to the letter and Patten’s acknowledged work and the close resemblance between his known hand and that which appears in two annotated copies of the letter. In addition, Patten himself witnessed the Kenilworth festivities and contributed some Latin verses to welcome the queen. | Nichols, J. (1788). The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: among which are interspersed other solemnities, public expenditures, and remarkable events during the reign of that … Princess: … with historical notes. (To which are subjoined some of the early Progresses of King James, etc.) London. Vol. 1, pp. 433-434. Welch (1911/1961: 2-4). |
| 1340 | 1400 | The House of Fame | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | Ther saugh I than Atiteris And of Athenes dan Pseutis, And Marcia that lost her skin, Both in face, body, and chin, For that she wolde envyen, Io! To pypen bet than Apollo. | This refers to Marsyas (though Chaucer assigns to him the feminine gender), who lost and was subsequenetly flayed alive for his temerity in challenging Apollo (a god) to a musical duel. Atiteris is probably the pastoral flute player, Tityrus. Pseustis is obscure, but Timotheus may be intended. Chaucer, known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He is best known for The Canterbury Tales but wrote much else. He was variously an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. | e-Text (and translation) here Welch (1911/1961: 14-15) |
| 1571 | [Household expenses of Queen Elizabeth.] | Itm to the Fluytes, being vj in nombre, viz. Guyllam Duvet at 14d. per diem. Pyro Guye at 12d. per diem. James Furyarte at 20d. per diem, and Nicholas Lanyer at 20d. per diem for his wages – for his bowrde wages 7l. 11s. 8d. and for his liveryes yerely 13l. 6s 8d. In all per Ann. 188l. 4s. 2d. | There is nothing to indicate whether the flute-players here named played on transverse flutes or recorders: possibly they played on both. | Collier (1831) Welch (1911/1961: 23-24) | ||
| [Accounts of Charles I] | Musicians for Recorders. James Bassano, Jno. Hussey, Rob. Baker, Antonio Bassano, Clement Lanier, Bob Baker, jun. | Welch (1911/1961: 33). | ||||
| 1773 | The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces; or, The journal of a tour through those countries, undertaken to collect materials for a general history of music. Printed for T. Becket; J. Robson; and G. Robinson, London. | Charles Burney (1726-1814) | After this I went to a very large building on a quay , at the side branch of the Scheld, which is called the Oosters Huys, or Easterlings House; it was formerly used as a warehouse by the merchants trading to Lübeck, Hamburg, and the Hanseatic towns; it is a very handsome structure, and has served, in time of war, as a barrack for two thousand men. I should not have mentioned my visiting this building, if I had not found in it a large quantity of musical instruments of a peculiar construction. There are between thirty and forty of the common flute kind, but differing in some particulars; having, as they increase in length, keys and crooks, like hautboys and bassoons; they were made at Hamburg, and they are all of one sort of wood, and by one maker. CASPER RAUVCHS SCRATENBACH was engraved on a brass ring or plate, which encircled most of these instruments; the large ones have brass plates pierced, and some with human figures well engraved on them. These last are larger than a bassoon would be, if unfolded. The inhabitants say that it is more than a hundred years since these instruments were used, and that there is no musician at present in the town who knows how to play on any one of them, as they are quite different from those now in common use. In times when commerce flourished in this city, these instruments used to be played on every day by a band of musicians, who attended the merchants trading to the Hans towns, in procession to the Exchange. They now hang on pegs in a closet, or rather press, with folding doors, made on purpose for their reception; though in the great hall there still lies on the floor by them a large single case, made of a heavy and solid dark kind of wood, so contrived, as to be capable of receiving them all; but which, when filled with these instruments, requires eight men to lift it from the ground. It was of so uncommon a shape that I was unable to divine its use, ’till I was told it. | Burney is referring to his visit to the Hansa House (Oostershuis), Antwerp. François J. Fétis (1876: 133) also alludes to these instruments. | e-Text here Fétis, F.F. (1876) Welch (1911/1961: 43) | |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries. Century II, 278. | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 278. All concords and discords of music are, no doubt, sympathies and antipathies of sounds. And so, likewise, in that music which we call broken music, or consort music, some consorts of instruments are sweeter than others, a thing not suffiencienly yet observed; as the Irish harp and base viol agree well: the recorder and stringed music agree well: organs and the voice agree well, etc. But virginals and the lute; or the Welsh and and the Irish harp; or the voice and pipes alone agree not so well; but for the melioration of music, there is yet much left, in this point of exquisite consorts, to try and inquire. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733). | Welch (1911/1961: 60). e-Text here |
| 1679 | A Vade mecum for the Lovers of Musick, Shewing the Excellency of the Rechorder with some Notes and Directions for the Same. Also, some New Ayres Never Before Published. N. Thompson for John Hudgbut, London. | John Hudgebut (op.1650-1679) | … Of Instruments (though there be several species) there is none which comes nearer in Imitation to the Voice (which is the Design and Excellency of all Musick) then that which we call Wind Instruments, as the Flagilet, Rechorder, &c. as taking its inspiration immediately from thence, and naturally dissolving into the same. Of these, though the Flagilet like Esau hath got the start, as being of a more Antient standing. The Rechorder like Jacob hath got the Birth-right, being much more in Esteem and Veneration, with the Nobility and Gentry, whilst the Flagilet sinks down a Servant to the Pages and Footmen. But we do not design in lessening the Flagilet to exalt the Perfections of the Rechorder; we will allow the Flagilet all its just attributes, and see if the Rechorder do not equal or exel them. The Flagilet is a good Companion being easily carried in the Pocket, so is the Rechorder: The Flagilet is always in Tune so is the Rechorder: Besides the Sweetness of the Sound, which is much more Smoother and charming, and the Extent and Variety of the Notes in which it much excells the Flagilet. As all Instruments have found great access as well as Improvements in this Nation, this of the Rechorder hath not found the least encouragement, being into the favour of Ladies, and made the Genetelman’s Vade Mecum. On this succcess and good Entertainment of the Rechorder I have attempted to shew my zeal for the Improvement, hoping all Ingenious Gentlemen will pardon the deficiency of the performance, considering it is the first Essay of this kind: and all Ingenious Artists whose Tunes I have mae use of in this Collection, will kikewise be so Generous by all such erratas as they shall discover in the Printed Notes, which I shall endeavour to Rectify in the next Edition. | An advertisement in a volume of Playford’s English Dancing Master (1651) reads: Sold by John Hudgebut at his shop under / the King’s Head Tavern at Chancery Lane / near Fleet Street, all sorts of Instru- / ments, as Lutes, Vials, Violins, Guittars / Recorders, Flagellets, Castinets, Rul’d / Paper and Books for the same instruments / with new Tunes and sets of airs to the / same, in One, Two, Three, or Four Parts. | Welch (1911/1961: 69-70). | |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum, or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries. Century II, 187. | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 187. There is required some sensible difference in the proportion of creating a note, towards the sound itself, which is the passive : and that it be not too near, but at a distance. For in a recorder, the three uppermost holes yield one tone ; which is a note lower than the tone of the first three. And the like (no doubt) is required in the winding or stopping of strings. | ‘Lord Bacon … speaks of it [the recorder] as having six holes, in which respect it answers to the Tibia minor or flajolet of Mersennus. From all of which it seems tha the Flute and Recorder were different instruments and that the latter in propriety of speech was no other than the flajolet’ (Welch 1911/1961: 110-111). | Welch 1911/1961: 110-111). e-Text here |
| 1667 | Paradise Lost, Book VII, 587-599. | John Milton (1608-1674) | The Filial Power arriv’d, and sate him down With his great Father (for he also went Invisible, yet staid, such priviledge Hath Omnipresence) and the work ordain’d, Author and end of all things, and from work Now resting, bless’d and hallowd the Seav’nth day, As resting on that day from all his work, But not in silence holy kept; the Harp Had work and rested not, the solemn Pipe, And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop, All sounds on Fret by String or Golden Wire Temper’d soft Tunings, intermixt with Voice Choral or Unison; of incense Clouds | Cf. Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum, where the solemnity of the recorder is mentioned in a way which leaves no doubt that it was well known and unquestioned. Milton was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. | e-Text here Welch (1911/1916: 129-130. | |
| 1534 | Gargantua. Chap. xxi: Comment Gargantua feut institué par Ponocrates en telle discipline, qu’il ne perdoit heure du iour. | François Rabelais (1494-1553) | Après se esbaudissoient à chanter musicalement à quatre et cinq parties, ou suz un theme à plaisir de guorge. Et au regard des instrumens de musicque, il aprint à iouer du luc, & l’espinette, de la harpe, de la flutte de Alemant et à neuf trouz, de la viole & de la sacqueboutte. Ceste heure ainsi employée, la digestion parachevée, se purgoit des excrements naturelz: puis se remettoit à son estude principale par troys heures ou davantaige: tant à repeter la lecture matutinale, que à poursuyvre le livre entrepris, que aussi à escripre & bien traire & former les antiques & Rhomaines lettres. | It may be assumed that Gargantua played the contrabass form of all instruments named (Manifold). The ‘flutte de Alemant et à neuf trouz’ refer to the transverse flute and the recorder, respectively. Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 66). | |
| 1594 | [Account of the baptism of Prince Henry of Scotland.] | The baptism of Prince Henry of Scotland, on the 30 August 1594 at the new Chapel Royal, Stirling Castle, was celebrated with elaborate music, among other items by ‘a shrill noise of flutes and recorders’. | The highlight of the banquet was a wooden ship, 18 ft long with masts 40 ft high. From it seafood was served to the guests. The ship came complete with 36 brass cannons that fired a salute to the Prince. | Farmer, H.G. (1947/1970). A History of Music in Scotland. Hinrichsen, London / Da Capo Press, New York. ISBN 0306718650. Manifold (1956: 66, 71). Oliphant, T. (1837. La Musa Madrigalesca or A Collection of Madrigals, Ballets, Roundelays, Etc. Chiefly of the Elizabethan Age with Remarks and Annotations. Calkin & Budd, London. | ||
| 1561 | Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex V, i. | Thomas Norton (1532–1584) & Thomas Sackville (1536-1608) | The Order and signification of the dumb show before the fifth Act. First the Drums and Flutes, began to sound, during which there came forth upon the Stage a company of Harquebusiers and of Armed men all in order of Battle. These after their Pieces discharged, and that the Armed men had three times marched about the Stage, departed, and then the Drums and Flutes did cease. Hereby was signified tumults, rebellions, Arms, and civil wars to follow, as fell in the Realm of great Britain, which by the space of fifty years and more continued in civil war between the Nobility after the Death of king Gorboduc, and of his Issues, for want of certain limitation in the Succession of the Crown, till the time of Dunwallo Molmutius, who reduced the Land to Monarchy. | Given the drums and the military context, these ‘flutes’ are probably fifes rather than recorders. Norton was an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse — but not, as has been claimed, the chief interrogator of Queen Elizabeth I. Thoms Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, was an English statesman, poet, and dramatist. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer. | e-Text here Manifold (1956: 70) | |
| 1697 | 1698 | The Imposture Defeated or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil III, iv: ‘Happy we who Free from Love’. | George Powell (?1668-1714) | A Shepherdess comes forward and Sings. Happy we who Free from Love, Have no cares to break our Sleep, Who these Pleasant Medows rove Watching our harmless Sheep; When we feel the Evenings Air, And the Night invites us home: To our Cottage we repair, Where Content delights to come. | ‘A Mr Morgan, about whom not thing is known save that he was an excellent composer, contributed a song with flutes and thorough-bass to another ephemeral play, The Imposture Defeated‘ (Manifold). The play was first performed in 1697 and printed in 1698. ‘A Symphony of Flutes’ preceded a song, ‘Happy we who free from love’, sung by a shepherdess in Act 3, scene 4. Although the composer of the song is not named in contemporaneous sources, two other songs in the play were written by a Mr Morgan, about whom nothing is known. Powell was a 17th-century London actor and playwright. His misogynistic play The Imposture Defeated or, A Trick to Cheat the Devil portrayed the proper treatment of an adulteress as brutal confinement and isolation from others to punish her and prevent the spread of her attitude. | Early English Books Online (2005). Manifold (1956: 126). Restoration Song Archive (2005). The Restoration Comedy Project (2005). |
| 1696 | The Loves of Mars and Venus [part of The Anatomist], pp. 5-6: ‘Say, ye Graces’. | Peter Anthony Motteux (1663–1718) | Symphony of Flutes. Enter Venus improving her Dress; attended by Hora, the Graces, and others. Say, ye Graces, am I now Fit to make Immortals bow? Are my Dress, my Face, and Air Fit to charm the God of War? Say, ye Graces, am I now Fit to make Immortals bow? Hora. You’ve been scarce five hours a dressing; Yet you’re charming past expressing. Venus. Let me see once more the Glass! So! – I fancy it may pass. She looks a while in the Glass while a Ritornel is plaid. Euphrosine and Aglaia. ‘Women seldom like their Faces, ‘Tho they long consult the Glass; But, if you dare trust the Graces, You now ev’n your self surpass. And when Beauty’s self engages, Arm’d with such a Dress and Air, She may conquer rigid Sages, And ev’n the rough God of War. Venus. How slow the Warlike God I find! On Love’s expanded Wings expecting Lovers move But slow as palsied age expected Lovers prove; Love flags, and leaves the heavy mass behind. | It is difficult to determine if this is one song or several, if sung at all (none of the above is set to music). Motteaux was an English author, playwright, and translator. He was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of The Gentleman’s Journal, “the first English magazine”, from 1692 to 1694. | Restoration Song Archive (2005). | |
