Recorder (musical instrument)
Surviving instruments

Surviving instruments from the Middle Ages are heterogeneous. The first medieval recorder discovered was a fruitwood instrument ("Dordrecht recorder") excavated in 1940 from a well (not a moat) in the ruin of the Huis te Merwede ("House on the Merwede ") near the town of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. The house was only inhabited from 1335 to 1418. As the area was not disturbed until the modern excavation, the recorder has been dated to the period of occupation. The instrument has a cylindrical bore about 11 mm (0.43 in) in diameter and is about 300 mm (12 in) long with a vibrating air column of about 270 mm (11 in). The block has survived, but the labium is damaged, making the instrument unplayable. The instrument has tenons on both ends of the instrument, suggesting the presence of now lost ferrules or turnings. Uncertainty regarding the nature of these fittings has hindered reconstruction of the instrument's original state.

A second, structurally different instrument ("Göttingen recorder") was discovered in 1987 in an archaeological excavation of the latrine of a medieval house in Göttingen, Germany. It has been dated to between 1246 and 1322. It is fruitwood in one piece with turnings, measuring about 256 mm (10.1 in) long. It has a cylindrical bore about 13.6 mm (0.54 in) at the highest measurable point, narrowing to 13.2 mm (0.52 in) between the first and second finger holes, to 12.7 to 12.8 mm (0.50–0.50 in) between the second and third finger holes, and contracting to 11.5 mm (0.45 in) at the seventh hole. The bore expands to 14.5 mm (0.57 in) at the bottom of the instrument, which has a bulbous foot. Unusually, the finger holes taper conically outwards, the opposite of the undercutting found in Baroque recorders. The top of the instrument is damaged: only a cut side of the windway survives, and the block has been lost. A reconstruction by Hans Reiners has a strident, penetrating sound rich in overtones and has a range of two octaves. With the thumb hole and the first three finger holes covered, the reconstruction produces a pitch ca. 450 Hz.

In the 21st century, a number of other instruments and fragments dated to the medieval period have come to light. These include a fourteenth-century fragment of a headjoint excavated in Esslingen, Germany ("Esslingen fragment"); a birch instrument dated to the second half of the fourteenth century unearthed in Tartu, Estonia ("Tartu recorder"); and a fruitwood instrument dated to the fifteenth century, found in Elbląg, Poland ("Elbląg recorder").

Common features of the surviving instruments include: a narrow cylindrical bore (except the Göttingen recorder); a doubled seventh hole for the little finger of the lower hand to allow for right- or left- handed playing (except the Tartu recorder); a seventh hole that produces a semitone instead of a tone; and a flat or truncated head, instead of the narrow beak found on later instruments. Additionally, the Esslingen fragment has turnings similar to the Göttingen recorder. No complete instruments larger than 300 mm (12 in) have survived, although the Esslingen fragment may represent a larger recorder.

The widely spaced doubled seventh hole persisted in later instruments. According to Virdung (1511), the hole that was not used was plugged with wax. It was not until the Baroque period, when instruments with adjustable footjoints were developed, that widely spaced double holes became obsolete.

The classification of these instruments is primarily complicated by the fact that the seventh hole produces a semitone instead of a tone. As a result, chromatic fingerings are difficult, and require extensive half-holing. These instruments share similarities with the six holed flageolet, which used three fingers on each hand and had no thumb hole. Anthony Rowland-Jones has suggested that the thumb hole on these early flutes was an improvement upon the flageolet to provide a stronger fingering for the note an octave above the tonic, while the seventh finger hole provided a leading tone to the tonic. As a result, he has suggested that these flutes should be described as improved flageolets, and has proposed the condition that true recorders produce a tone (rather than a semitone) when the seventh finger is lifted.

Controversy aside, there is little question that these instruments are at least precursors to later instruments that are indisputably recorders. Because there is sparse documentary evidence from the earliest history of the instrument, such questions may never be resolved. Indeed, historically there was no need for an all-inclusive definition that encompassed every form of the instrument past and present.
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