Hand Crafted Recorders

SatinWood

Satinwood is a rich wood  from East India was very popular in the 19th century but then fell into disuse. Now Mollenhauer has rediscovered this wood for the production of recorders. Satinwood has a silky, shiny surface, is finely-pored, and has a regular grain. The colour of the wood can vary from very pale yellow to a dark golden yellow. A further hallmark of this hard and durable turning wood is its beautifully decorative striped or spotted appearance. These Hand Crafted recorders player like the well-centred and brilliant sound colouring that is associated with the harder woods. Mollenhauer uses this rich satinwood especially for the hand-finished baroque alto recorders and also for the electro-acoustic Elody in the unbrushed natural wood model.

Edition 415

Hand-crafted Alto baroque recorder after Jacob Denner

Denner-Edition 415  
The low pitch solo instrument in the top class of baroque alto recorders

Highest soloistic demands 
Strong and variable in tone, flexible and focused in response, stable in perfect intonation. For the finest in early music.

We dedicate an extensive amount of time to crafting these exclusive instruments. Every instrument is voiced over a long period of time – periods of intense playing alternate with phases of fine tuning. In this way, the recorder maker can closely monitor and adjust the development of every instrument.

Hand-crafted instrument

 Craftsman-made windway, Heavily undercut finger holes, Bushed thumbhole, Rounded and polished beak,

Finish: historically stained, oiled and polished by hand with Threaded joints

You can purchashed this Hand Crafted Recorder at  Mollenhauer

THE HISTORY

The Recorder is a ery old woodwind instrument that is from the ancient family called the internal duct flutes.  It has been around for over five hundred years in various forms. Despite its long history, it is often looked upon as a toy or a child’s instrument. To the contrary, the recorder is a venerable instrument and should be taken seriously.

Recorders of the past were mainly constructed from wood, yet many today are made of plastic. In fact, manufacturers produce approximately 3.5 million plastic recorders per year, according to Nicholas Lander’s Recorder Home Page. Its mouthpiece is a plug that creates a shaped windway. However, what distinguishes the recorder from other internal duct flutes are its seven finger holes and single thumb hole, which is known as an octave vent.
Although it has been traced back through artist renderings to as early as the 1300s, the recorder reached a height in popularity during the 16th through 18th centuries.  Originally, recorders (and music in general) were only really available to royal courts. This changed drastically around the 1500s, when sheet music became available to wealthier commoners, and instrument makers began to produce recorders for the public. Many Renaissance composers, such as John Dowland and Ludwig Senfl, wrote music for the recorder. This music was played both in common homes and royal castles. Playing the recorder was a pastime for kings and queens. The instrument was also used in Shakespeare plays and played by famous composers Telemann, Bach and Handel. Lander claims the earliest documented presence of the recorder in North America was in 1633. 

By the 1700s, many composers and instrumentalists began to favor the flute over the recorder, due to the limited range of musical expression possible with the recorder. During this time the orchestra grew larger and the recorder was not able to play loud enough to be heard.  After this the recorders popularity declined.

By the 1900s, the recorder began to regain some popularity among classical composers and pop and rock musicians. Adventurous musicians achieved virtuosic levels of play with the recorder. Not surprisingly, it has found its way into popular music, being used by such artists as diverse as The Beatles (“The Fool On The Hill”), The Rolling Stones ( “Ruby Tuesday”) and The Clark-Duke Project 

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