Tenor recorder

Musical instruments
Woodwinds Piccolo Flute Oboe Cor anglais Clarinet Saxophone Bassoon Contrabassoon Bagpipes Recorder Garklein in C6 (c''') Sopranino in F5 (f'') Soprano in C5 (c'') Alto in F4 (f') Voice flute in D4 (d') Tenor in C4 (c') Bass in F3 (f) Great bass in C3 (c) Contrabass in F2 (F) Sub-great bass in C2 (C) Sub-contrabass in F1 (FF)
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Percussion
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The tenor recorder is a member of the recorder family. It has the same form as a soprano (or descant) recorder and an alto (or treble) recorder, but it produces a lower sound than either; a still lower sound is produced by the bass recorder.

The tenor recorder, like the soprano recorder, is tuned in C, but an octave lower. Because of its larger size, many tenors have keys to make it easier to play the lowest C, C♯, D, and D♯.

In modern notation, the tenor is written at sounding pitch, unlike most of the other recorder sizes, which (except sometimes the alto) are written an octave lower than they sound (Lasocki 2001)

Where flute duets are usually written for soprano and alto recorder, the tenor recorder is indispensable in four-part or polyphonic music, which is often performed by a recorder quartet or quintet.

History

In German-speaking countries in the 18th century, the tenor recorder was named Quartflöte (fourth flute), after the interval it forms below the ordinary recorder (alto) in F. Confusingly, the same name was used for the soprano recorder in C, apparently because it forms the same interval above the alto in G. At the same time, the English and French equivalents, "fourth flute" and "flute du quatre", meant a recorder a fourth higher than the alto in F—that is, an instrument with B♭ as its lowest note (Lasocki 2001).

References

• Baines, Anthony C. 1967. Woodwind Instruments and Their History, third edition, with a foreword by Sir Adrian Boult. London: Faber and Faber. Reprinted with corrections, 1977. This edition reissued, Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1991, and reprinted again in 2012. ISBN 978-0-486-26885-9.
• Lasocki, David. 2001. "Recorder". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

Further reading

• Alker, Hugo. 1963. "The Tenor Recorder: Its Development, Special Characteristics and Repertoire", with additions and amendments by Edgar Hunt. The Consort no. 20 (July): 166–73.
• Griscom, Richard W., and David Lasocki. 2013. The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide, third edition. Routledge Music Bibliographies. Routledge. ISBN 9781135839321.
• Praetorius, Michael. 1619a. Syntagmatis Musici Michaelis Praetorii C. Tomus Secundus De Organographia. Wolfenbüttel: Elias Holwein, in Verlegung des Autoris.
• Praetorius, Michael. 1619b. Syntagmatis Musici Michaelis Praetorii C. Tomus Tertius. Wolfenbüttel: Elias Holwein.
• Sachs, Curt. 1913. Real-Lexikon der Musikinstrumente, zugleich ein Polyglossar für das gesamte Instrumentengebiet. Berlin: Julius Bard.