| ? 1697 | Europe’s Revels 1.1, pp. 2-3: ‘Peace! Peace! Peace tunes the World’. | Peter Anthony Motteux (1663–1718) | Enter a Lady at the Close of the Chorus, and the Martial Musick immediately changes, at her first Word, into softer Notes, with accompaniments of Flutes. Peace! Peace! Peace tunes the World: Harmonious Peace Bids War and Discord cease. Thus does it Heav’n and William please, William whom nothing can oppose, Who can like Neptune calm the Seas, And bless, like Jove, his very Foes. Advance, happy Nations, to praise him, advance, From Britain, from Spain, from Belgia, from France; Sing William, and Peace, sing, revel, and dance. | Set by John Eccles, but music is not extant. Motteaux was an English author, playwright, and translator. He was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of The Gentleman’s Journal, “the first English magazine”, from 1692 to 1694. | Restoration Song Archive (2005). | |
| 1478 | Household Ordinances, 48. | Mynstrelles, xiii, whereof one is verger, that directeth them all in festivall days to theyre stations, to bloweings and pipynges, to such offices as must be warned to prepare for the king and his household at metes and soubpers, to be the more readie in all services; and all these sittinge in the hall tegyder; whereof sume use trumpettes, sume shalmuse and small pipes, and some strengemen, comying to the court at five festes of the yeere. | This is the so-called ‘Black Book of the Household’ of Edward IV. These men are clearly instrumentalists with duties rather like those of the ‘waits’. | Burney (1776: 697 ff.) Myers (1959). Pattison (1946: 47). | ||
| 1941 | No Bed for Bacon: Chapter 20. Michael Joseph, London. | Caryl Brahms (1901-1992) & S.J. Simon (1904-1948) | The consort of recorders, which had been sounding so sweetly in Mr Byrd’s cadences, modulated into ‘Greensleeves.’ Orsino looked up. ‘If music be the food of love,’ he said, ‘play on.’ Twelfth Night had begun. | Caryl Brahms (born Doris Caroline Abrahams) was an English critic, novelist, and journalist specialising in the theatre and ballet. She also wrote film, radio and television scripts. S.J. “Skid” Simon (born Seca Jascha Skidelsky, in Russia) was a British author and bridge player. As a bridge expert he was jointly responsible for developing the Acol system of bidding. | e-Text here | |
| 2001 | TV film: Prince Charming | Director: Allan Arkush, Director; Screenplay: Doug Palau | One of the characters performs on recorder. | A romantic comedy in which a prince and his loyal servant are cursed to a life of frog-hood after the prince is caught being unfaithful on his wedding day. Centuries, and thousands of miles later, they are in Central Park, praying for the kiss that will turn them back into men. Starring Sean Maguire, Martin Short, Christina Applegate, Billy Connolly and others. Palau is an American television writer and producer. | ||
| 2001 | Film: The Affair of the Necklace | Director: Charles Shyer; Screenplay: John Sweet | The soundtrack includes the Allegro from Handel’s Sonata for recorder and continuo Opus 1/11. | A lavish period drama starring Hilary Swank and Christopher Walken. In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family’s fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace. Sweet is an American screenwriter and actor. | The IMDB web-site has a listing of the soundtracks used in this film here | |
| 1978 | Film: Autumn Sonata (Herbstsonate, Hoestsonaten) | Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) | At the very opening of the film, while the credits are rolling, the first movement of Handel’s Recorder Sonata Opus 1/11 is heard. And no, it’s not the Sonata of the film’s title: that was by Chopin. | A psychological drama starring Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Bjork, and Georg Lokkeberg. Eva, the meek, seemingly complacent wife of a parson, invites her mother, Charlotte, a world famous pianist, to come for a visit, hoping for a reconciliation after a long period of estrangement and virtually no interaction. Instead, long-repressed feelings of rage toward her mother for repeatedly abandoning her as a child begin to surface and finally culminate in a cathartic confrontation between the two women. | You can watch the entire film here, if you wish. It’s very moving. | |
| 1996 | Film: A Very Brady Sequel | Director: Arlene Sanford; screenplay by Harry Elfont (1968-) | Music from a Telemann Concerto in F major for recorder, strings & continuo is heard. | Comedy staring Shelley Long, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Christine Taylor, and Jennifer Elise Cox. Those polyester-clad Brady’s are back, still deeply entrenched in the styles and mores of the 1970s, in this sequel to The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), Carol Brady’s presumed-dead husband Roy re-appears and is taken in by the loving family. What they don’t know is that Roy is actually a deadly imposter, who wants a carved horse owned by the Bradys – that unbeknownst to them is worth millions. Will Roy ever get his hands on that artifact? Or will the blissfully clueless Bradys kill him with kindness instead? Elfont is an American screenwriter and film director | You can watch the entire film here, if you have the stomach for it. If you do, please let me know just where the recorder music occurs in the film. | |
| 2001 | Film: I am Sam | Director: Jesse Nelson; screenplay: Kristine Johnson (1972-); screenplay: Kristine Johnson & Jesse Nelson | Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze, from Cantata 208 is heard. | Stars Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianne Wiest, Dakota Fanning, Laura Dern. Sam Dawson is a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter Lucy with the help of an extraordinary group of friends. As Lucy turns seven and begins to intellectually surpass her father, their close bond is threatened when their situation comes to the attention of a social worker who wants Lucy placed in foster care. Faced with a seemingly unwinnable case, Sam vows to fight the legal system and forms an unlikely alliance with Rita Harrison, a high-powered, self-absorbed attorney who takes his case pro bona as a challenge from her colleagues. Together they struggle to convince the system that Sam deserves to get his daughter back and, in the process, fuse a bond that results in a unique testament to the power of unconditional love. Actually, the entire soundtrack of this film seems to be made up of covers of music by the Beatles. | You can listen to the entire soundtrack here, if you have the stomach for it. Do let me know if you hear sheep safely grazing. | |
| 2003 | It Runs in the Family (Film). | Director: Fred Schepisi; screenplay: Novel and screenplay: Jesse Wigutow | Vivaldi’s Concerto in C minor RV 441, for recorder strings and continuo is heard. The player Jaroslov Krcek. | Comedy, starring Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Rory Culkin, Cameron Douglas. The Grombergs are a highly successful New York family – except when it comes to communicating with each other. Three generations of a family, each in their own way, live separate lives but find a couple moments in time to come together through laughter and tears and remind themselves that they are attached by blood. Mitchell Gromberg, the patriarch, is having difficulty coming to grips with his mortality. His son, Alex, has spent his life trying not to duplicate his father’s mistakes, while Alex’s eldest son, Asher, a rebellious college student, tries to cope with live, love, sex and rock ‘n’ roll in today’s confused society. They all struggle to get from one end of life to the other – the younger Grombergs try to figure out where they are going while the older Grombergs try to figure out how they got where they are. | Website: IMDb Soundtracks. Last accessed 9 April 2014. | |
| 2004 | Film: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban. Warner Brothers, UK/USA. | J.K. Rowling (1965-); screenplay by Steven Kloves; directed by Alfonso Cuarón; soundtrack composed by John Williams | Approaching his third year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter has had enough of his muggle relatives. He runs away from them (finally) and enters his third term facing trouble from more than one side: for using magic outside the school and from the news that a notorious criminal, serial killer Sirius Black, has escaped the wizard’s prison at Azkaban and apparently is headed for Harry. The school calls in supernatural help against Black in the form of Dementors, but unusual things continue to put Harry in peril. He is thrown into a confusing panoply of shifting allegiances and shifting shapes where nobody is who or what they seem. Who is the real criminal? What is the real crime? Who is telling or knows the truth? | The following tracks includes recorder, played by Richard Harvey (UK) A Window to the Past The Portrait Gallery Hagrid the Professor Finale Mischief Managed | Flickinger (2019) | |
| 1979 | The Sea, The Sea. Chatto & Windus, London. Pp 418-419. ISBN 0701123397; 0701128380. | Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) | I came up as for as the house and stopped to get my breath … Then I heard something awful, horrible, which chilled my blood and made me gasp with emotion. Inside the house a treble recorder and an alto recorder were in unison playing Greensleeves. It was not simply that a recorder duet was the last thing I now expected to hear. Greensleeves had been, for Hartley and me, in the old days, our signature tune. I had had a recorder on which I laboriously rendered it, and we used to pick it out on her parents’ old piano. We sang it to each other. It was our theme song, our love song. If I had heard it played now on one recorder I would have taken it instantly as a secret message of hope. But on two recorders … was it possible that it was a deliberate insult, an intentional desecration of the past? No, she had simply forgotten. All this passed through my mind during the time it took my fingers to undo the gate. I stepped slowly onto the path. The music ceased and a dog began to bark hysterically. I walked up to the door controlling my mind and already having fresh thoughts. The Greensleeves sacrilege meant nothing. Perhaps he liked the song and she had not been able to prevent its becoming a favourite. The recorder playing meant nothing. Obviously if she had been intending to run she would be careful to behave as usual. Or perhaps the tune really had been intended as a sign to me? It was however already obvious that she was not alone … | The Sea, The Sea explores the attempt by two cousins, Charles and James Arrowby to renounce magic and reach a spiritual identity. Their respective journeys allow Murdoch to explore the nature of power, obsession, illusion and self-delusion, which, in this novel, become dangerous and murderous. The book won The Booker Prize in 1978 and is one of Murdoch’s masterpieces in the representation of the deluded consciousness of the unreliable narrator, Charles Arrowby. A retired theatrical writer/actor/director and habitual womaniser, he has, throughout his life, conducted a succession of callous and destructive love affairs and most recently nursed his lover, Clement, through a long and painful death due to cancer. As the story opens, he is to abjure his life of egoism and is to seek out a spiritual identity: the final change of magic into spirit. Having secluded himself in his house, Shruff End, close to the sea, to achieve the task, he finds again his lost childhood sweetheart, Hartley, and believes that only she now has the power to save him. Hartley has been married for thirty years to Ben Fitch, but Charles is determined to find evidence of an unhappy marriage from which he can rescue Hartley and claim her as his own. When Hartley resists, Charles resorts to kidnapping her and imprisoning her in the red room at Shruff End. Only the wisdom of Charles’s Buddhist cousin, James, saves the situation and Charles returns Hartley to Ben, makes peace with the women with whom he has been emotionally warring and returns to London on James’s death. The implication in the scene from the novel quoted above is that Hartley had been playing the recorder with her husband, Ben; and there is a final reference which says, The two recorders lay on the wide white window sill, beside the field glasses. The use of two recorders to represent marital harmony at a crucial moment in the novel, and the subsequent events involving lust, deaths and rebirths (both miraculous and symbolic) will doubtless strike a chord with students of the recorder’s iconography and literary associations. Thus, although Lasocki (2006) seems to accept it uncritically, Winters’ (2004) contention that the juxtaposition in the text of the terms treble and alto recorder implies that Murdoch was unfamiliar with the instrument can be safely ignored. | Rowe, A. (2003). The Sea, The Sea. The Literary Encylopedia. Literary Dictionary Company. Accessed 9 June 2006. Winters (2004) Lasocki (2006) | |
| 1634 | Pastorel musyck-spel van Juliana en Claudiaen | Jan Harmensz. Krul (1601–1646) | In the opening scene the shepherd Coridon plays the violin and the shepherdess Amarillis a fluytje (little recorder). | Wind (2004, 4) describes the use of the recorder here as a device for seduction rather than a mere sexual symbol Although Lasocki (2006) writes of the reversal of roles of violin and recorder in the opening scene of this play, a knowledge of iconography would soon show that the roles of string and wind instruments are in fact very often reversed in paintings, the man playing with the female symbol and the woman with the man’s giving an obvious frisson to erotic situations. Krul was a Dutch Catholic playwright. His portrait was painted in 1633 by Rembrandt. He founded the Amsterdamsche Musijck Kamer, devoted to the cultivation of music drama. | Wind (2004, 4) Lasocki (2006: 12) | |
| 1632 | 1639 | The Changes,or Love in a Maze. Act V, v. | James Shirley (1596-1666) | Act V, Scene v Woodhamore. This is some poetical business. Mrs Goldsworth. Sweet husband, let us go to them ; I have heard poets talk much of Elysium, I would fain see whether they be honest of their words or no. Goldsworth No, it will befit them to come to us. Caperwit. It shall be so ; harmonious strains, That do bless those happy plains, Usher them forth, and shame the spheres, Charm with heavenlier notes our ears, Recorders within. That when we see the lovers come, We may believe Elyssium Itself come hither, all those bowers, And the shades of pleasure our’s. | e-Text here | |
| 2006 | Õhtu toob tagasi kõik [Evening brings everything back]. | Jaan Kaplinski (b. 1941, Tartu, Estonia). | The sky is overcast. The warm wind is creeping under your shirt. A spotted cat is walking slowly toward the dusk. The dusk is moving slowly toward the spotted cat. A neighbour’s wife is taking clothes from the line. I don’t see her, I see only the clothes vanishing one by one. I see the white lilacs. Narcissi and carnations. And lights shining far away on the other side of the river. One recorder. One radio. One reed warbler. And many, many nightingales. | Translated from the Estonian by the author with Fiona Sampson. | Jaan Kaplinski (2006). Home Page. | |
| March 1950 | April 1951 | Suite for recorders. | Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) | In a little room, a little plot, a little lifetime, Hark, the shrill recorders after meat: the Elizabethan Mayflies in a sliver web which dangled over chaos, Twirling round and round, Waited for the silent headsman, countering his silence With arabesques of sound. | MacNeice, L. (1966). Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice. Faber & Faber, London. Ed. E.R. Dodds. | |
