Baroque And Folk Tunes For Recorder: An Unusual Collection of Music Arranged for the Recorder, containing over Fifty Pieces from Over 300 Years of Music Review

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(More customer reviews)At first glance, some might find the intro to this recorder collection rather offputting, The author (of the introduction) describes most of the recorder players he knows as defeatist, lacking in motivation, and the real reason why the recorder is often seen as the "Rodney Dangerfield" of instruments. But read more closely it is clear he is trying to defend the recorder and encourage players to stick to their guns, or at least their fipples.

This 64-page collection contains 57 solo pieces and an illustration of a bird. All seem arranged for the soprano (or tenor) and also include chords for guitar. Some could be played on the alto and one or two (such as the Corrente) might even sound better that way, given what it would take to hit its high notes on a soprano. Most of the pieces are classical. There is also some folk or traditional and even some ragtime.

Most of the pieces are full-page songs, well within the range of a diligent, advanced beginner who's mastered most notes. The collection bills itself as "unusual", and that's fair insofar as most of its pieces do not seem to appear in other recorder collections, and because it is such an eclectic mix. There's lots of good stuff here. Several pieces bring out the recorder at its most soulful (or most melancholy). I have found the arrangements of Muffat's Siciliana, Pergolesi's Siciliana, and Mozart's Andante Graziosa particularly beautiful, and there are also enjoyable arrangements of Borodin's Polovtsian Dance, "Those were the Days" and Joplin's "The Entertainer", although my music teacher performed a fair amount of surgery on that last piece. Overall, the author seems to have broad musical tastes, a very good ear for music that sounds well on the recorder, and a knack for making it beginner-friendly.

A couple of things could have been done better. The binding on my copy was poor and it fell apart almost immediately. The binding doesn't seem designed to accommodate what presumably will be this booklet's primary function - being laid flat on a music stand. There's no note chart either, which would have been handy (at least handier than that bird picture) for players suddenly stumped for a note on some far-off mountain top or desert without a method book at hand, especially when the book is otherwise so well suited to advanced beginners. There's almost nothing about the pieces in the booklet.

These shortcomings do not outweigh this book's great value as a rich collection of very carefully chosen, beautiful recorder pieces. