THE AMERICAN RECORDER SOCIETY 114 East 85th Street, New York 28, N. Y. founded in J 939 by Suzanne Bloch

OFFICERS

ERICH KATZ Musical Diredor / GERTRUD BAMBERGER .. MARTHA BIXLER ... LaNOUE DAVENPORT ... ALBERT HESS .. HERBERT KELLMAN

BERNARD KRAINIS• JOHANNA E. KULBACH· JOEL NEWMAN Asst. Musical Directors /CARL COWL Secretory' WINIFRED JAEGER Treasurer

NEWSLETTER LaNOUE DAVENPORT Editor

H. F. D_ Gate Hill Hoad Stony Point, N.Y.

No. 28 April1957

The American Recorder Society Newsletter is commencing with this issue the publica­cion of an ext.austive series of articles, ten in number, on recorder technique. These articles are written by Mr. A. Rowland Jones of England, and it is with his kind permission, and also the permission of The Recorder News of England, Mr. C. Kenworthy, editor, that we are reprinting these articles. This is the most detailed study of recorder technique that we have seen so far, and it is offered to our readers in the hope of stimulating interest and discussion in these finer points of recorder playing.

Mr. Jones of course uses English terminology throughout, thus "descant" is our soprano; "treble" is our alto, etc. Also ''minim" is our half-note; "crotchet" is our quarter-note; "quaver" our eighth-note, etc. In regard to the musical examples quoted as reference, we feel that since Mr. Jones goes into some detail concerning the structure of various exercises, the industrious student can find comparable ex­amples in American publications, should the English ones not be readily available. Your comments, pro or con, concerning this series will be most welcome.

TECHNIQUE by A. Rowland Jones

Introduction

The standard of recorder playing in this country is abominably low. The sloppy breath control, careless fingering and hideous intonation that seems to satisfy many recorder players would make the average amateur flautist or oboeist

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blench. A child learning to play the violin knows more about the mechanics and potentialities of his instrument after a year of instruction than most supposedly competent recorder teachers ever get to know about theirs. Even some of our best players are not as good as they should be. There are professional recitalists who slow down when they come to difficult bits in a sonata and who fluff and scamper passage work that is the daily bread of the orchestral wind-player. Newspaper critics reviewing recorder concerts often speak of technical imperfections and tonal monotony when they ought to be concentrating on the music and its interpretation (the "Manchester Guardian" criticism of the Manchester SRP concert is an example). How can the recorder re-establish itself as an important musical instrument in the minds of players of other instruments, composers and concert organisers (especially the BBC) if the standard of performance is not worthy of the music written for it?

Perhaps the main cause of poor playing is the fact that it is very easy to play tunes on the recorder. Nobody could give a convincing performance of "Green sleeves" on the flute, oboe or violin with as little effort as it takes to do it on the recorder. And so, easily succumbing to temptation, the lone player regales his gas fire not with dutiful scales and long-note practice but with oft-interrupted versions of Handel sonatas or even Indian Folk Tunes on the descant. A well-known tennis player, asked why the standard of British players was now so poor replied, "I think it is because they play far too much and practise far too little". The same is true of recorder players.

This article, "That roars so loud and thunders in the index", is the first of a series of ten that will deal with the technique of recorder playing: I shall not dis­cuss, except incidentally, problems concerning the interpretation of music. My aim is to make recorder players more aware of the difficulties of recorder playing and of the capabilities and limitations of their instrument. I am more anxious to en­courage self-criticism and a spirit of experimenting than I am to instruct: many of the things I say may be considered by more experienced players than I to be contro­versial or even misleading, and I should be glad to hear from people with different views as well as from players who would like me to enlarge upon any point raised in these articles.

The elements of recorder technique will not be treated in this series which is intended for players who know all the standard fingerings for the chromatic scale over one and a half octaves and who can play the sort of music graded by Schotts as 'easy'. I shall start with breath control, then go on to tonguing and intonation; then will follow three articles on alternative fingerings and one on what might be called 'Utility Decoration': the remainder will be entitled 'High Notes', 'Tone and Volume Differences', 'Practising' (a miscellany of wrinkles), and as an appropriate finale, 'Performance'.