| 1827 | Original Letters, Illustrative of English History. Printed for Harding and Lepard. | Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869) | The Recorder was a small English Flute or Flûte à bec, and answers precisely to our Flageolet. The Base Recorder was, according to Kircher, analogous to our bassoon. | This is a footnote to a quote from Harleian MS. 149, A. fol.200 listing Henry 8th’s instruments at Westminster. I’ve heard of a ‘base vile’, but it seems unnecessary to slur the basset recorder! Ellis was an English librarian and was chief librarian of the British Museum from 1827 to 1856. He edited various works on antiques and wrote an Introduction to Domesday Book. | ||
| 2004 | Where the Long Grass Bends: Stories. Sarabande Books. ISBN 1889330965. | Neela Vaswani | A woman in an orange swing coat came in holding a plastic recorder in one hand … And when I asked Charles why he stole the recorder when he knows his Mama … | Stories that subvert conventional narrative by employing Indian lore, Gaelic fable, and historical legend. Further details and more complete quotes would be most welcome. Vaswani is an American writer and an education activist in India and the United States. She is founder of the Storylines Project with the New York Public Library. | ||
| 1637 | 1673 | A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634 … (1637) / Comus (1673): Scene 1, line 83-92. | John Milton (1608-1674) | … … … But first I must put off These my skie robes spun out of Iris Wooff, And take the Weeds and likenes of a Swain, That to the service of this house belongs, [ 85 ] Who with his soft Pipe, and smooth-dittied Song, Well knows to still the wilde winds when they roar, And hush the waving Woods, nor of lesse faith, And in this office of his Mountain watch, Likeliest, and neerest to the present ayd [ 90 ] Of this occasion. But I hear the tread Of hatefull steps, I must be viewless now. [Comus enters with a Charming Rod in one hand, his Glass in the other, with him a rout of Monsters headed like sundry sorts of wilde Beasts, but otherwise like Men and Women, their Apparel glistering, they com in making a riotous and unruly noise, with Torches in their hands.] | The music to this masque was by Henry Lawes. Walls (1996) refers to the original published text (1637) which Milton later modified and extended as Comus (1678). The Earl of Bridgewater had rather limited musical resources at Ludlow, but they surely included recorders. Here, the Attendant Spirit as the shepherd Thyrsis has a ‘soft Pipe’, which might appropriately have been represented by a recorder. Thyrisis’ musical abilities are referred to again at line 493-495, where there is also a flowing water association. Later, at lines 170-176 there is a reference to ‘the jocund Flute, or gamesom Pipe’ in a pastoral context. There are references to ‘Heav’ns Harmonies’ at line 242, being the supernatural music of the spheres. And there is a sleep association at line 553 linked (in wonderful words) to the ‘solemn breathing sound’ of this mystic music. | Walls (1996). |
| 1637 | 1673 | A Maske presesnted at Ludlow Castle, 1634 … (1637) / Comus (1673): Scene 1, line 83-92. | John Milton (1608-1674) | [The Lady enters. ] This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, [ 170 ] My best guide now, me thought it was the sound Of Riot, and ill-manag’d Merriment, Such as the jocund Flute, or gamesom Pipe Stirs up among the loose unleter’d Hinds, When for their teeming Flocks, and granges full [ 175 ] In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, And thank the gods amiss. | The music to this masque was by Henry Lawes. In his book Music of the English Courtly Masque 1604-1640), Clarendon, Oxford (1996), Peter Walls refers to the original published text (1637) which Milton later modified and extended as Comus (1678). The Earl of Bridgewater had rather limited musical resources at Ludlow, but they surely included recorders. It is possible that the pastoral context here provides another opportunity for recorders, though a ‘gamesom Pipe’ could be almost anything. Earlier, at line 86 we have met the Attendant Spirit as the shepherd Thrysis with his ‘soft Pipe’. Thyrisis’ musical abilities are referred to again at line 493-495, where there is also a flowing water association. There are references to ‘Heav’ns Harmonies’ at line 242, being the supernatural music of the spheres. And there is a sleep association at line 553 linked (in wonderful words) to the ‘solemn breathing sound’ of this mystic music. | |
| 1640 | Raguaillo d’Oceano | Mildmay Fane, Second Earl of Westmorland (1601-1666) | Refers to ‘Music of ‘ye Spheares’ | This masque was written as a family entertainment held in the long gallery at the Fane mansion at Apethorp in Northamptonshire. The musical establishment there was small, but did include a consort of recorders, described as ‘the stillest of wind Instruments’ (Walls (288-289). In C. Leech’s edition of Fane’s text, which refers to the instruments used for song accompaniment, etc., recorders are referred to on p. 65. On this occasion they may have been played by the children. Fane was an English nobleman, politician, and writer. | Trevisan (2011). Walls (1996: 288-289). | |
| 1634 | The Triumph of Peace, III, iv | James Shirley (1596-1666) / William Lawes, Simon Ives, Bulstrode Whitelocke (music) | Act III, Scene iv Another Apartment in the Royal Lodge. Lutes and Recorders within. Enter BASILIUS. Basilius. These sounds may charm her into slumbers sweetly. Oh steal into her, hang upon her heart! Come fix your gentle raptures in her sould, That it may take delight to be o’ercome, And never wake the body, till Basilius Return with happy conquest from Zelmane! Or, if there be a leaden god of sleep, Here let him shake his wings, and then dispatch A herald to the silent house of dreams, To bring one hither happier than the rest, To entertain my melancholy queen. O Philoclea, Enter PHILOCLEA Thy mother will excuse thee this night’s duty; Do not disturb her; yet your voice and lute I’th’ next chamber may procure her sleep; That done, without more ceremony go To bed [exit Philoclea.] So, so; my blood begins to move: She’s fast, I hear her, and the music ceast: Now to Zelmane. | This masque was first performed at Longleat on 3 February 1634 and published the same year. Twelve musicians were engaged for ‘loud musique’, including three ‘For the recorders’ and two ‘For the flutes’ (Walls 1996: 173-174). | Walls (1996: 173-174). Wikipedia (2009) | |
| 1638 | 1640 | The Antipodes IV, x-xi. | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653) | Act 4, Sce. 9 Byplay.A voyce that doth informe me of the tydings Spread through your kingdome, of your great arrivall; And of the generall joy your people bring To celebrate the welcome of their king. Showts within. Hearke how the countrey ſhouts with joyfull votes, Rending the ayre with muſick of their throats. drum & trumpets Hearke how the ſouldier, with his martiall noiſe, Threatens your foes, to fill your Crowne with joyes. Hearke how the City, with loud harmony, Haughboyes. Chaunts a free welcome to your majeſty. Heark how the Court prepares your grace to meet. Soft muſick. With ſolemne muſick, ſtate and beauty ſweet. Act 4 Sce. I0. The ſoft muſicke playing. Ent. by two and two, divers Courtiers, Martha after them, like a Queene between two boyes in robes. Her train borne up by Barbara, all the Lords kneele, and kiſſe Perigrines hand, Martha approaching, he ſtarts backe, but is drawne on by Byplay and the Doctor. Letoy enters and mingles with the reſt, and ſeemes to inſtruct them all. Diana. O here’s a ſtately ſhow! looke maſter Ioyleſſe: Your daughter in law preſented like a queene Unto your ſonne, I warrant now he’l love her. Ioy. A queene? Diana.Yes, yes and miſtris Blaze is made The mother of her maides, if ſhe have any: Perhaps the Antipodian Court has none. See, ſee, with what a Majeſty he receives ’hem. SONG HEalth, wealth, and joy our wiſhes bring, All in a welcome to our king: May no delight be found, Wherewith he be not crown’d. Apollo with the Muſes, Who Arts divine infuſes, With their choyce Ghyrlonds decke his head; Love and the graces make his bed: And to crowne all, let Hymen to his ſide, Plant a delicious, chaſt, and fruitfull Bride. | Here, three types of music are considered appropriate for different sections of society at the entrance of the noble lords: drums and trumpets, for the military; shawms (by the waits), for the city; and ‘soft music’ – perhaps recorders, since they are specified for the procession of the married couples in the next scene – for the courtiers. Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era. | e-Text here Lasocki (1984: 10) |
| Peter Schickele (1935-) | [The Tonette is] a cheap, synthetic recorder with amusing pretensions. | The Tonette is a small, internal duct-flute made of plastic, which was once popular in American elementary music education. It has largely been superseded by the recorder. The range of the instrument is from c” to d”’. It is also known as a song flute. The Tonette was first introduced in 1938. Designed as a pre-band instrument, the tonette was nearly unbreakable, chromatic, and tunable. It was easy to blow and the fingering was simple. By 1941 over half of the grammar schools in the United States had adopted the Tonette as standard pre-band equipment. The Tonette’s pleasant flute-like sound was also used for special novelty effects in radio, television and film. In World War II the US armed services found the Tonette to be an inexpensive and entertaining way for idle troops to pass the time. it is one of the instruments featured in the Gross Concerto for Divers Flutes, Two Trumpets & Strings in C Major by P.D.Q. Bach, which features the left-handed sewer flute, a slide whistle, a Tonette, a nose flute, an Oscar Mayer wiener whistle and two sizes of ocarina. Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring music written by Schickele, but which he presents as being composed by the fictional P. D. Q. Bach. The Tonette is one of the instruments featured in the Gross Concerto by P. D. Q. Bach. | Website: Wikipedia: Tonette. Last accessed 10 April 2014. | |||
| 1982 | Clinging to the Wreckage. Penguin, Harmondsworth (1983: 92-93). | Sir John Clifford Mortimer (1923-2009) | From time to time a sweet, melancholy music could be heard in the corridors of the Crown Film Unit. It was the poet Laurie Lee, playing on his recorder. Laurie Lee used to lean against the wall, bronzed from his walks across Spain, his long sojourns in Gloucestershire, looking like a small, sly Pan, piping endlessly, and the secretaries would open their doors and hope to speak to him. | Laurence Edward Alan Laurie Lee, MBE (1914–1997) was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter, raised in the village of Slad, Gloucestershire. His most famous work was an autobiographical trilogy which consisted of Cider with Rosie (1959), As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). While the first volume famously recounts his childhood in the idyllic Slad Valley, the second deals with his leaving home for London and his first visit to Spain in 1934, and the third with his return in December 1937 to join the Republican International Brigade. Lee was not only recorder player, but a skilled performer on violin and classical guitar. Mortimer was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and novelist. Perhaps his greatest creation was Horace Rumpole of the Bailey. | Wikipedia: Laurie Lee (2008). | |
| 2005 | Interview: Frans Brüggen – by Ernesto Schmied, Goldberg Magazine, 30 November 2005. | Frans Brüggen (1934-2014) | Could you say something to the recorder players who read Goldberg? You were one of the main guilty parties responsible for the resurgence of this instrument. Yes, of course [he laughs recalling those days]. I was invited to the United States by the American Recorder Society because I had been chosen [he raises his eyebrows, arms and whole body in a clear, rhetoric gesture] Recorder Player of the Millennium [more laughter]. Isn’t it strange? You can’t get away from it. I told them I didn’t want to go and they didn’t understand! I have chosen a new life. I didn’t tell them this, but I’m telling you now, the truth is I can’t stand the sound of the recorder any more [still more laughter]. | Goldberg magazine ceased production in November 2008. | Schmied, E. (2005). | |
| 1994 | Indische Duinen, translated as My Father’s War by Ina Rilke (2004) | Adriaan van Dis (1948~) | Ch. 4, p. 167 Those were the stocking-feet hours. Shush, no parking of bikes in the hall, no rattling in the kitchen, no flushing the loo. Do stop playing the recorder, Ada. Shush … Saskia, your crayons. Mother takes the foot scraper inside. A cloth muffles the doorbell, curtains are drawn. Ajò, no giggling in the bedrooms, no sighing while you read. Quiet, quiet, on tiptoe. Hush, Daddy’s counting. Ch. 5, p. 257 It was strangely quiet in the house, as if it was stocking-feet day every day; no stories during supper, no wireless, either. Only Ada seemed oblivious to the atmosphere of gloom. she played her recorder in the living-room, endlessly practising a valse russe. Ch. 5, p. 260 The kitchen windows steamed up from the rice on the boil and Ada practised her recorder in the bathroom. Everything was the same as before. | Describes life in a family repatriated to Holland at the end of WW2 from Indonesia where they had been prisoners of war and their father forced to work building a railway in Java. | van Dis, A. (1994/2004). My Father’s War. Translated by Ina Rilke. Vintage, London. | |
| 1611 | 1616, 1640 et suiv. | Love Freed from Ignorance and Folly | Ben Johnson (1572-1637) | This masque was first performed at Whitehall Palace on 3 February 1611 but not published until 1616, reprinted in 1640 and subsequent Johnson collections. Stage design was by Inigo Jones; the music was composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco; and Robert Johnson and Thomas Lupo arranged the songs for lutes and violins. Exchequer records show that twelve lutenists, who also played ‘fluits’ were paid for attendance. The ‘fluits’ may have been recorders. Johnson was a playwright, poet, and literary critic whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. | e-Text here Walls (1996: 36) Wikipedia (2009) | |
| 1659 | Pastorale d’Issy. | Robert Cambert (French composer, (c. 1628–1677). | … ce qu’il eut de meilleur encore c’est qu’on entendit ces concerts de flûte, ce qu’on n’avoit pas entendi sur aucun théatre depuis les Grecs et les Romains (Saint-Evremond, loc. cit.) | Saint-Evremond, described in 1677 a performance he had attended in April 1659 of Robert Cambert’s Pastorale d’Issy but obviously had not noticed Lully’s use of recorders in his Alcidiane given the previous year. Cambert’s pastoral was performed in the country home near Paris of M. de la Haye with only thirteen instrumentalists, including at least two recorders … Saint-Evremond’s reaction is not surprising, as only two references to recorders in ballets de cour during the 1640s can be traced, and only one in the 1650s before 1658. | Saint-Evremond, C. de (1677). Oeuvres mêlées 3: 246 Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2009) | |
| 1620 | Recueil de ballets | Michel Henry | In 1620, Michel Henry, an hautbois player in the Ecurie and later (in 1616) a ‘violon de la chambre du roi’, when he was 65, compiled a list of the events he had played in. In 1587, ‘la nuit de Saint-Julien’, he played as part of a grand noise of instruments (he names five of the other musicians, including his father) playing together ‘bien d’accord’, including ‘flûtes à neuf trous’ as well as a three-holed pipe and tabor. Unfortunately throughout Henry’s 215 pages there are no other references to the recorder. But any mention of the recorder as specific as ‘flûte à neuf trous’ is unusual. | Lesure, F. (1956: 206) Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2009) | ||
| 1614 | Jeu de la Conversion de S. Guillaume d’Aquitaine | This was a ballet-intermède, given, often before Royalty, by Jesuit establishments throughout France. With Richelieu’s encouragement, these entertainments were mounted on a lavish scale as a form of propaganda both for the Jesuits and the glorification of the monarchy, and a token of unity between Church and State. In this particular piece, viols and recorders supplied music for a ‘ballet des anges’. Most unusually, both the music and the choreography for this dance, a courante, have been preserved. | McGowan (1963: 167 & 222-3, inc. n. 102) Anthony Rowland-Jones (pers. comm., 2009). | |||
| 1619 | Tancrède or Ballet du Roy sur l’aventure de Tancrède | Music by Pierre Guédron (1565-1621) from a plot by Tasso. | Includes at the third Entrée an Air pour les Flustes, played by six satyrs. | Anthony (1978: 34) Walls (1996: 228) | ||
| 1622 | La Centaura. | Giambattista Andreini (1576-1654) | The appearance of the pastoral god Pan in the prologue is to a ‘sinfonia de flauti, storte over di piffari’. | An Italian semi-operatic pastorale, by G.B. Andreinis, given before Louis XIII by a company visiting Paris in 1621-2. | Powell (2000: 169, n. 41) | |
| 1627 | Les nymphes bocagères de la forêt sacrée. | François Le Métel, le Sieur de Boisrobert (1589-1662) | Spitzer & Zaslaw report that in this ballet de cour shepherds danced to the sound of three flutes. | Spitzer & Zaslaw (2005: 64) | ||
| 1631 | Les Travaux d’Ulysse, Act 5, Sc. 1. | Jean-Gilbert Durval (op. 1631-1639) | Three sirens boast of their performing abilities – they sing, and the siren Ligée plays the flute (i.e. recorder) and Leucosie the lute. Ulysses, bound to the mast of his ship, then hears a ‘beau concert d’instruments et de voix’ with many flutes and lutes, probably off-stage. | A play with a ballet based on a series of paintings at Fontainebleau, where it was first performed for Louis XIII. | Powell (2000: 237-238) | |
| 1641 | 1648 | Les pêcheurs illustres | Pierre de Marcassus (1584-1664) | This tragi-comedy takes place in a maritime rather than bucolic setting. Fishermen and tritons are accompanied by recorders and violins; the music is based on folk-tunes. Otherwise the usual pastoral commonplaces obtain: a disdainful fisher-maid, a dramatic rescue, an attempted suicide, an Ovidian transformation (of the sea-god Proteus into the heroine), a recognition scene, and a marriage. | Powell (2000): 187) | |
| 1648 | Ballet du dérèglement de Passions, 5th Entrée. | François de Chancy (composer) | ‘Olimpe celebre joueur de fluste poursuivy par 2. Satyrs qui admire sa beauté.’ | For this stage-direction to be rendered visually, it may be assumed that Olimpe is playing, or at least carrying, her recorder. | Buch (1994: 90-91). | |
| 1648 | Inventory: Jean Boyer | ung jeu de flutte douce | An inventory made after the death of Jean Boyer, one of the King’s musicians, showed that he owned an entire consort of recorders (‘ung jeu de flutte douce’). | Jurgens (1974, 2: 286) | ||
| 1654 | Les Noces de Pélée et de Thétis. | Carlo Caprioli (Italian composer, c.1615/20-1692/5) | It included a Combat à la barrière in which recorders, symbolising conflict, joined forces with trumpets and strings. | A comédie italienne en musique by Carlo Caprioli, with ten ballet entrées in which both Louis XIV and Lully danced. | La Gorce (2002: 385, 399); Rowland-Jones (2009) | |
| 1659 | La Mort d’Adonis. | Pierre Perrin (French librettist, 1620-1625) & Jean-Baptiste Boësset (French composer, 1614-1685) | The Graces descend to the sound of flutes douces. | A five-act tragédie en musique, with many of the attributes of the mythological pastorale (pastoral setting, shepherds, gods, demigods and allegorical figures). | Powell (2000: 256, 296) | |
| 1968 | 1996 | Couples. Deutsch, London: ISBN 0233960740. Ballantine Books: ISBN-10: 044991190X; ISBN-13: 978-0449911907. Penguin, London: ISBN: 0140029443 / 0-14-002944-3. | John Updike (1932-2009) | Terry Gallagher plays Greensleeves on recorder. | This provocative novel about sex in suburbia, striking in its complete sexual frankness has been praised as an artful, seductive, savagely graphic portrayal of love, marriage and adultery in America. Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Both Updike and his wife were members of a recorder consort. | |
| 1668 | The Garden | Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) | Oh, blessed shades! Oh, gentle, cool retreat From all the immoderate heat, In which the frantic world does burn and sweat! This does the lion-star, Ambition’s rage; This Avarice, the dog-star’s thirst assuage; Everywhere else their fatal power we see, They make and rule man’s wretched destiny; They neither set nor disappear, But tyrannise o’er all the year; Whilst we ne’er feel their flame or influence here. The birds that dance from bough to bough, And sing above in every tree, Are not from fears and cares more free, Than we who lie, or sit, or walk below, And should by right be singers too. What prince’s choir of music can excel That which within this shade does dwell, To which we nothing pay or give – They, like all other poets, live Without reward or thanks for their obliging pains. ‘Tis well if they become not prey. The whistling winds add their less artful strains, And a grave base the murmuring fountains play. Nature does all this harmony bestow; But to our plants, art’s music too, The pipe, theorbo, and guitar we owe; The lute itself, which once was green and mute, When Orpheus struck the inspired lute, The trees danced round, and understood By sympathy the voice of wood. | The mention of the pipe reminds us of Peter Lely’s portrait of the youthful Abraham Cowley which depicts him as a recorder playing shephered, for which see here. | ||
| 1580 | England’s Helicon | Nicholas Breton (?1555-1626). | A Sweet Pastoral GOOD Muse, rock me to sleep With some sweet harmony; The weary eye is not to keep Thy wary company. Sweet Love, begone awhile; Thou know’st my heaviness; Beauty is born but to beguile My heart of happiness. See how my little flock, That loved to feed on high, Do headlong tumble down the rock And in the valley die. The bushes and the trees That were so fresh and green, Do all their dainty colour leese, And not a leaf is seen. The blackbird and the thrush That made the woods to ring, With all the rest are now at hush And not a note they sing. Sweet Philomel, the bird That hath the heavenly throat, Doth now, alas! not once afford Recording of a note. The flowers have had a frost, Each herb hath lost her savour, And Phyllida the fair hath lost The comfort of her favour. Now all these careful sights So kill me in conceit, That now to hope: upon delights, It is but mere deceit. And therefore, my sweet Muse, Thou know’st what help is best; Do now thy heavenly cunning use To set my heart at rest: And in a dream bewray What fate shall be my friend, Whether my life shall still decay, Or when my sorrow end. | Breton belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton. He was a prolific author of considerable versatility and gift, popular with his contemporaries. | Hawkins (1776, 2: 252). | |
| 1407 | Reason and Sensuality | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | In his left hand a flowte he held, When so him list the long day, Therewith to pipe and make him play … Which gave so sweet a melody That no man could himself so keep, But it would make him sleepe. | A description of Mercury. | Lasocki (2011: 18). | |
| 1426 | The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man 2.14304 | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | These bellows eek [also] (it is not dread) Causes (whoso takes heed) Bombards and cornemuse, Thys ffloutys ek, with sotyl musys, And thys shallys loudë crye. And all such other minstralcy With their blasts of bobbaunce [ostentation] Do ofttime greet grievance | Concerns the bellows blast of Pride, which ‘makes pipes and fleutes and shawms emit sound’ (fait sonner tuiaus / Et fleutes et chalemiaus.) Translation of Guillaume de Guileville’s Le pèlerinage de la vie humaine (1331) by John Lydgate, published by William Caxton (1426). | Lasocki (2011: 18-19; 2012: 50-51). | |
| 1599 | The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus III, ii | Thomas Dekker (c.1572–1632) | Music sounding still; a curtain being drawn, ANDELOCIA is discoveredsleeping in AGRIPYNE’S lap; she has his purse, and she and another lady tieanother like it in its place, and then rise from him. Enter ATHELSTANE. Agripyne. I have found the sacred spring that never ebbs. Leave us: [Exit Lady.] But I’ll not show’t your majesty Till you have sworn by England’s royal crown, To let me keep it. …… Agripyne. Then is this mine: see, father, here’s the fire Whose gilded beams still burn, this is the sun That ever shines, the tree that never dies, Here grows the Garden of Hesperides; The outside mocks you, makes you think ’tis poor, But entering it, you find eternal store. …… Agripyne. Fear not his waking yet, I made him drink That soporiferous juice which was composed To make the queen, my mother, relish sleep, When her last sickness summoned her to Heaven. He sleeps profoundly: when his amorous eyes Had singed their wings in Cupid’s wanton flames, I set him all on fire, and promised love, In pride whereof, he drew me forth this purse, And swore, by this he multiplied his gold. I tried and found it true: and secretly Commanded music with her silver tongue, To chime soft lullabies into his soul, And whilst my fingers wantoned with his hair, T’entice the sleepy juice to charm his eyes, In all points was there made a purse, like his, Which counterfeit is hung in place of this. …… Music still: Enter SHADOW very gallant, reading a bill, with empty bags inhis hand, singing. Shadow. These English occupiers are mad Trojans: … …… Music? O delicate warble: O these courtiers are most sweet triumphant creatures! Seignior, sir, monsieur, sweet seignior: this is the language of the accomplishment. O delicious strings; these heavenly wire-drawers have stretched my master even out at length: yet at length he must wake. Master? Andelocia. Vengeance on thee and on thy stewardship!…… I’ll curse Agripyne, She hath betrayed me. Sirens, cease to sing, Your charms have ta’en effect, for now I see, All your enchantments were, to cozen me. [Music ceases. | First performed by the Lord Admiral’s Company in 1599, this play in a mixture of prose and verse is based on the German legend of Fortunatus and his magic inexhaustible purse. Dekker was an Elizabethan poet, dramatist and pamphleteer. | e-Text here Lasocki (1983: 3) | |
| 1700 | 1710 | Constituones Collegii Anglorum Audomarensis. Louvain University Libray MS D. 321 (160): 27-30 & 38. | Giles Schondonch (1556-1617) | The music of wind instruments is full of majesty, especially for church services, for the reception of persons of high rank, and for the theater. Such instruments are the shawms … and the recorder; but the former is more majestic. | Schondonch was Rector of the English Jesuit College in St Omer, France, from (1600-1617). | McCabe (1938: 314). Edwards (1974: 60). |
| 1776 | A General History of the Science and Practice of Music ch. IV. | Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) | Next follow flutes of various sizes, all of which, bating the simplicity of their form, as being devoid of ornaments, seem to bear an exact resemblence to the flute a bec, or, as it is called, the common English flute. Whether this instrument be of English invention or not, is hard to say. Galilei calls it Flauto dritto, in contradistinction to the Flauto traverso, and adds, it was brought into Italy by the French. Notwithstanding which, Mersanus scruples not to term it the English flute, calling the other the Helvetian flute, and takes occasion to mention one John Price, an Englishman, as an excellent performer on it. The word Flute is derived from Fluta, the Latin for a Lamprey or small eel taken in the Sicilian seas, having seven holes, the precise number of those in the front of the flute, on each side, immediately below the gills. Luscinius has thus represented this species. The largest of the four is the bass flute. These are succeeded by two other flutes, the first called the Schuege, the other the Zuuerchpfeiff; the form bears a resemblance to the traverse or German flute, though is much slenderer and does not agree with it in the number of holes. | Sir John’s illustration is derived from Martin Agricola’s Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch, published in Wittenberg in 1529 and again in 1545, derived in turn from Sebastian Virdung’s Musica getutscht und Ausgezogen, published simultaneously in both Basel and in Strasbourg. Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, pirate and slave trader. | e-Text here | |
| 1618 | 1627 | Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus (1618), XLVI & Proteus ofte Minne-beelden verandert in Sinne-beelden (1627), XLVII: Ex morte levamen. | Jacob Cats (1577-1660) | An oldeman in a younge womans arme The sooner dead, the lesser harme. A wanton Gyrle once marryed was unto a lame olde man; Who little hadd to give content. Which made mee question than, How’t came that shee so wedded was? who mee this answere gave, That of dead Asses bones are made, the best pypes that wee have When they in th’earth a while have layne. As likewise have I reade That so longe as the Scorpion lives, for nought is good: But deade A Soveraigne med’cyne is, thus I, therewith beinge well a paide, My Answere had. Adieu quoth I, and so I left that mayde. | No Dutch poet has ever equalled Jacob Cats in popularity. His first major publication was this emblem book. The same image with the title Ex morte levamen occurs in both editions, but with different plate numbers. Sitting on a bank beside a lake before the carcass of a dead donkey, an old man plays a duct-flute with his right hand. On the ground about him lie what look like other flutes, and a butcher’s saw. In the background the buildings of a substantial town can be seen. This emblem is accompanied by a number of verses, mottoes and proverbs variously in Dutch, English, French and Latin. Bloemendal et al. (Dutch Emblem Project, Utrecht 2002) have given an extensive commentary on this image. The texts it illustrates concern the humiliation and evil of love and marriage between the very old and the young. In the same year, Florens van Schoonhoven (1618) published an emblem depicting this same scene as Indoctus ipse alios juvo, albeit with a rather different interpretation. Another adaptation of Cat’s emblem appears in the alchemical Mineral Cabinet published by Goossen van Vreeswyk (1675) where the flautist bears the alchemical symbol for Sulphur, associated in the 17th century with the Expansive force in Nature: Dissolution and Evaporation. There is an astonishing painting in the Pushkin Museum (Moscow) by Jan Steen entitled Meisje biedt een oude man botten aan (1674) which, as the title tells us, shows a young woman giving a tired, lame old man a bone! | Koldweij (1993: fig. 19) Archiv Moeck Emblem Project Utrecht (2007) |
| 1482 | Musica practica | Bartolomeo Ramis de Pareia (c. 1440–1522) | Begins its brief discussion of wind instruments with the calamorum (shawm) of different sizes, stating the basic principle that making them longer also lowers them in pitch. He then remarks: Sunt et fistulae et sambucae, in quibus longitudo facit differentiam; nam istae saltem octo foraminibus aperiuntur, ut digitis omnia possint obturari. [There are also fistulae and sambucae on which length makes a difference [in pitch]; for they are pierced by up to eight finger-holes, so that all the holes can be closed by the fingers.] | To Ramis, further finger-holes would be superfluous because they could not be covered. It seems, therefore, that he was not taking the thumbs into consideration, so perhaps fistula was not a recorder in this case but a generic term for duct flutes (sambuca is apparently a pipe made of elder). Ramis contrasts such instruments with others that have three finger-holes and are overblown to produce the high harmonics: in other words, one-handed tabor-pipes, which have an extremely narrow bore to encourage the harmonics. Unfortunately, he refers to our Musica theorica &helliop;, a treatise that is now lost: Sed de his quidem instrumentis plenam notitiam desiderantes et de eorum inventoribus qualiterque ad perfectionem paulatim devenerint, speculationem seu theoricam nostram inquirant … [Those wishing a complete account of these instruments, of their inventors, and of how they gradually reached perfection.] De Pareia was a Spanish mathematician, music theorist, and composer. His only surviving work is the Latin treatise Musica practica. | e-Text here Howel (1985) Lasocki (2012: 2-3) Miller (1993) | |
| 1426 | The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man 396 | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | Yet for al that, myn appetyt Ys to deceyue hem, grene and rype; So swetly with my ffloute I pype, My song ys swettere, hem tagree, Than off meremaydenys in the se, Wych, with ther notys that they sowne, Causë folkys for to drowne With ther sootë mellodye. [Yet for all that, mine appetite Is to deceive him, green and ripe; So sweetly with my Floute I pipe, My song is sweeter, him tagree [to please], Than of mermaidens in the sea, Which, with their notes that they sound, Cause folks for to drown with their soft melody] | Lasocki (2012: 50-51) | ||
| 1984 | Enderby’s Dark Lady. | Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) | [Enderby attends a meeting with, amongst others, the Music Coordinator, Pip Wesel, M.D.] Enderby said: ‘What kind of orchestra? Shawms, recorders, viols da gamba, sackbuts? Authentic, I mean? It was Pip Wesel who replied. Enderby assumed that Silversmith’s rude terming of him as Mentally Deficient was either a joke or a tribute to his creative madness in whatever field he wandered, scenic artistry perhaps, but the young man, who was chihuahua-hairless was full of uncoordinated gestures and he now bleated several times. He said: ‘We’ve been hearing about you. Mike here said that’s what you’d say. You want madrigals too? Hey nonny nonny and all that shit.’ | Burgess was both a novelist and a composer who wrote for the recorder, which his son played. Three instruments belonging to Burgess may be seen in the collection of the Anthony Burgess Foundation Museum, Manchester – see here. | Burgess, A. (1963/2012). The complete Enderby: 549. Vintage Books, London. | |
| 1566 | 1575 | The posies of George Gascoigne esquire. Jocasta: a tragedie written in Greeke by Euripides, translated and digested into acts by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh of Grayes Inne, and there by them presented, 1566. | George Gascoigne (1535-1577) & Francis Kinwelmersh (1538-?1580) | The order of the laste [fifth] dumbe shewe. First the stillpipes sounded a very mournful melody, in which time came upon the stage a woman clothed in a white garment, on hir head a piller, double faced, the formost face fair and smiling, the other behinde blacke and louring, muffled with a white laune about hir eyes, hir lap ful of jewelles, sitting in a charyot, hir legges naked, hir fete set upon a great round bal, and beyng drawen in by iiii noble personages : she led in a string on hir right hand, ii kings crowned, and in hir lefte hand ii poore slaves very meanly attyred. After she was drawen about the stage, she stayed a litle, changing the kings unto the left hande and the slaves unto the right hand; taking the crownes from the kings heads she crowned therwith the ii slaves, and casting the vyle clothes of the slaves upon the kings, she despoyled the kings of their robes, and therwith apparelled the slaves. This done, she was drawen eftsones about the stage in this order, and then departed, leaving unto us a plaine type or figure of unstable fortune, who dothe oftentimes raise to heigthe of dignitie the vile and unnoble, and in like manner throweth downe from the place of promotion even those whom before she hir selfe had thither advaunced : after hir departure came in Duke Creon with foure gentlemen wayting upon him, and lamented the death of Meneceus his sonne in this maner. | Each act of Jocasta is preceded by a a dumb show, the music for which is indicated. Here the ‘stillpipes’ may have indicated recorders. This is actually a translation from Lodovico Dolce’s Italian version of the Phoenissae. Francis Kinwelmersh translated only Acts I and IV of Jocasta, neither of which concern us here. First published in 1573 under the title A Hundredth Sundry Flowres bound up in one small Posie. Gathered partly (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardens of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarch, Ariosto and others; and partly by Invention out of our owne fruitfull Orchardes in Englande, Yelding Sundrie Savours of tragical, comical and moral discourse, bothe pleasaunt and profitable, to the well-smelling noses of learned readers, by London printer Richarde Smith. Gascoigne was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. Kinwelmersh (Kynwelmarsh, Kindlemarsh) was a minor Elizabethan poet and dramatist. | e-text here. Welch (1911/1916: 131). |
| 1603 | A Dialogue full of pithe and pleasure between three Phylosophers: Antonio, Meandro,and Dinarco: upon the Dignitie, or Indignitie of Man. | Nicholas Breton (?1555-1626). | MEANDRO …… but shall we leave this poore subject, and speak of the excellency of Musique? DINARCO Oh the Instrument betwixt the legges. where the stick and the Fiddle can divide finely upon a plaine song, and carry the parts full, puttes downe all the Musique of these dayes. MEANDRO Yet a still Recorder doth well in a Chamber, where a soft lip will use him sweetly: but, what should Staid wittes trouble their heads with too many crochets? Let us honour the Art, and talke of some other experience. ANTONIO Shall we speake of Phisicke? | Printed by T. for John Browne, London. Breton belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton. He was a prolific author of considerable versatility and gift, popular with his contemporaries. | e-Text here | |
| 1614 | The Shepheard’s Pipe. Third Eclogue. | William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) | PIERS Thomalin ’tis not too late, For the Turtle and her mate Sitten yet in nest: And the thrustle hath not been Gath’ring worms yet on the green But attends her rest. Not a bird hath taught her yong, Nor her mornings lesson sung In the shady grove: But the Nightingale in darke Singing, woke the mounting Larke She records her love. Not the Sun hath with his beames Guilded yet our christall streames, Rising from the Sea, Mists do crowne the mountaines tops, And each pretty mirtle drops: Tis but newly day. Yet see, yonder (though unwist) Some man cometh in the mist; Hast thou him beheld? See he crosseth o’re the land With a dogg and staffe in hand, Limping for his eld. | William Browne of Tavistock was an English pastoral poet. He contributed seven eclogues to The Shepheard’s Pipe. | e-Text here | |
| 1614 | The Shepheard’s Pipe. Second Eclogue. | William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) | WILLIE Would Jockie ever stoope so low, As conissance to take Of sike a churle? Full well I know, No nymph of spring or lake, No Heardesse, nor no shepheards gerle, But fain would sit by thee, And Sea-nymphs offer shells of perle For thy sweet melodie. The Satyrs bring thee from the woods The Straw-berry for hire, And all the first fruites of the budds To wooe thee to their quire. Silvanus songsters learne thy straine, For by a neighbour spring The nightingale records againe What thou dost primely sing. Nor canst thou tune a madrigall, Or any drery mone, But Nymphs, or Swaines, or Birds, or all Permit thee not alone. And yet (as though devoid of these) Canst thou so low decline, As leave the lovely Naides For one that keepeth Swine? But how befell it? | William Browne of Tavistock was an English pastoral poet. He contributed seven eclogues to The Shepheard’s Pipe. | e-Text here | |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historien ten Centuries. Century III: 234 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 234. When a sound is created in a wind-instrument between the breath and the air, yet if the sound be communicate with a more equal body of the pipe, it meliorateth the sound. For no doubt there would be a differing sound in a trumpet or pipe of wood, and again in a trumpet or pipe of brass. It were good to try recorders and hunters’ horns of brass, what the sound would be. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 233). Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. | Welch (1911/1916: 130). e-Text here |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historien ten Centuries. Century III: 186 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 186. But it will best (as it is said) appear in the bores of wind-instruments : and therefore cause some half dozen pipes to be made, in length and all things else alike, with a single, double, and so on to a sextuple bore ; and so mark what fall of tone every one giveth. But still in these three last instances, you must diligently observe what length of string, or distance of stop, or concavo of air, maketh what rise of sound. As in the last of these, which (as we said) is that which giveth the aptest demonstration, you must set down what increase of concave goeth to the making of a note higher ; and what of two notes ; and what of three notes ; and so up to the diapason : for then the great secret of numbers and proportions will appear. It is not unlike that those that make recorders, &c., know this already : for that they make them in sets : and likewise bell-founders, in fitting the tune of their bells. So that inquiry may save trial. Surely it hath been observed by one of the ancients, that an empty barrel knocked upon with the finger, giveth a diapason to the sound of the like barrel full ; l but how that should be I do not well understand ; for that the knocking of a barrel, full or empty, doth scarce give any tone. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 233). Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. | Welch (1911/1916: 130). e-Text here |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historien ten Centuries. Century III: 170 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 170. All instruments that have either returns as trumpets; or flexions, as cornets; or are drawn up, and put from as sackbuts; have a purling sound: but the recorder, or flute, that hath none of these inequalities, gives a clear sound. Nevertheless the recorder itself, or pipe, moistened a little on the inside, but set so as there be no drops left, maketh a more solemn sound than if the pipe were dry: but yet with a sweet degree of siblilation or purling. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 233). Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. | Welch (1911/1916: 130). e-Text here |
| 1626 | 1627 | Sylva Sylvarum; or a Naturall Historien ten Centuries. Century III: 116 | Francis Bacon (1561–1626) | 116. Air open, and at large, maketh no noise, except it be sharply percussed ; as in the sound of a string, where air is percussed by a hard and stiff body, and with a sharp loose ; for if the string be not strained, it maketh no noise. But where the air is pent and straitened, there breath or other blowing, (which carry but a gentle percussion) suffice to create sound ; as in pipes and wind-instruments. But then you must note, that in recorders, which go with a gentle breath, the concave of the pipe, were it not for the fipple that straiteneth the air (much more than the simple concave), would yield no sound. For as for other wind-instruments, they require a forcible breath ; as trumpets, cornets, hunters’ horns, &c., which appeareth by the blown cheeks of him that windeth them. Organs also are blown with a strong wind by the bellows. And note again, that some kind of wind-instruments are blown at a small hole in the side, which straiteneth the breath at the first entrance ; the rather, in respect of their traverse and stop above the hole, which performeth the fipple’s part ; as it is seen in flutes and fifes, which will not give sound by a blast at the end, as recorders &c. do. Likewise in all whistling, you contract the mouth ; and to make it more sharp, men sometimes use their finger. But in open air, if you throw a stone or a dart, they give no sound ; no more do bullets, except they happen to be a little hollowed in the casting ; which hollowness penneth the air : nor yet arrows, except they be ruffled in their feathers, which likewise penneth the air. As for small whistles, or shepherds’ oaten pipes, they give a sound because of their extreme slenderness, whereby the air is more pent than in a wider pipe. Again, the voices of men and living creatures pass through the throat, which penneth the breath. As for the Jews-harp, it is a sharp percussion ; and besides hath the advantage of penning the air in the mouth. | Published in 1627, a year after Bacon’s death. English edition by Peter Shaw, MD, London (1733: 233). Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. | Welch (1911/1916: 130). e-Text here |
| 1638 | 1659 | The Love Sick Court V, iii | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653) | Act V, Scene iii Recorders. Enter DISANIUS before a hearse, PHILOCLES after [with Attendants]. VARILLUS manacled, and led by TERSULUS. EUPATHUS supports PHILOCLES, as ready to sink with grief. King. See, Philocles lives. Eudina. Philargus, then, Is brought in dead before him by Disanius; And unto him the first to be brought in My faith was vowed; and he is now my choice. King. What, being dead? Could you affect ’em so Equally, both alive, that you forbore To choose, because you could not have ’em both; And now seek only him cannot be had? The hearse set down, EUDINA kneels to it. PHILOCLES kneels on the other side. What love, what madness call you this? Good gods, Throw not your wrath upon me in destruction. Justinius. Nor let your passion master you, great sir, As sudden grief does her. But give a little Scope to her sorrow. She will soon return And meet her reason in obedience To your desires. King. I thank thee, good Justinius. A song, during which DISANIUS etc. discourse with the KING.* DISANIUS seems to acquaint the KING with the manner of PHILARGUS’ death, pointing at VARILLUS. The KING seems much troubled; but at the end of the song, (as by the KING’S appointment) DISANIUS raiseth PHILOCLES, and JUSTINIUS raiseth EUDINA, and bring them to the KING while EUPATHUS with the ATTENDANTS go forth with the hearse, the recorders playing, which done: King. Your virgin tears and vows o’er your lost love I did attend with pardon, my Eudina; In hope you are now compliant to my will. Disanius. Grieve not your father, madam. Eudina. I ha’ done; And as the gods direct him to command me, I must and will obey. | e-Text here | |
| c. 1635–1639 | 1659 | The Queen and Concubine Act V, viii | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653 | Act V, Scene viii [Recorders.] Enter King, Horatio, Sforza, Petruccio. King. These troubles over: let us, now Surveigh this part of my Possession. I never saw before. I could contemplate This late neglected peece of my Estate, To be the happiest: sure it is no less, To those that think on earth there’s happiness, The Air disperseth pleasure and the Earth Of fresh delight to every step gives birth. Here plentie grows, and above it content, Ore spreads the Face of all the Continent. Eulalia, thou art happy, and didst rise, Not fall from Court into this Paradise. Nor can it move my admiration much, Thy vertue wrought the change, and made it such. | e-Text here | |
| c. 1635–1639 | 1659 | The Queen and Concubine Act V, ix | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653) | Act V, Scene ix King. Good Lodovico, may the merited Fame of thy fidelitie, All trustie servants: love him Gonzago. Hor. Love him? my Loyaltie preserv’d, I shall not desire the Princes love my self Is he not giv’t to faithful Lodovico, My true yoak fellow in State and Commonwealth. [Recorders.] Enter Sforza and Petruccio, bringing Alinda in a Chayre, veyl’d. King. But here’s the man Gonzago, whom thou owest, A love of equal value to thy life. Petruccio. I cannot Sir, in dutie nevertheless But fall before your mercy, which I pray for, That durst assume the hardness to control: Your Majestie Command. Hor. There is a Loyaltie after my own heart now. Here a new Song, EULAIA unvailes ALINDA. Eulalia. Bless’d Heaven! she lives and wakes I hope in healtlh. | e-Text here | |
| 1634 | 1657 | The Queen’s Exchange, Act III Act V, ix | Richard Brome (c. 1590–1653) | Act III (Recorders) Anthynus. Ha! do I hear or dream? is this a sound, Or is it but my fancy? ’tis the musick, The musick of the Spheres that do applaud My purpose of proceeding to the King. I’l on; but stay; how? what a strange benummednesse Assails and siezes my exteriour parts? And what a Chaos of confused thoughts Does my imagination labour with? Till all have wrought themselves into a lump Of heaviness, that falls upon mine eyes So ponderously that it bows down my head, Begins to curb the motion of my tongue, And lays such weight of dulness on my Senses That my weak knees are doubling unnder me. There is some charm upon me. Come thou forth Thou sacred Relique! suddainly dissolve it. I sleep with deathlesse; for if thus I fall, My vow falls on me, and smites me into Ruine. But who can stand against the power of Fate? Though we foreknow repentance comes too late. | e-Text here | |
| 1668 | Diary, April 16th. | Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) | 16th. Th[ursday]. Greeting’s book, 1s. Begun this day to learn the Recorder. To the office, where all the morning. Dined with my clerks: and merry at Sir W. Pen’s crying yesterday, as they say, to the King, that he was his martyr. So to White Hall by coach to Commissioners of [the] Treasury about certificates, but they met not, 2s. To Westminster by water. To Westminster Hall, where I hear W. Pen is ordered to be impeached, 6d. There spoke with many, and particularly with G. Montagu: and went with him and Creed to his house, where he told how W. Pen hath been severe to Lord Sandwich; but the Coventrys both labouring to save him, y laying it on Lord Sandwich, which our friends cry out upon, and I am silent, but do believe they did it as the only way to save him. It could not be carried to commit him. It is thought the House do coole: W. Coventry’s being for him, provoked Sir R. Howard and his party; Court, all for W. Pen. Thence to White Hall, but no meeting of the Commissioners, and there met Mr. Hunt, and thence to Mrs. Martin’s, and, there did what I would, she troubled for want of employ for her husband, spent on her 1s. Thence to the Hall to walk awhile and ribbon, spent is. So [to] Lord Crew’s, and there with G. Carteret and my Lord to talk, and they look upon our matters much the better, and by this and that time is got, 1s. So to the Temple late, and by water, by moonshine, home, 1s. Cooks, 6d. Wrote my letters to my Lady Sandwich, and so home, where displeased to have my maid bring her brother, a countryman, to lye there, and so to bed. | e-Text here | ||
| 1680 | Theodosius or, the Force of Love, I, i | Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653–1692); Composer: Henry Purcell. | Act I, Scene i Varanes. What says my fair? Drive Athenais from me! Start me not into frenzy, lest I rail At all religion, and fall out with heav’n: And what is she, alas! that should supllant the? Were she the mistress of the world, as fair As winter stars, or summer-setting suns, And thou set by in nature’s plainest dress, With that chaste modest look when first I saw thee; The heiress of a poor philosopher; Recorders ready to flourish. I swear by all I wish, by all I love, Glory and thee, I would not lose a thought, Nor cast an eye that way, but rush to thee, To these lov’d arms, and lose myself for ever: Athenais. Forbear my lord. Varanes. O cruel Athenais! Why dost thout put me off, who pine to death? etc., etc. | e-Text here | ||
| 1680 | Theodosius or, the Force of Love, I, i | Nathaniel Lee (c. 1653–1692); Composer: Henry Purcell. | Act I, Scene i Vara. I cannot bear Those Frowns: I have offended, but forgive me, For who, Athenais, that is toss’d With such tempestuous tides of love as I, Can steer a steddy course? Retire, my fiar, (Recorders flourish. Hark! the solemnities are now beginning, And Theodosius comes: Hide, hide thy charms; If to his clouded eyes such day should break, The royal youth who doats to death for love, I fear would forfeit all his vows to heav’n, And fix upon thy world, thy world of beauty. | e-Text here | ||
| 1711 | Spectatum admissi risum teneatis? Hor. Spectator 1 (5): Tuesday, March 6, 1711. | Joseph Addison (1672–1719) | As I was walking in the Streets about a Fortnight ago, I saw an ordinary Fellow carrying a Cage full of little Birds upon his Shoulder; and as I was wondering with my self what Use he would put them to, he was met very luckily by an Acquaintance, who had the same Curiosity. Upon his asking him what he had upon his Shoulder, he told him, that he had been buying Sparrows for the Opera. Sparrows for the Opera, says his Friend, licking his lips, what are they to be roasted? No, no, says the other, they are to enter towards the end of the first Act, and to fly about the Stage. This strange Dialogue awakened my Curiosity so far that I immediately bought the Opera, by which means I perceived the Sparrows were to act the part of Singing Birds in a delightful Grove: though, upon a nearer Enquiry I found the Sparrows put the same Trick upon the Audience, that Sir Martin Mar-all practised upon his Mistress; for, though they flew in Sight, the Musick proceeded from a Consort of Flagellets and Bird-calls which was planted behind the Scenes. At the same time I made this Discovery, I found by the Discourse of the Actors, that there were great Designs on foot for the Improvement of the Opera; that it had been proposed to break down a part of the Wall, and to surprize the Audience with a Party of an hundred Horse, and that there was actually a Project of bringing the New River into the House, to be employed in Jetteaus and Water-works. This Project, as I have since heard, is post-poned ’till the Summer-Season; when it is thought the Coolness that proceeds from Fountains and Cascades will be more acceptable and refreshing to People of Quality. In the mean time, to find out a more agreeable Entertainment for the Winter-Season, the Opera of Rinaldo is filled with Thunder and Lightning, Illuminations, and Fireworks; which the Audience may look upon without catching Cold, and indeed without much Danger of being burnt; for there are several Engines filled with Water, and ready to play at a Minute’s Warning, in case any such Accident should happen. However, as I have a very great Friendship for the Owner of this Theater, I hope that he has been wise enough to insure his House before he would let this Opera be acted in it. | This refers to a performance of the aria Augelleti in Handel’s Rinaldo which was actually scored for soprano voice, sopranino recorder, two alto recorders, two violins, viola, & continuo. You can listen to a delightful performance of it here. | e-Text here | |
| 1740 | 1741 | Under the Greenwood Tree | Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) | Amiens Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lie with me And tune his merry note Unto the sweet bird’s throat. Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see no enemy But winter and rough weather Who doth ambition shun, And loves to live i’ the sun, Seeking the food he eats, And pleas’d with what he gets, Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see no enemy But winter and rough weather. Jacques If it do come to pass That any man turn ass, Leaving his wealth and ease, A stubborn will to please, Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame: Here shall he see gross fools as he, An if he will come to me. | Arne’s setting of a song sung by Amiens in a Drury Lane revival of Shakespeare’s As you like it. Arne set only the first stanza, which he scored for soprano, flauto piccolo (sopranino or soprano recorder), 2 violins and figured bass; but the second verse could easily be sung to the same music, as could Jacques’ reply. The word ducdame is a nonsense word defined by the singer, after the song, as ‘a Greek invocation, to draw fools into a circle’ (even as his curious companions have formed a circle around him). Of course it is always possible that it is derived from the Welsh Dewch da mi = “Come to me”. First performed in December 1740, published 1750. | |
| 1885 | 1888 | The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night: Tale of King Ins Bin Kays and his daughter with the son of King Al-‘Abbas. | Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) | Presently the Prince’s mother bade fetch the five slave-girls to that assembly; whereupon they came and the ten damsels met. The queen seated five of them on her son’s right hand and the other five on his left and the folk gathered about them. Then she bade the five who had remained with her speak forth somewhat of poesy, so they might entertain therewith the seance and that Al-Abbas might rejoice thereat. Now she had clad them in the costliest of clothes and adorned them with trinkets and ornaments and moulded work of gold and silver and collars of gold, wrought with pearls and gems. So they paced forward, with harps and lutes and zithers and recorders and other instruments of music before them, and one of them, a damsel who came from the land of China and whose name was Bá’úthah, advanced and screwed up the strings of her lute. Then she cried out from the top of her head and recited these couplets, Indeed your land returned, when you returned, To whilom light which overgrew its gloom: Green grew the land that was afore dust-brown. And fruits that failed again showed riping bloom: And clouds rained treasures after rain had lacked, And plenty poured from earth’s re-opening womb. Then ceased the woes, my lords, that garred us weep, With tears like dragons’ blood, our severance-doom, Whose length, by Allah, made me yeam and pine, Would Heaven, O lady mine, I were thy groom! | Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton was an English geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, Egyptologist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages. | e-Text here |
| 1591 | Regarding the instuments they played, in 1591 mention is made of “the howboies the Recorders the Cornetes and the violens” belonging to the wait Thomas Williams. In 1604, the inventory of the wait William Maddock includes a sackbut valued at 13s 4d, a double curtal at 10s, two cornetts valued at 10s and a tenor viol valued at 6s 8d. In 1613 the waits abandoned the city, taking with them “one double Curtayle wantinge a staple of brasse for a reede, and one tenor Cornett being the Citties instruments.” | This refers to the instruments played by the Chester Waits in 1591. | Baldwin & Mills (2002). Radford, A. (undated). | |||
| 1622 | Inventory of the City of Norwich | On the 27th November, 1622, the City of Norwich possessed the following instruments of music: Fower sackbutts, fower howboyes and an old howboye broken, two tenor cornetts, one tenor recorder, two counter-tenor recorders, two tenor cornetts, five chaynes, and five fflagges. | Quoted by Chambers (1829, 2: 1272) | Chambers, J. (1829), ed. A general history of the county of Norfolk. Vol. 2. John Stacey, London. Last accessed 9 April 2014. http://books.google.com.au/books/aboutA_general_history_of_the_county_of_Norfo.html?id=_Q4HAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y Galloway (1984: 153). Lasocki (2005b: 501). | ||
| 1913 | A History of Irish Music, ch. 3 | William Henry Grattan Flood (1859–1928) | The Buinne was a primitive oboe, or a flute, and it is glossed by Zeuss as equivalent to tibia. O’Curry equates it with “trumpet in the shape of a horn,” whilst Dr. O’Sullivan says that it is the Romance Buisine, or Bassoon, but I am more inclined to the view of the eighth-century Irish monks, which makes it a sort of pipe, or flute, or cambucus (crooked flute, as it is styled by Archbishop Kilwarby, in 1275). Moreover, we read that the Irish were wont to sing to the accompaniment of the cruit or the buinne, which renders it most probable that this latter was a delicate instrument of the flute genus. In a poem by William de Machault, a writer of the fourteenth century, there is a reference to our Irish buinne as “La flaute bretaigne,” which, in English, was given the name of “Recorder,” or “Flute a Bec.” | In the final sentence above, Flood is referring to Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) , a medieval French poet and ars nova composer. In the list of musical instruments in his Remède de Fortune (c. 1340s, before 1357), Machaut lists la flahute brehaigne (Bohemian flute) which probably represents a transverse flute rather than an internal duct-flute such as a recorder (Powell 2002: 23). Elsewhere, in La Prise d’Alexandrie (c. 1370), Machaut lists flaüstes, dont droit joues quant tu flaüstes which refers to vertical flutes, possibly recorders. Note that Flood mistakenly transcribes Machaut’s la flahute brehaingne as la flaute bretainge. William Henry Grattan Flood was a noted Irish author, composer, musicologist and historian. | e-Text here. Flood (1905, 1913: 27) Brown (1995) Godwin (1977) Machaut G. (c. 1340s, before 1357) Powell (2002: 23). | |
| c. 1558 | The Stanley Poem, Bodleian Ashmole 48 | Richard Sheale | 252 Thus throughe a vayne mistruste and false jelousye, This stoute gentleman yll cast away was he. His second sonne Edwarde maried to an heyre, A thowsand markes a yeare of good landes and fay re. His plainge of instrumentes was a good noyse, His singing as excellent with a sweete voyce ; His countenaunce comely with visage demure, Not moving nor streining, but stedfast and sure. He would shewe in a single recorder pipe As many partes as any in a baggepipe. When the king of Castyle was driven hyther By force and violence of stormye wether, He broughte with him were thoughte fine musitions, There was none better in theyre opinions; Kinge of Castile said, theyre actes more to able, They were gentlemen of houses notable. I have, quoth Henry seaventhe, a knighte my servante, One of the greatest carles sonnes in all my land, His singing gallante with a voyce most sweetelye, His plainge pleasante much better then meetelye; 253 He playes of all instrumentes, non comes amisse ; Call Sir Edward Standley: lo, sir, heere he is ! Come neere, good Sir Edward Standelaye, quod the king, For the honowre of us shewe parte of your conninge. He stoode before the kinges, doubtlesthis was true. In a fayre gowne of cloth of gould of tissiue. Like no common minstrell to shewe taveme myrth. But like a noble mann both of land and byrth; He shewed much conning those two kings before, That the others had no luste to playe any more. He played of all instrumentes notable well; But of all thinges mused king of Castell, To heare two partes in a single recorder, That was beyond all their estimations far. And then King Harry made him to blowe his borne, They had never hard such one since they were borne; In no realme any for true and fyne blowinge. Since Tristram the prince of huntesman was livinge, In two homes at once would a wonderouse noyse make. In the one rochate and in the other strake. | This passage appears to describe recorder multiphonics achieved by singing and playing simultaneously. The player was Edward Lord Monteagle, the hero of Flodden, who humbled the professional minstrels of the king of Castile when they visited Henry VII’s court by his virtuosity. Richard [Rycharde] Sheale, harper of Tamworth, was a 16th century peddlar, and minstrel for the Stanley Family, (and some say, like all peddlars, a mediocre poet). | e-Text here Halliwell (1850) | |
