OH NO!!! I've become a cross-fippler!

[Henke]

I would have never tought it was possible. I tought I had a strong mind. But no, I was gravely mistaken, as the dark powers has finally got hold of me. I have started playing the recorder. I have been seduced by medival music. It's so beautiful.

If you're still reading this, I assume eighter that you have also straied onto dark roads, or you are not weak minded and I can safely tell you, and you will not collapse, that I have plans on starting playing the Boehm and Baroque flutes as well. And for all ye strong minded I can say that I will still play the Trad. flute and Whistles and I will still keep into sessions.

May the Crystal people be merciful on our souls!

[skh]

Henke,

it's ok. Those people talking bad about recorders just have no idea what a real recorder is capable of. I'm sure the Crystal People won't mI///&%%$dlalk akdjd////akjs ////

[skh]

Something went wrong with my previous post. Seems I can't even edit it to clean up the garbage. Hm.

Sonja

[cj]

Is it time for us cross-fipplers to come out of the closet? Do we have to appear on a tawdry talk show? Will the world accept us?

Where do you get medieval music? I'd like to give that a try.

[peeplj]

Medieval and Rennaissance music is some nice lovely stuff.

On your flute, I'm sorry it Baroque.

--James

[Henke]

Where do you get medieval music? I'd like to give that a try.

I first got it from collage (I study music). I'm in an "anti-electricity" ensemble there and we focus on folk and medieval music. I've become a good friend with a girl playing the recorders there and it just strikes me when I sit down with her, a couple of violins, a modern orchestral flute, bass and drums, how well the recorders really sound and blend in, as well as takes sharge when that is deciered. I guess that wasn't really a big help for you my friend, but my advice for you (altough I'm not really the person to answer your question), is to find a private teacher who can teach you recorder and ask him/her for medieval music. Most recorder players, in my experience, usualy knows a lot of medieval and rennaissance music as well as classical music. But surely, some other players can give you further advice.

[cj]

Thanks, Henke. There are a couple of liberal arts colleges here, so I may call their music departments and see if they have a grad student that plays recorder.

[kevin m.]

Well Henke,I may not be a 'cross fippler',but I may be turning into a 'cross fluter'.Since I bought a one keyed flute off E-Bay,I have been investigating Baroque flute music,and have bought a couple of c.d.s of music by the composers Quantz and Vivaldi,and have c.d.s of Bach and Telemann on order (!).
The flute I have is really a 19th century model at A=440,so it can't be described as 'Baroque',though I suppose it has similar characteristics to 18th century models.
I'm really just 'dipping my toe in the water' really-obviously Baroque music is a different sound world to Trad. Irish flute,but then I think that any exposure to music- from anywhere,or any historical period can do nothing but improve my overall musical understanding and enjoyment.
I can't see myself rushing out and buying a flute pitched at A-392 or 415 at present (there are some beautiful copies being produced now,but have you seen the price of them? !!),but then,I never dreamed that I would be buying Uilleann pipes a couple of years ago!
If you enjoy your little 'fipple fetish' with the recorder-then good for you!

[The Weekenders]

Aww, take it easy on yerself. Not only do I own a Moeck student model soprano, my sonny boy (the 10-yr old) made it part of his musical array, along with trumpet, whistle, keyboard and saxophone, the latter his current fave. He plays the Can-can on it along with "Tequila".

Yeah, I tried to play it once. It made me want to rape and kill....naw, not really. Just had too many little holes.

AND, I am Music Director of a historical group that uses Bass, tenor and alto recorder at times to play music of 18 and 19th century California. The tenor player would love a low whistle but is too cheap to buy one and damn if I will let him contaminate my Burke.

SHO–HOCKING!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes, tho, they just sound too toot-y and I think I am in a cartoon.

[Nanohedron]

*stands bedizened in his formal cloak of righteous and priggish invective-hurling indignation, pointing a stark finger and crying, "Shame! Shame!"*

Actually, the music in which the recorder was played is exactly the music the recorder was made for.

....Errr...umm...

It sounds great, esp. in Baroque and Renaissance compositions.


(edited because Bloo has made me rather self-conscious of my grammar these days)

[Doc Jones]

I've become a good friend with a girl playing the recorders there and it just strikes me when I sit down with her, ......

Another sad case of a firm resolve being sold for a pretty face.



Doc

[Rod Sprague]

I crossfipple all the time. I have two ocarinas, flutophone, a slide whistle and a Yamaha and Kung recorder. The Kung I purchased from Lark in the Morning because there is a recorder group in my church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse. I started on the pennywhistle because it was the folk instrument closest to the sax, my first love, and it was felt it would be more appropriate than the sax in the church folk orchestra. Later, we had a sax join the folk orchestra, but I like fippling now anyway. I needed more social fippling in my life, so I got a plastic Yamaha recorder and participated in the recorder group. The Kung I purchased because Lark in the Morning said it had the proper tuning to play the tempered baroque to contemporary intonation, but had the consistent, wide range of a contemporary instrument. Both the recorder group and I really like the tone of the Kung.

One of my ocarinas, the slide whistle and the flutophone were made by Trophy Music. I found the fipple from their slide whistle well suited to experimenting with, so I got hold of Trophy Music to find out how much the fipples would cost independent of the slide whistle. They would sell them for 25c each, if I purchased at least 100 and paid shipping, so I ended up with 100 fipples (I have dibs on “100 Fipples” as a song title). I found tubing, including copper pipe, of the right size to fit their fipples, and made a number of nice pennywhistles. I found I could go as low as A with the fipples, but found Bb, B and C are good keys for copper pipe.

I built an instrument out of copper pipe that was in tune using the C pipe length and the recorder fingering. One of the secrets to placing the finger holes was to add the extra finger hole at the top, keeping the spacing of the lower holes the same as the spacing of the holes on a C pennywhistle. I demonstrate this to recorder players by taping the top finger hole and thumbhole and playing the six remaining finger positions as if the recorder was a C pennywhistle! I bet this would infuriate extreme purists of both camps! I’m going to build some of the whistles with recorder fingerings for the folk orchestra recorder players and the recorder group, as a subversive way to introduce them to the pleasures of pennywhistling. I’m also going to build “D with the lower C hole” pennywhistles for the rest of the folk orchestra.

Rod

[kevin m.]

Well done Rod!
It's very generous of you to build instruments for the recorder group ('subverting from within' eh? ).I bet you have also learned a lot from your whistle making experiments-at 25c. per fipple it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg!

[skh]

. One of the secrets to placing the finger holes was to add the extra finger hole at the top, keeping the spacing of the lower holes the same as the spacing of the holes on a C pennywhistle. I demonstrate this to recorder players by taping the top finger hole and thumbhole and playing the six remaining finger positions as if the recorder was a C pennywhistle! I bet this would infuriate extreme purists of both camps!

Was the recorder you did this with in German or English/Baroque fingering (i.e. did it need

x xxx xoo o

or

x xxx xox x

for F natural (assuming it's a soprano in C))?

[brewerpaul]

I'm a major cross fippler too, and proud of it. Actually, I owe the recorder a great debt of gratitude, since I found my wife via that instrument. When I got into Trad music, I played less and less recorder and finally decided to sell my Bass recorder on eBay. I live in upstate NY and sold the Bass to a woman in Michigan. We had to communicate about the instrument after the sale, one thing led to another and now she is my wife and soulmate. We are part of a Baroque consort ( along with a third recorder player, harpsichord and viola da gamba) which has gone semi-pro ( occasional paid playing gigs).
By cosmic cooincidence, Charlene's home in Michigan was about an hour away from Troy Michigan, then home to Glenn Schultz ( other cooincidence: I lived in Troy NY !). I had been communicating with the Weasel for years by mail and e-mail, but probably would never have made the 700+ mile trip out to meet him face to face if not for visiting Char's family. This led to my learning whistlemaking from him. Yup, I LOVE the recorder !
One of the great joys of playing classical music as opposed to trad is the harmony. At an Irish session, all the melody instruments generally play the same line, but when playing classical you are usually playiing different music, hopefully harmoniously. When it works right, it is purely magical