I shall throughout write in terms of the treble recorder unless making a specific reference to another instrument: a mental transposition is easily made for the descant and tenor. Instead of musical illustrations examples will be given from published music and suggestions made of pieces worth practising. References will give the pub­lisher's order number when they are first made: movements will be referred to by name or in roman numerals, and the number of the bar will be given. So, for example, a C" occurs in the Telemann F major sonata (Schott Ed. 10060) III 19. Numerous refer­ences will be made to Fifteen Solos (Schott Ed. 2562 a), Monkemeyer's Hohe Schule (Moeck 2001) and the Lennox Berkeley Sonatina (Schott Ed. 10015) which is excellent music, very hard to play and bristling with technical difficulties.

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I shall have done what I hope to do if through these articles readers of "The Recorder News" become more critical of their own playing and of other people's, and more full of wonder that so simple a thing as a recorder can be made to discourse so eloquently. I shall have done more than I hope if it becomes any less true to say of the recorder player in general, 'He plays like a child on a recorder: a sound, but not in government'.

Tone Production and Breath Control

At the end of the last "Recorder News" the Editor asked to have his attention drawn to gramophone records of music with recorders. I should therefore like to mention the Nixa record (BLP 304) of J. C. Bach's Sinfonia Concertante and C. P. E. Bach's Symphonies Nos. land 3, not only because of the record itself (which I haven't heard) but also for the "Gramophone" criticism: quoted in the catalogue it runs as follows, 'The two symphonies recorded here are both delightful works ••• The Vienna Symphony Orchestra's performance is neat and poised and the recording is extremely good. Special praise must go to the recorders, which sound as clear as flutes, with none of that off-pitch fluffiness that so often makes these instruments hateful to listen to.' Alas!

As the first essential of playing any instrument good tone beats good intona­tion by a short head. The player owes it to his instrument to produce the richest and most characteristic tone it is capable of. Recorders do vary, but even the most intractable (assuming it does not need revoicing) should produce the good sound associated with recorders, the sound a composer has in mind when he writes for the recorder rather than any other instrument. If you do not want to make the recorder sound any better than a Tipperary Flute or an Ocarina, play one of these instruments instead-they are much cheaper. If your recorder is badly made and is incapable of ounding good, destroy it and get another, at the same time warning your friends

against buying that make of instrument.

The quality of a recorder note is affected by tonguing and blowing, that is to say the beginning and middle of the process of playing a note: bad finishing gives rise to poor intonation but seldom affects the tone quality. This article deals with the middle process only, breath control.

Different recorders require different breath pressures: find what suits your own, but be able to alter your breath pressure both in order to play some or all of the notes on your own instrument at different pitches and to handle other instruments when circumstances require. Generally speaking, recorder players tend to blow too hard-high breath pressures are only needed for solos, and then not invariably. Practise like this: take the 'open' note on your instrument, i.e. G' on the treble, and, after breathing in deep, whisper into the instrument to make the quietest noise you can manage that passes for a musical note. Hold it steady (this is very difficult) for twenty seconds; don't let it get out of control at the end. Now play the same note loud like a trumpet, giving it the greatest breath pressure you dare almost making the note "break"--that is overblow with a nasty rasp into a higher octave. Hold the note steady for ten seconds (this is relatively easy) and finish by blowing it over the break. The first note will be thin and wispy, the second strident, and the two should be at least a whole tone apart in pitch, more on a good wooden re­corder. Now go back to the low breath pressure but make the note just loud enough to be pleasant and convincing (it will still, however, be a little breathy): this is your instrument's 'pp'. A clean, loud (but still slightly harsh) note well clear

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of that break you have just discovered, is your 'ff'. Somewhere between the two pressures, generally but not necessarily midway, lies the most beautiful G-find it by experiment - and this is your optimum breath pressure. In consort playing, how­ever, your general level of attack should be slightly below this pressure, so that your purest notes come in an 'mf' passage or when you announce a theme in a Fancy.

