The recorder was one of the most prominent instruments from Pre- Medieval through to Baroque. Treated like Classical and Modern Flutes, composers would regularly allocate it the principal parts. However, in their pieces, towards the end of the Baroque Era (1650 - 1750) the flute took precedence, due to Theobald Boehm’s new system, replacing both the recorder and Baroque flute. This new flute had a much larger sound and range giving it a more virtuosic quality and appeal to composers. Many other families of instruments were going through the same changes : harpsichord to piano, baroque oboe to modern oboe, viols to violins. This change signified the decline of Early Music. In this period Baroque music was regarded as ‘bad’ music. Jean- Jacques Rousseau defined Baroque in his Dictionnaire de musique ( 1768 ) as, ‘ A baroque music is that in which the harmony is confused, charged with modulations and dissonances, the melody is harsh and little natural, the intonation difficult and the movement constrained. ‘ This opinion lasted until the mid - late 1800s when a growing interest in Early Music re- established its presence. This re- establishment is now referred to as The Revival.
Although the ‘main’ revival took place in the mid to late 1800s, there was still a small interest in early music in the early part of the century. For example, in 1829, Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Berlin - a bold move in a time where the critics slated anything that was not in the classical style of composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. In 1840, The Musical Antiquarian Society launched a surprising venture which lasted for seven years. They produced , on a subscription only basis, nineteen volumes of madrigals, motets, anthems and lute songs. This paved the way for the Plainsong and Medieval Society and the Purcell Society which followed shortly after. However this was the only significant interest shown during this period.
The Revival began in a small vein with only a few enthusiasts, mainly instrument makers, who were just starting to venture into making early instruments. Violin makers embarked upon the task of restoring and re- creating the viol family ; Piano makers such as J.A. Fuller-Maitland (1856 - 1936 ), a critic for The Times from 1889 to 1911 and publisher of English Country Songs, began restoring and building Harpsichords and Clavichords. Throughout the 1800s we can see this interest growing larger.
Arnold Dolmetsch was one of the first to delve into the world of Early Music. Dolmetsch (1858 - 1940), a Belgian instrument maker, musician and scholar, came from a family of piano and organ builders thus making him a trained craftsman and tuner by his teens. Originally a violinist , he studied at the Brussels Conservatoire ( 1879 - 1883) then in 1883 he came to live in England. Dolmetsch had no real interest in Early Music, preferring composers such as Brahms and Berlioz, until he came to study at the Royal College of Music in London. It was here that Dolmetsch began to listen to and love Purcell, Handel and Corelli - sparking his desire to recreate earlier instruments. He began by looking for old instruments, learning from their construction and restoring them. Staying with the instruments he knew best ( viols, harpsichords and clavichords) Dolmetsch started giving ‘Historical Concerts’ using original instruments in 1891. These were regularly attended by Yeats, Wilde, Moris, Shaw and other writers and scholars, along with the aristocracy. Bernard Shaw, also a critic was greatly impressed and gave him a glowing review. This support therefore built up more and more interest and enthusiasm for the revival of Early Music.
Dolmetsch's’ involvement in the revival took on a new interest when he acquired his first recorder, a c.1700 Bressan boxwood and ivory Alto, in 1905 aged 47. While travelling around America and Europe giving lectures on early music he taught himself the fingerings using an early eighteenth century tutor. He fell in love with the beautiful, mellow sound and started to use it in his concerts. In 1919 however, his son Carl Dolmetsch lost this magnificent instrument in Waterloo Station. Arnold Dolmetsch decided to recreate the recorder himself rather than find a replacement. In 1920 he successfully designed the first Dolmetsch Alto. At the second Haslemere festival he unveiled a consort consisting of a soprano, two altos, tenor and bass recorders. This was the beginning of one of the biggest recorder making firms which is still popular today.
Peter Harlan ( 1898 - 1966) is considered to be Dolmetsch's’ counterpart around this time in promoting the revival of the recorder in particular. Harlan set up his own instrument making workshop in the Vogtland region in 1921. He never actually made any of the instruments himself but employed workers to make them under his name; the first recorder went in sale in 1926. Harlan had a rather dubious reputation and it is thought that his ‘designs’ were bad copies of Dolmetsch's’ original. The end result was poor. Not caring for accuracy and authenticity Harlan changed and ‘ improved’ the instruments to his own liking. He developed the German Fingering system which claimed to simplify the difficult English forked fingerings, however this caused many problems. These modified recorders could be played in tune in the lower octave of their home key but were out of tune in the higher octaves and other keys. Unfortunately, these instruments are still being sold today. Harlan although guilty of producing awful instruments did a great deal to help the revival. The German Youth Movement propelled mass production of the recorder for the public. They commissioned Harlan to make cheap plastic versions of the recorders to promote domestic and school music making with their motto being ; ‘wanted to return to simple and spiritual values and seek truth and beauty in all aspects of everyday life.’ If it wasn’t for this business venture the recorder would not have grown in popularity as it has.
As well as Dolmetsch and Harlan there were, of course, other pioneers. The famous recorder player Edgar Hunt was also influential. In 1935 he started teaching recorder at Trinity College, London. He refused to have German fingering recorders like Harlan's imported to his students. Using only English Baroque fingerings, he began to raise the recorders profile even more. He founded the Society of Recorder Players in 1937 with Carl Dolmetsch, which is still running today, providing a support and ‘base’ for recorder players.
One of the first main recorder soloists of the 1900s was Gustav Scheck (1901 - 84). Scheck studied Baroque flute and recorder under Gurlitt in the 1920s in Freiburg and formed a trio with a harpsichord ( Fritz Neumeyer) and Viola de Gamba (August Wenzinger). The concerts of this group were the first of their kind ( rarely at low pitch and on authentic instruments) and took the music world by storm. Scheck was appointed a position at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik in 1943 and along with Gurlitt is considered to have ‘trained the next generation of recorder players. Pioneers of the early music movement and, in particular, of the 20th Century repertoire for recorder.’ Scheck taught many of the great players today such as Ferdinand Conrad, Linde Hoffer von Winterfeld, Peter Hildemaine and the most famous and important Hans-Martin Linde.
These people have made it possible for people today to study the recorder as a serious instrument all over the world. Without their efforts and enthusiasm Early Music would not be as popular or as appreciated, nor would we be continuing the on going debate over it and its’ authenticity.
