PHILIPPE BOLTON

HANDMADE RECORDERS & FLAGEOLETS


MEDIEVAL DOUBLE RECORDERS

2 recorders played together - 1312

This painting by Simone Martini (1312), shows a musician playing two recorders together, giving a possibility of simultaneously playing a tune and a drone or simple accompaniment. The tune and accompaniment can even be passed from one pipe to the other. Joining the two together makes them easier to play since they form a single rigid instrument.

The soprano (descant) double recorder in c.


flûte à bec double

  • Each pipe has 5 holes, (including the thumb) giving a total chromatic range of over an octave, with notes from c to a on the right hand (low) pipe, and from f to d on the left hand (high) pipe, as well as some extra high notes from f2 to a2.

  • Pitch: 440, 460, 466 or 523 Hz.

   

You can listen to
this instrument here



von der Vogelweide (13th century)
Under der Linden
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A video :

link to double recorder video
Emily Baines presents and plays
this double recorder

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A recording on CD:

Ich het czu hannt geloket mir
by the Monk of Salzburg (14th century)
played by the duo Enßle-Lamprecht

on Audax Records

The alto double recorder in G

alto double recorder

The characteristics are the same as those of the soprano.

You can listen to the alto double recorder here:



der Mönch von Salzburg (14th century)
Vil maniger geud von sweigen sich,
arranged & played by Anne Suse Enßle
(Audax Records ADWW11206) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLJHkKLMilM



soprano and alto double recorders

These two recorders together for comparison.

Some examples from the iconography of the period

double recorder
a sculpture in the Palais Jacques Coeur, in Bourges



Two English manuscripts from the early fourteenth century

a picture from the Luttrell Psalter
From the Luttrell Psalter (ca 1325),
British Library Add. MS 42130
un manuscrit anglais
A manuscript from about 1300,
British Library Royal MS 10 E IV

angel musicians, a painting of the Avignon school
The Assumption of the Virgin,
Avignon school, 15th century (detail)
an angel musician, Le Mans cathedral
Ceiling of the Chapelle de la Vierge
(14th century), Le Mans cathedral
An angel musician, Saint Paul church, Lyon
15th century fresco
Saint Paul church, Lyon
double recorder, XVth century painting
double recorder
(XVth century painting, Castile)

a double recorder in a monsastery in Subiaco, Italy
Detail of a 13th century painting in a
benedictine monastery in Subiaco, Italy.

  A fresco showing an angel playing a double recorder

Detail of a fresco by Giacomo Jacquerio, ca. 1410–15