| 15th century | Nominale, Royal Library, British Museum, MS. Reg 17, C XXVII, fol. 43, v° | Anonymous | … Hec fistula, Anglice pype … | “A Nominale in MS. Reg 17, C xxvii, fol. 43, v°, gives the following rather curious list relating to minstrelsy and games …” (Wright 1957: 216, footnote). Originally from a manuscript in the collection of Joseph Mayer, Esq. | e-Text here Wright (1857: 216, footnote) | |
| early 15th century | MS. Royal Library, British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 C. XVII, fol. 21, r° | Anonymous | … Hec fistula, est instrumentum in quo aqua currit. Arbor aqueductus est fistula, musica, morbus … | “From a manuscript of, I think, early in the fifteenth century, in the old Royal LIbrary in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 C. XVII, fol. 21, r°” (Wright 1957: 237). | e-Text here Wright (1857: 237). | |
| early 15th century | MS. Royal Library, British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 C. XVII, fol. 21, r° | Anonymous | … Hec fistula, Ae pype. … | “From a manuscript of, I think, early in the fifteenth century, in the old Royal LIbrary in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 C. XVII, fol. 21, r°” (Wright 1957: 202). | e-Text here Wright (1857: 202). | |
| 11th century | MS Cotton Julius A.H. & MS, St John’s College, Oxford | Anonymous | … Fistula, hwistle … | “This vocabularly is here printed from a copy in MS. Cotton, Julius A. II., in the British Museum. Another occurs in the MS. in St. John’s College, Oxford …” (Wright 1957: 70). | e-Text here Wright (1957: 70 & 73). | |
| 1438 | 1483 | Catholicon Anglicum, British Library, London, Additional 15562 (Pref.MS) | Anonymous | a Flote of a pipe; jdraula. … a Pipe; vbi a trumpe. to Pipe; vbi to trumpe. to Pipe as a byrde; pipiare. a Pipe maker; tibiarius. a Pyper; Aules, Auledus, fistulator, sambucinator, tibicen, tubicenis (tibicina A.). … to Recorde; repetere, recordare. | The Catholicon Anglicum was an English-to-Latin bilingual dictionary compiled in the later 15th century and thus one of the earliest dictionaries in the English language. There are two known copies of the dictionary still in existence, only one of which is complete . The author might have been a native of Yorkshire in the north east of England. It has been cogently argued that the date of the Catholicon was as early as 1438 (Addy 1888). | e-Text here Addy (1888). Herrtage (1881: 136, 281 & 301). |
| 1481 | British Museum, MS. Harl. No. 610 | Anonymous | ”Mynstrells 14; whereof one is verger, that directeth them all in festivall daies to their stations, to blowings, pipings, to such officers as must be warned to prepare for the King and his household att meate and supper; to be the more readie on all servies, Itm to the mystrells the same day, 2s. Itm the same daye my Lord made covenaunt with Wiliam Wastell of London, Harper … and all thus sytting in the hall togeather, wherof some use trompetts, some shalmes, some small pipes, some are stringemen, coming to the court at five feastes of the yeere &c. and cloythyng with thehousehold, wynter and sommer, or 20s. a peece and lyverie at Court. They are to blowe to supper and other revells used at chaundry, and allwaie two of theis persons to continue in Court in wages, being pute to warne at the King’s rideing, when he goeth to horseback, as it shall require … | Regulations regarding the minstrels and children of the chapel of Edward IV cited by Collier (1831: 31-32). | Collier (1831:31-32) | |
| 1492 | Privy Purse, expenses of King Henry VII and of the Lord Chamberlain | [14 February 1492] To the childe that playeth on the records, 20 shillings | Hunt gives no source for this citation other than “the records of the Privy Purse and of the Lord Chamberlain”. It is not to be found in Collier (1831) or Hall (1548-1550). | Hunt (1977: 13). | ||
| Privy Purse, expenses of King Henry VII and of the Lord Chamberlain | [In the time of King Henry VII] To Arnolde pleyer at recorders, 20 shilling | Hunt gives no source for this citation other than “the records of the Privy Purse and of the Lord Chamberlain”. It is not to be found in Collier (1831) or Hall (1548-1550). | Hunt (1977: 13). | |||
| 1492 | Privy Purse, expenses of King Henry VII and of the Lord Chamberlain | [after 14 February 1492] To Gwillim for flotes with a case, 70 shillings. | Hunt gives no source for this citation other than “the records of the Privy Purse and of the Lord Chamberlain”. It is not to be found in Collier (1831) or Hall (1548-1550). | Hunt (1977: 13). | ||
| 1807 | Illustrations of Shakespeare, and on ancient manners: with dissertations on the clowne and fools of Shakespeare; on the Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris Dance …: II, 249 | Francis Douce (1757-1834) | “… it is not a little curious that in modern cant, the recorders of corporations are termed flutes.” A marginal handwritten note (presumably by Douce himself, since the copy scanned by Google Books comes from the Oxford Libraries and has notes in the same hand throughout against many of the entries) reads as follows: x Fleetwood. Add story in Fox, ?Tower & Lansd. that as a [unclear] F[ox]. heard a cuckoo at Newington & asked a maid whome he met whether it was “the Nightingale of Newington!” “No” said the girl, this is the recorder of London.” | Nares (1822: 421) comments on Douce’s first observation: “If so, the jest must be ancient; and they who now use it are probably ignorant of its meaning.” Francis Douce was an antiquary, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum from 1807 to 1811. He bequeathed over 19,000 volumes of printed books of all periods and some 420 manuscripts to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Perhaps his surname is somewhat fortuitous, in the context of la flûte douce! | e-Text here Douce, F. (1838, 2: 249) Nares (1822: 421) | |
| 1508 | The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde | Alexander Barclay (c. 1476-c.1552) | Of impacient Folys that wyll nat abyde correccion. He is a Fole that wandreth by nyght In felde or towne, in company or alone Playnge at his lemmans dore withouten lyght Tyll all his body be colde as lede or stone These folys knockynge tyll the nyght be gone At that season thoughe that they fele no colde Shall it repent and fele whan they be olde. Nowe wolde I of my boke haue made an ende And with my shyp drawen to some hauen or porte Stryken my sayle, and all my folys sende Vnto the londe, a whyle them selfe to sporte But this my purpose is lettyd by a sorte Of frantyke folys, wandrynge about by nyght For often all yll doers hatyth the day lyght Whyle (man) beste and euery lyuely creature Refresshe theyr myndes and bodyes with rest And slepe: without the whiche none can endure And whyle all byrdes drawe them to theyr nest These dronken bandes of Folys than doth Jest About the stretis, with rumour noyse and cry Syngynge theyr folysshe songes of rybawdry The furyes ferefull spronge of the flodes of hell Vexith these vagabundes in theyr myndes so That by no mean can they abyde ne dwell Within theyr howsys, but out they nede must go More wyldly wandrynge than outher bucke or doo Some with theyr harpis another with his lute Another with his bagpype or a folysshe flute Than mesure they theyr songes of melody Before the dores of theyr lemman dere Yowlynge with theyr folysshe songe and cry So that theyr lemman may theyr great foly here And tyll the yordan make them stande arere Cast on theyr hede, or tyll the stonys fle They nat depart, but couet there styll to be But yet more ouer these Folys ar so vnwyse That in colde wynter they vse the same madnes Whan all the howsys ar lade with snowe and yse O mad men amasyd vnstabyll and wytles What pleasour take ye in this your folysshenes What ioy haue ye to wander thus by nyght Saue that yll doers alway hate the lyght …… | It is not always easy to distinguish waits from minstrels, since their duties were often the same, but there was for centuries hostility between the waits. Trained musicians who served an apprenticeship, were accorded official status, badges of office, livery and emoluments and the common minstrels – itinerant players of very varied capabilities and some little better than rogues and vagabonds, were held in low esteem, as described here. Alexander Barclay was an English monk, poet and translator. | e-Text here | |
| 1915 | The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIlth and XVIIIth Centuries Revealed by Contemporary Evidence: 457 | Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940) | At the first sound the recorder ingratiates itself into the hearer’s affection. It is sweet, full, profound, yet clear, with just a touch of reediness, lest it should cloy People often say: “How much more beautiful it is than the flute! How can it have been superseded?” Even professional flautists have said this. Did time and space allow, it might be of interest to philosophise upon the causes of our loss: but we must restrict ourselves to effects, and thus see in the recorder one of those delicate shades among the wonderfully varied colours from which the fortunate musician of past times could select the decoration of his works. The intonation … right through the chromatic compass of two octaves and one note is perfect, if you know how to manage the instrument; but its fingering is complicated, and requires study. To the ignorant person who just blows into it, and lifts one finger after another to try the scale, it seems horribly out of tune; but that is not the fault of the instrument. | e-Text here Dolmetsch (1915: 457) | ||
| 2013 | A poem for John Turner’s 70th birthday | Antony Hopkins (1921–2014) | When John was born long years ago How on earth could people know That ultimately he’s become Recorderist, surpassed by none? Looking back upon his life, Assisted by a loving wife, He’ll feel, I’m sure, that it’s been good And things have worked out as they should. Now is certainly the time To celebrate his life in rhyme. John Turner, you can truly boast That you’ve achieved far more than most. (From the composer most indebted to you for your tireless efforts on his behalf – Antony Hopkins) | Antony Hopikins was a noted English composer who wrote a number of works for the recorder. John Turner is an English recorder player who devotes his time to playing, writing, reviewing, publishing, composing and “generally energising”. | Web-site: Divine Art Recordings Group (UK) (2014) | |
| 1710 | unknown | London in 1710: From the Travels of Zacharias Conrad Von Uffenbach. | Zacharias Conrad Uffenbach | In 1710, a visiting German, Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, described hearing a Scotsman called Cherbourn [?Sherbourne] in a London tavern, the Blue Bell, giving a perfect imitation on the recorder of the bagpipes and of a transverse flute, and he could also make it sound like two recorders in harmony:”One could scarce have observed that he was singing, if one did not look prodigious sharp upon him.” | Uffenbach (1710/1934) | |
| c.1430 | Temple of Glas: Allas for thought (Cmb Gg.4.27) | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | … … I myghte at leyser onys se, And a-byde at lyberte, Where as it doth so fayre sprede A-geyn the su?me in euery mede, On bankys hy a-mong the bromys, Wher as these lytylle herdegromys Floutyn ul the longe day, Bothe in aprylle & in may, 420 In here smale recorderys, In floutys & in rede sperys, Aboute this flour, til it be nyght; It makyth hem so glad & lyght, 424 The grete beute to be-holde Of this flour & sone onfolde Hyre goodly fayre white levis, Swettere than in 3ynge grevis Is cheuyrfoyl or hawethorn, Whan plente with hire fulle horn Hyre sote baume cloth out-shede On hony-souklys in the mede, 432 Fletywge ful of sugre newe; … … | Medieval English Dictionary Online (2015) Compendium HyperBibliography (2015) | ||
| c. 1374 | unknown | Troilus iii. 2: 51 | Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) | 50 Lay al this mene whyle Troilus, Recordinge his lessoun in this manere, `Ma fey!’ thought he, `Thus wole I seye and thus; Thus wole I pleyne unto my lady dere; That word is good, and this shal be my chere; 55 This nil I not foryeten in no wyse.’ God leve him werken as he can devyse! 50 All this time meanwhile lay Troilus rehearsing his lesson in this manner: ‘My faith!’ thought he, ‘this I will say, and thus: thus will I entreat my lady dear: that word is good, and this shall be my cheer: 55 this I must not forget, any wise.’ God grant it all works out as he shall devise. | e-text Transl. | |
| 1413 | 1483 | The Booke of the Pylgremage of the Sowle v. viii: 99 | John Lydgate (?1370-1449) | How the Angels Recordyd Theyr Songes agaynst the Comyng of Oure Lord Capitulo Octauo So thenne after this counceylle, ther was an assemble of multitude of Angels, and dyden this message as is before sayd, soo that Dauid ordeyned plente of lusty instrumentes, bothe organs and harpes, symbals and sawtryes, kroudes and tympans, trompettes and tabours, and many other, of whiche he maketh mencion in his owne songes in the Sauter, callynge alle creatures, and specially these Aungels, for to preyse God and worshype hym with alle theyr besynesse. Soo when they hadde these instrumentes, they recorded songes besyly, tylle that they were within a lytell tyme parfyte ynowe in al maner musike, and also in the craft of makyng suche maner of instrumentes, moche better than Dauyd couth thynken en deuysen, & no doute that Tubal ne Pyctagoras had nought be but lerners and as prentyses in theyr presence. And they shold haue ben abasshed for to haue herd the melodye that they made therin. The poete Orpheus – that was so swete an harpoure, as the clerkes feynen, that the trees folowed him, & the stremes stoden to heren his armony, & stinten Helle so ferforth, that Helle graunted what that he wold desyre, for his subtyle pleye – though that he had be present among this companye, alle his craft ne curiosyte ne shold nought haue auayled, ne be had of no reputacion. So thenne these Angels occupyed the instrumentys in soo lusty wyse, that al Heuen was in a maner renouellyd with a fresshe ioye. And of this ioye and melody was taken occasion to halowe in this Chirche bynethe this holy feste of the Concepcion of this Blessid Virgyn, Mayden and Moder, Quene of Heuen Blisse and Emperesse of Helle, the refute and comforte of Adams lygnage. But this feste was but as an assaye and preparatory, as an exampler to these other feestes. And nought for thy, yet fynde we ful ofte that a curious dore in harp or other instrument wyl make as moche melodye, and also lusty to euery mannes heryng in recordyng pryuely, as when he pleyeth in presence of a lord in his best maner. But when it was come to the tyme that this plaunte was woxen and shewyd hym self openly to the world al clere aboue the erthe, the Angels, that nought elles dyde, ne longe tyme hadden doo, but, abydynge this feste, recordynge theyr songes and theyr ioyeful armonye, and hadden longe tyme boren naked swerdes to warden the entre of Paradys, and forth do vengeaunce vppon wretchyd synners, anone they putten vp theyr wepen, Cherubyn forthmost of alle, and token theyr instrumentes and bygonne to pleyen soo delyciously, that Heuen bygan to laughe of the newe ioye that there was begonne. And this was the dyte of theyr songe: … | Nothing in the English work gives any indication of who the translator may have been. Two English poets have been put forward as possible translators of the French work, but neither of them convincingly. These are John Lydgate (c.1370-1449) and Thomas Hoccleve (c.1368-1426), both generally considered to be disciples of Chaucer. Fred van Vorsselen, the editor of the online version (see below), provides a glossary which includes: recorden (v.) remember, memorise, rehearse Curiously, despite employing this verb no less than four times in this short passage, the list of instruments makes no mention of the recorder. | Anonymous (1413/1483). The Pylgremage of the Sowle. Caxton. Online edition edited by Fred van Vorsselen. Last accessed 7 December 2014. Cust (1859). |