To consolidate these experiments play at low, high and medium pressures and at a speed of about five seconds to each note any of the mainly minim hymn-tunes in Schott Ed. 10020 that suit your instrument. Practise on all the recorders you have and concentrate on steady breathing at low pressures-it is more salutary to your own playing and kinder to the neighbours. Practise into a mirror, or if you are shy, towards a polished surface or even the corner of your room, so that the sound is reflected back at you; concentrate very hard on listening to it (would that more musicians did this!) and be extremely critical. Do not allow a waver in the evenness of your sound. If you have difficulty in keeping notes steady at low breath pressures try making a stricture in your mouth with your tongue against your teeth so that you can feel the flow of breath into the instrument.

As to actual breathing, the recorder player is fortunate in that he can breathe almost naturally (except perhaps in playing the sopranino and bass). Take advantage of this and breathe in a deliberate but relaxed fashion. Keep the lungs fairly full and don't waste the opportunity of a long rest to empty and replenish them. In music of the continuous sort you are forced to take quick breaths: let them be deep-swallow a lot of air at once, and above all, don't gasp. Some players think they have taken a big breath rapidly when in fact they have only gasped enough for two bars of alJ .. a breve. Sit up naturally to allow the lungs to function properly: hold your recorder up and don't play it between your knees even when practising by yourself. You can learn a lot from singers and I suggest that it is well worth while reading books on breathing, phrasing and vibrato intended primarily for singers: quite inappropriately one of the best is a ''Handbook for Singers" (Augener) by a gentleman called Norris Croker.

Despite the fact that Mr. Croker lists it as a vocal defect caused by nervous debility, the mastery of vibrato is as important to a recorder player as to a string player. Elsewhere in this edition of the ''Recorder News" a contributor voices a common opinion that the recorder is an inexpressive instrument: this idea is there­sult of the hard and inflexible tone quality that recorder players so often produce, a fault that can be amended by a carefully controlled use of vibrato. The subject is so important that I intend to deal with it more fully in a later article on tone and volume differences, when I shall point out the uses (and misuses) of vibrato: for the moment I shall only say how to attain and practise it.

Vibrato is produced by alternately decreasing and increasing breath pressure, regularly and rapidly. The impulse must come from the back of the throat (and not from tongue movements), and may be represented by the syllables 'hu-hu-hu-hu-hu-hu' aspirated without any interruption in the actual flow of air. The effect is easiest obtained on a sopranino or descant at high breath pressure. Start with a 'long wave­length' ( slov 'hu-hu 's ') and increase the frequency until you get a 'short wave-length' of vibrations-this is the natural vibrato that some beginners produce without realising it (they find it all the harder to play a plain note without vibrato). Once the knack is acquired (and it is deceptively easy) you will soon settle down to a comfortable short wave-length vibrato, and you should be producing much more convincing notes than you ever did without vibrato. Never let vibrato become entirely automatic however. Continue to practise long notes without it (they are much harder to control without

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vibrato just as it is more difficult to balance on a bicycle without slight wobbling): playing without vibrato or with very little indeed is essential in medieval music and in most consort playing. Practise also the other extreme, slow vibrato (long wave­length): aim at keeping the vibrations steady and even at about six to a second with­out getting any quicker, continuing to use a high breath pressure to aid control. Attempt, too, something between this slow vibrato and your normal rapid vibrato (call this 'medium wave-length'). Try the effect of beginning a note quite without vibrato and then stir it up like a pot of cream by immerging a very rapid vibrato and gradual­ly slowing this and thickening into long-wave-vibrato; this exercise is easier if the note swells in volume at the same time. Apply the three vibrato wave-lengths to your hymn-tune practice, playing at the three different breath pressures. Counting the plain note, this gives twelve ways of playing the same hymn tune: listening very minutely to what you are doing, try them all. If you work hard, for the process of mastering all twelve interpretations is a gruelling one, you will soon find that your simple recorder is, after all, malta expressive.

"No Instruction Needed"

The following, by coincidence, may serve as a comment to the foregoing article. A recent advertisement of a New York firm, selling a well known brand of recorders, began with the usual introduction about how easy it is to play this instrument and then stated with a simple finality: "No instruction needed." Obviously, the im­plication is that a fingering chart is a perfectly sufficient substitute for a teacher.

We can assure the advertiser, and all our readers, that those people who "need no instruction", as a rule also need no recorders. They should save their money, or buy a radio or television set instead. If they believe the advice of this or similar advertisements, they will only swell the ranks of those all too many players who, after a glowing start, soon become discouraged, disappointed or frustrated, and help to bring the recorder into disrepute, either by their scorn of the innocent instrument or else by their bad playing.

One of the main purposes of the ARS is "to promote a better understanding of the values and functions of the recorder", and to work "towards improving the standards of recorder playing." We realize that instruction alone is not the only answer to that, and also that some of the instruction available is not as competent as we would desire. Nevertheless, we can't help feeling that the kind of advertising as described above is very shortsighted and rather irresponsible, to say the least.

SOME LITERARY SOURCES OF THE TERM "TO RECORD" by Joel Newman

E. K.

While members of the American Recorder Society should be familiar enough with the derivation of their chosen instrument's name, the majority of music lovers still remain mystified by the ambiguous label. To help clinch the matter, here is a flock of quotations from 16th and 17th-century poets and playwrights, some familiar, some newly-cited.

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First come instances where the writer employs the now obsolete verb "to record", meaning to warble like a bird.

Thomas Kyd. The Spanish Tragedie (l594)

"Harke, Madame, how the birds record by night."

Beaumont and Fletcher. Valentinian, II, l (l6lO-l4)

"For you are fellows only known by ro,te, I As birds record their lessons."

The Pilgrim, V, 4 (l62l)

"O sweet, sweet; how the birds record too! "

William Browne. Britannia's Pastorals (l6l6)

"The nymph did earnestly contest I Whether the birds or she recorded best."

The nightingale is especially associated with the term, as in the next citations.

Shakespeare. The Two Gentlemen of Verona, V, 4 (c. l592)

'liere can I sit alone, un-seene of any, I And to the Nightingales complaining Notes I Tune my distresses, and record my woes."

Pericles, IV, Gower (c. l608)

" when to the lute I That still records with

She sung, and made the night-bird mute, I moan;"

Michael Drayton. Eclogues, No. l (l593)

"Fair Philomel, night-musicke of the spring, I Sweetly records her tuneful harmony."

Because the vertical flute's tone quality reminded people of bird calls, the in­strument was dubbed recorder. The next group of quotations refer to the instrument itself.

The Earl of Surrey. "So cruel prison how could betide, alas" (Tottel's Misc., l557)

"The secret groves which oft we made resound I Of pleasant plaint and of our ladies' praise, I Recording soft what grace each one had found, I What hope of speed, what dread of long delays;"

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Sir Philip Sidney. Arcadia (1590)

"The shepherds went among them and sang an eclogue, while the other shepherds, pulling out recorders, which possessed the place of pipes, accorded their musick to the other's voice."

Edmund Spenser. The Shepheardes Calender: April ( 1579)

"But if hys ditties bene so trimly aight, I I pray thee, Hobbinol, recorde some one: I The whiles our flockes doe graze about in sight, I And we close shrowded in thys shade alone. "

Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595)

"Of fellowship (said then that bony Boy) I Record to us that lovely lay againe : "

Beaumont and Fletcher. Monsieur Thomas, III, 3 (c. 1609)

"Ye may record a little, or ye may whistle, I As time shall minister: but for main singing, I Pray ye satisfy yourselves: away, be careful."

Thierry and Theodoret, V, l (c. 1617)

"But then if I should talk in my sleep and they hear me, they would make a recorder of my windpipe, slit my throat."

John Milton. Paradise Lost (1667)

" anon they move I In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood I Of flutes and soft recorders; •••• "

Music by a consort of recorders playing off stage is often called for in the stage directions of Beaumont and Fletcher's dramas (Bonduca, III, l; The Night Walker, IV, 5: The Little French Lawyer, III, 3).

The last instance is an uproarious scene of unsuccessful love making, constantly interrupted by the servants and recorder music. The harried lover screams out such rantings as "A hog's pox stop your pipes!" ''What's that? A Vengeance choak your pipes!" "Plague damn your whistles!" The Two Noble Kinsmen of disputed authorship calls for "Still music of records" in Act V, Scene 3.

The alert Shakespearian need not regret the omission here of two very lovely "recorder references" -- Midsummer Night's Dream, V and Hamlet, II, 2 --·since a detailed analysis of these moments will be the gist of a later article in this Newsletter.

Incidentally, the line "As birds record their lessons", from Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian, refers to the custom of training singing birds with the recorder or flageolet. Stanley Godman's informative preface to his delightful edition of

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The Bird Fancyers' Delight ••• London, 1717, describes this process, which became the fashion in the 18th century. As late as 1822, Robert Nares' Glossary says that the recorder was so called because birds were taught to record by it.

ARS Meetings in New York

On March 1, 1957, a meeting was held at the New York College of Music under the direction of Joel Newman. There was a short performance of Renaissance and con­temporary duets, and a sonata by Mattheson, played by Mr. Newman and Phoebe Sheres. Members played ARS Editions Nos. 25 and 26.

On Friday, April 5, at the same location, the meeting was conducted by Martha Bixler. Miss Bixler, Sylvia Lund, Henry Steig, and LaNoue Davenport played two fugues by J. S. Bach, and four dances by Hans Ulrich Staeps. Members played from "Elizabethan and Shakespearean Music," "Fantasias and Ricercares of the 16th and 17th Centuries", and ARS Edition No. 8.

Boston Chapter

On February 4, Morna E. Crawford wrote to us as follows regarding recent activities of the Boston Chapter of the ARSo

We have had several successful meetings since the last report. November 29 at the Charles Street Universalist Meeting House, we met together for a short time, and then in three separate groups, Advanced Amateurs, Amateurs, and Aivanced Novices. Each group had a leader and each member had received a notice listing the music.

On Sunday evening, January 6th, we held a Twelfth Night Party (also at the Charles Street Meeting House) at which everyone played together and there was a short performance by the advanced group. Among the music played by the group was Corelli, "Christmas Concerto"; "Old Christmas Music" ed. by Erich Katz, and Monteverdi "Angelus Ad Pastores Ait." Cider and doughnuts were served. An extra meeting (beyond the six planned for the year) will be held on February ll at the Boston University College of Music. Group playing (small groups playing in rotation) will be under the direction of Elna Sherman; the entire group will play together and there will be a performance of contemporary music.

Three more meetings are planned for the year. The Annual Concert will be given March lOth at the YWCA. A work by Daniel Pinkham, harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will be performed for the first time. This work, "Duet for Harpsichord and Recorder" was commissioned by the Boston Chapter of ARS. In May and June, meetings will be held for group playing.

The Chapter has been active. We have about forty members, and are now putting on a drive for membership.

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CONCERTS

The "American Recorder Cooperative", a group organized and conducted by J. Bernard Phillips, has given performances at the Broadway Tabernacle (March 17), at Kingsbridge Veterans Hospital (March 29) and at New York Lighthouse for the Blind (April 2). The programs included music by Byrd, Dowland, Buxtehude, Schutz, Telemann, Bach, and others.

The Education Department of the Detroit Institute of Arts presented The Detroit Recorder Ensemble with a program of works from the 16th century (Josquin, Palestrina and others) to the present time (Edmunds, Kolbe, Kubik). Participating were Anita Bates and Dorothy Withrow (voices), and Esther Frost, Helga Herz, Henry Kolbe, and H. Dorothy Tilly (recorders).

A concert of sacred music in West Park Presbyterian Church, New York City, on " April 7, included works by Josquin, Schutz, Buxtehude, Bach and other old masters.

Carl Cowl and Winifred Jaeger played recorders in a Bach aria from Cantata No. 46, and Reba Paeff Mirsky performed soli by J. s. Bach and his son K. Ph. Emmanuel, on the clavichord.

NOTE

The famous "La Fontegara" of Sylvestre Ganassi, first published in Venice in 1535, is now available in a German edition edited by Hildemarie Peter. This is a combina­tion recorder method, and handbook of ornaments. For those recorder players who have a command of German, this is an excellent book to possess. The publisher is Robert Lienau, Berlin-Lichterfelde.

ARS Edition No. 25

" Heinrich Schutz, Eight Psal~, arranged for four recorders by Erich Katz.

" Among the great masters of the Baroque period, the German composer Heinrich Schutz ( 1585-1672) was unique in that he wrote no purely "instrumental" music at all. Yet at the same time he was a leader in the transformation of 16th century a-cappella polyphony into a world of music where entirely new and close connections between vocal and instrumental music developed. Within Protestant church music, he gave to the organ as well as to other instruments the important function of accompanying and underscoring the chorale. It is characteristic that the first print of his psalm collection to texts by Cornelius Becker, 1628, was still for unaccompanied voices, while all later editions, from 1640 un, have a figured bass added, re­quiring an instrumental background.

Only a few of these beautiful melodies could be selected for the present ARS Edition. The technically quite simple, but harmonically rich and colorful settings are well suited for playing by a consort or a larger group of recorders. The freedom of a few ornamental and cadential changes taken in this edition, necessitated by voice leading or limitations of recorder range and sound, is consistent with the custom of realizing a bass at that period.

E. K.

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ARS Edition No. 26

William Byrd, Pavan and Galliard1 transcribed for six recorders by Bernard Krainis.

The Pavan and Galliard of William Byrd, like most English instrumental music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, was originally written for viols. Since viols and recorders share many important characteristics, recorder players can find in the enormous viol literature a vast treasury of magnificent ensemble music. (see: Musica Britannica Edition; Jacobean Consort Music).

Originally written without bar lines, this kind of music confronts players with fascinating problems of rhythm and meter. Although the editor has added bar lines as a conventional time-keeping convenience, the metrical implications of the bar line with its unchanging alternation of strong and weak beats should be ignored. The rhythmic patterns in each part change constantly, and any attempt to fit them artificially into the straitjacket of regular bar line meter will result in an ungainly performance.

I have tried to indicate some of the more obvious changes of rhythm through the use of stress marks. These are not syncopated accents. They should have the feeling of the first note in a measure, and should form 3/8 and 6/8 patterns. It is ad­visable, therefore, that the first several playings should use an eighth-note unit of counting.

Needless to say the stress marks as well as other suggestions for phrasing and articulation are editorial additions to the original text which had none. They may be changed or ignored by anyone.

B. K.

MUSIC REVIEWS

Thirteen new publications have been received from Universal Edition. This com­prises the numbers so far released of their new series "il flauto dolce" 1 Dolmetsch Recorder Series, General Editors Carl Dolmetsch and Layton Ring. They are:

U.E.L. 12550 12 Classical Pieces for descant and piano

" 12551 Tansman, A., Suite pour 3 flutes deuces (SAT)

" 12552 and 12553 -Jenkins, J., Fantasies Nos. land 8, for 3 recorders (SSA)

" 12554 Couperin, F., Fauvetes plaintives (S'nino, or 8 1 and AT)

" 12555 Couperin, F., Musette de Taverni (SS)

" 12556 Bononcini, G., Sonata in F (A, piano)

" 12557 Consorts from 4 Nations (SAAT or SATB)

" 12558 Tunes from The Beggar's Opera (S solo)

U.E.L. 12559

" 12560

" 12561

" 12562

" 12563

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Purcell, D., Divisions on a Ground-Bass (s, piano)

Loeillet, J. B., Bonate III (AA)

Bach, J. S., 5 Chorales for 4 Recorders (SAAT or SATB)

Pepusch, J. c., "Corydon", cantata for soprano voice, alto recorder and piano

Couperin, F., "Le Rossignol en amour et vainqueur" (S'nino or A, piano)

The series as so far projected contains much that is very good, some of it familiar and some new. The Jenkins Fantasias are typical 17th century con­sort music, probably intended primarily for viols, but well edited here. The general effect is quite high, owing to the combination of two sopranos and alto, and the second soprano part is not playable on alto.

The pieces by Couperin are in the highly ornamented French style of this period, and are lovely. Nos. 12554-5 are quite different from the usual run of consort publications, and should be of interest to players. The Sonata of Bononcini is musically not too consequential, but melodic, and should make good material for those just embarking on the Baroque sonatas for recorder. The Consorts from 4 Nations include pieces from England, France, Spain and Italy, with the ubiqui taus "Greensleeves" present and accounted for. This editor always welcomes more J. S. Bach, and the chorales are recommended to one and all. Also the Sonata for 2 altos by Loeillet, whom we consider one of the most dependable of composers for our instrument. The 25 Tunes from The Beggar's Opera are for those who love this work, and also enjoy playing soprano recorder solos, without ac­companiment.

Nos. 12550 and 12551 have been deliberately saved until last because it is felt that they represent something in recorder publishing which should be discouraged. It remains our firm opinion that the recorder is incapable of rendering music of the late Romantic period, and any attempt to play this music on the recorder results in a kind of travesty of the music. The in­clusion of pieces by Mendelssohn, R. Schumann, Tschaikowsky, and Brahms in 12550, 12 Classical Tunes, spoils the edition completely, in our estimation. Recorder players have a tendency to resent it when compositions for recorders are played on other instruments, and we feel they should avoid doing the same thing to music unsuited for their instrument.

No. 12551 is a composition by the contemporary composer, Alexandre Tansman. We seriously doubt that Mr. Tansman has ever seen a recorder, and if so, he has certainly never tried to play one. This piece is full of the most grotesque kind of miswriting for the instrument. The second movement, Lento, contains fourteen low d#s, four of them in a crucial cadential melodic figuration, which consists of the following 32nd notes: d#, e, d#, d natural, c#. In addition, just for the practice, there are nine low c#B. In the third movement, at Vivo tempo, we have eighty (80) consecutive eighth notes on low c, plus four each of our friends d# and c#. And for the alto, in case he should feel neglected, six low f#s, and a g#.

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It is our contention that the greatest recorder virtuosos who ever lived could not possibly make this piece of music sound effective, regardless of the quality of the music itself, which is certainly nothing extra­ordinary.

A Visit to the Dolmetsch Workshop

One of the high points of our vacation in England last year was a visit to the Arnold Dolmetsch Workshops located in "Beechside", a country house next to the Dolmetsch studio of "Jesses" at Haslemere in the lovely Surrey countryside.

We were received most cordially by Miss Mayling, Secretary of the firm, and our tour of the workshops and the studio was enhanced no little by lucid comment in technical and musical terms, although much we fear was beyond our limited under­standing.

In this appropriate setting, musician craftsmen, who are apprenticed for not less than five years, unhurriedly make recorders from sopranino to bass of aged rosewood, satinwood, box, East African olive, walnut, massera and partridge. But recorder making is only a small part of the activity of the workshop-- for here also are made an infinite variety of antique string and keyboard instruments: the entire consort of viols, minstrel harps, lutes, theorbos, rebecs, clavichords, virginals, spinets and harpsichords.

Visitors are welcome at the Dolmetsch Workshops but are expected to make an appoint­ment in advance.

Kay and Jack Wallenstein, New York City

MISCELLANEOUS

Recorder players who would like to join (or form their own) ensemble for duo, trio, or quartet playing, are invited to contact Mrs. Yole G. Sills, 416 west ll8th Street, New York 27, New York. Mrs. Sills is planning a questionnaire to assist interested players in communicating with other players of approximately the same degree of ability.

The Otter Lake Music Centre and Festivals, Inc., at Weir, Quebec, will include courses in recorder playing among its activities between June 30 and July 21, 1957. Anyone interested can obtain more information by writing to the Otter Lake Music Centre, Weir, P. Q., Canada.

LISTS NOW AVAILABLE

The new membership list and the list of ARS members who teach the recorder are now available on request.