| c. 1477 | unknown | Jason: 37 | William Caxton | If ye will recorde the lessons and epistles of loue by the space of ten yere. | A translation of Raoul Lefèvre’s L’histoire de Jason I cannot find this quote in this work. It is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary. | e-text |
| 1656 | printed 1659 | Golden Remains of the ever memorable Mr John Hales of Eaton College , i. 153) | John Hales (1584-1656) | A Sermon on St Luke 18.1 And he Spake a Parable, &c. “The Husband-man (faith St. Hierome) at the Plough-tail may sing an Hallelujah, the sweating Harvest-man may refresh himself with a Psalm, the Gardiner whilest he prunes his Vines and Arobrs, may record some one of David’s Sonnets.” | e-text | |
| 1914 | A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words especially from the dramatists. Edited with additions by A.L. Mayhewn. Oxford University Press. | Walter W. Skeat | record, to sing, to warble; applied esp. to the singing of birds. Two Gent, v. 4, 6; Pericles, iv, Gower; Beaumont and Fl., Valentinian ii. 1; Browne, Brit. Past. ii 4. As sb. – recorder …, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (ed. Arber, p. 79); Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 142 recorder, a kind of flageolet or small flute, so named because birds were taught to ‘record’ by it. | Skeat (1914) | ||
| 1650 | unknown | Anthropometamorphosis: 92 (1650) | John Bulwer (1606-1656) | In the curious Machin of speech, the Nose is added as a Recorder, to advance the melodius echo of the sound. | John Bulwer was an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher who wrote five works exploring the Body and human communication, particularly by gesture. He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people, [the plans for an Academy he outlines in Philocophus, orThe Dumbe mans academie. The complete title of the item considered here is Man Transform’d, or the Artificial Changeling. Historically presented, in the mad and cruel Gallantry, foolish Bravery, ridiculous Beauty, filthy Fineness, and loathesome Loveliness of most Nations, fashioning & altering their Bodies from the Mould intended by Nature. With a Vindication of the Regular Beauty and Honesty of Nature, and an Appendix of the Pedigree of the English Gallant. London: J. Hardesty. | Schmidt (1959: 448) |
| 1755 | unknown | Dictionary of the English Language … | Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) | Recorder: “3. A kind of flute, a wind instrument. … … In a recorder the three uppermost holes yield one tone, which is a note lower than the tone of the first three.” | e-Text here Schmidt (1959). It’s hard to make sense of Johnson’s second comment. | Schmidt (1959). |
| 1590 | The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. London: William Ponsonbie. Book 2, Chapter 21 | Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) | The shepherds attending vpo[n] PHILISIDES went amo[n]g the[m], & sa[n]g an eclogue; one of the[m] answering another, while the other shepheards pulling out recorders (which possest the place of pipes) accorded their musick to the others voice. | e-Text Schmidt (1959) | ||
| 1595 | 1601 | Plinie, Book VII, Chapter 56: The first inventers of diverse things | Philemon Holland (1552-1637) | “The flute and the single pipe or recorder were the inventions of Pan, the son of Mercurie.” | Translation of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History. Philemon Holland was an English schoolmaster, physician, and translator. He is known particularly for having produced the first English translations of works by Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Plutarch, as well as for his translation of William Camden’s Britannia. | e-Text Schmidt (1959: 456) |
| 1621 | Triton’s Trumpet for the Four Seasons, a poem in praise of the musical accomplishments of Milton’s father by his friend Lane., British Museum MS Reg. l7.B XV.f.179b. | John Lane | “At this full point, the Ladie Musickes hand, Opened the casements, wheare her pupills stand, To whome liftinge that signe, wch kept the time, Lowde organs, cornets, shaggbutts, viols chime, Lutes, cithernes, virginals, and harpsichords, Flutes, violins, and softlie touchd recordes, Bandoraes, orpharions, statelis grave, Otherboes, classhers, sweetest of the thrave, And everie instrument of melodie, Wch mote or ought exhibite harmonie,…” | Quoted by Chaucer Society Vol. 13, Series 2, Part I, p. ix. Schmidt (1959) notes that unfortunately the significant line ” flutes, violins, and softlie touched recordes” is missing in this source. John Lane (fl. 1620) was an English poet. A good friend of John Milton the elder, he lacked university education. He published two poems, Tom Tel-troths Message and his Pens Complaint (1600), which was satirical, and An Elegie vpon the Death of the high and renowned Princesse our late Soueraigne Elizabeth (1603). He left a continuation of The Squire’s Tale in manuscript. | Schmidt (1959: 458) | |
| 1802 | unknown | Chronicle of Scottish Poetry: From the Thirteenth Century, to the Union of the Crowns, Volume 4 | James Sibbald | Recordar a small common flute | An entry in the Glossary (pages unnumbered) | e-Text here |
| 2015 | unknown | unknown | Ted Alexandro (1969–) | THE RECORDER So, I used to be a music teacher. I used to teach K-5 music here in New York City. I taught the recorder. Are you guys familiar with Satan’s little flute? If there’s music in Hell, I assure you, it is played on a recorder. | Alexandro is a stand-up comedian from New York City. He has appeared on most late night talk shows and has had his own half hour specials on Comedy Central. | CC: Stand-up |
| 1503 | c.1549 | Clariodus, Advocates MS 19.2.5, National Library of Scotland | When silence beine of wind and minstrellie, And burd beine servit by and by, The luitis beine sayit and stringis, The squyeris dansing alway in the springis; The harpis beine sayit a the full, To make hartis mirrie tha war dull; The Guthtrone with triumph did record; The cleare symball with the mirrie cord; The Dulcat playit also with portatiue, Sad hevie myndis to make exultatiue. The dulse base fiddell with the recordour, Assayit war, and set at ane missoure; Out of Irland there was ane clerscheo. | A metrical romance which derives from a French source namely the prose Cleriadus et Meliadice, composed c. 1440. The exact date of composition is unknown, but the first half of the sixteenth century is assured by the terminus ad quem of a citation of ‘‘claryades and maliades’’ among the many English and Scottish texts listed in the c. 1549 Complaynt of Scotland, combined with a terminus a quo supplied by Clariodus’demonstrable borrowing from William Dunbar’s The Goldyn Targe and The Thrissill and the Rois (Purdie 2002). | Irving (1830) Leyden (1801) Purdie (2002) | |
| 1689 | unknown | Ode Z322: Celestial Music Did the Gods Inspire | Henry Purcell | Her charming strains expel tormenting Care And weakened natures wasted strength repair. | Celestial Music is modeled on a work by Giovanni Battista Draghi, an Italian composer employed at the English Court. Holman (1994) writes that “Purcell followed Draghi in using the recorders in a new way: as well as providing the customary final ritornello, they clothe the voice in rich harmony and provide interludes between the vocal phrases.” In 1689 Purcell was commissioned to write works by two London schools. The more famous of these commissions resulted in Dido and Aeneas, first performed at Josias Priest’s School for Young Ladies in Chelsea, but at around the same time (perhaps keeping up with his competitors) the schoolteacher Mr Maidwell commissioned the music to the Ode Celestial music did the gods inspire, which was performed at his school on 5 August. The librettist is unknown, simply credited in the score with ‘the words by one of his scholars’, but certainly appears to have had a firm grounding in Greek and Roman mythology—and produced verse that was better than some written by more distinguished names of the time. The aria Her charming strains is evocatively scored over a four-bar ground bass for the other-worldly combination of countertenor and two recorders and the instruments are provided with an elegant playout. | Holman (1994) |
| 2009 | unknown | Lost City of Z: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday, New York | David Grann | On one of his quests Fawcett’s group was depressed and collapsed at the end of a very hard day. Page 116: “Percy, to encourage merriment … pulled a recorder from his pack and played ‘The Calabar’, a gallows humor Irish folk song about a shipwreck.” James Murray (famous for exploring the Antarctic) hadn’t heard the song in 30 years and joined along singing: “Costin….took out his own recorder. Manley lay listening, as the sound of their voices and instruments drowned out the howl of monkeys and the whir of mosquitoes. For a moment, they seemed, if not happy, at least able to mock the prospect of their death.” Page 134: Another reference (this time about parasitic bot flies growing in Murray’s arm), but Fawcett talks about his ‘flute’, possibly another reference to the recorder. “The Echolas tribe were even adept at removing the maggots that had tortured Murray: “They would make a curious whistling noise with their tongues, and at once the grub’s head would issue from the blowhole,” Fawcett wrote. “Then the Indian would give the sore a quick squeeze, and the invader was ejected.” He added, “I sucked, whistled protested, and even played the flute to mine, with absolutely no effect.” | The story of the British explorer Percy Fawcett who, in 1925, disappeared with his son in the Amazon while looking for an ancient lost city. For decades, explorers and scientists have tried to find evidence of his party and the Lost City of Z. Perhaps as many as 100 people perished or disappeared searching for Fawcett over the years. Grann made his own journey into the Amazon, revealing new evidence about how Fawcett died and showing that Z may have really existed right under his feet. The book has been turned into a film to be released shortly. Karen Gibson (2012: 35) writes: “[Fawcett] had good success meeting and befriending Indian tribes during his travels. One trick that he found quite useful was to play a small flute-like instrument called the recorder or sing to hostile natives. When they calmed down, he gave them gifts as a sign of friendship.” It seems highly unlikely that the real Fawcett and his companion Costin would have known and played the recorder at this time (pre-1925). A flageolet seems more likely. | Gibson, Karen Bush (2012: 35); Grann, David (2017) |
| 2018 | Dolmetsch. For Hanna Neumann (1914-1971) | Arjun von Caemmerer | Stolid. Brown. Plastic. The Acme Of Uncool. And yet, This instrument was once owned & blown By one who, defiant and smoking, Strolled right past the Nazis; Who forsook her own country To raise five children in exile; Who foraged wildflowers and mushrooms To fill her bicycle basket While her husband went wandering. Exploring pure mathematics, She broke beyond brackets Until a blood vessel burst, Flood-drowned her brain. A University building now carries her name. Sometimes I blow her Bakelite blockflöte, Digits & breath rerouting resistance Rediscovering and rendering Hanna’s past loves — her Telemann & Co., Whose Art of Expiring transfigures time. | Johanna (Hanna) Neumann (née von Caemmerer) (12 February 1914 – 14 November 1971) was a German-born mathematician who worked on group theory. moved to Australia in August 1963 to take academic positions at the Australian National University in Canberra. She was made chair of pure mathematics in 1964 and was dean of students between 1968 and 1969. The author of this poem, a veritable polymath, is himself a keen recorder player. See his profile here | Published in Red Room Poetry | |
| late 14th century | unknown | Origo Mundi | unknown | REX DD whethoug menstrels ha tabours 1995 trey-hans harpes ha trompours cythol crowd fylh ha savtry psalmus gyttrens ha nakrys organs in weth cymbalys recordys ha symphony 2000 [ad equestres] lemyn pep ol yskynnens yn hanow a’n tas dev ker ha war tv tre fystenens kefrys marrek ha squyer | The Ordinalia are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are Origo Mundi (The Origin of the World, also known as Ordinale de Origine Mundi, 2,846 lines), Passio Christi (The Passion of Christ, also known as Passio Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi, 3,242 lines) and Resurrexio Domini (The Resurrection of Our Lord also known as Ordinale de Ressurexione Domini, 2,646 lines). The metres of these plays are various arrangements of seven- and four-syllabled lines. Ordinalia means “prompt” or “service book”. The first play, called Origo Mundi, begins with the Creation of the World, the Fall of Man, and Cain and Abel, followed by the building of the Ark and the Flood; the story of the temptation of Abraham closes the first act. The second act gives us the history of Moses, and the third represents the story of David and of the building of Solomon’s Temple, curiously ending with a description of the martyrdom of St Maximilla as a Christian by the bishop placed in charge of the temple by Solomon. | MS Bodley 791, Bodleian Library, Oxford Origo Mundi, Wiksource |
| 1940 | Das Blockflötenbüchlein, page 10 | Hermann (Johannes) Moeck Sr. | “Ein Vorgang, wie der Siegeszug der Blockflöte, hat in unserer Zeit nur eineParallele, nämlich in dem Werden des neuen Staates selbst.” [An event such as the triumphal march of the recorder has only one parallel in our time, namely the coming into existence of the New State itself.] | Robert Ehrlich (2021: 44-47) writes: “In Tibia 10, no. 2 (1985), 373, Hermann Moeck, Jr. impliedthat he, not his father, wrote this text in his final school year (“Abiturjahr”). It is, however, inconceivable that this forty-seven-page promotional book was published without the close supervision, approval, or indeed co–authorship of Hermann Moeck, Sr.” — Robert Ehrlich This episode is examined more fully by Ehrlich (2021:44-46). However, I can find no such article by Moeck Jr in Tibia 10, 2: 373 (1985) or elsewhere in that edition. | Moeck (1940)Ehrlich (2021) | |
| First Date | Last Date | Title | Author | Quote | Notes | References |
Cite this article as: Nicholas S. Lander. 1996–2024. Recorder Home Page: Quotations. Last accessed 20 November 2024. https://recorderhomepage.net/home/quotations/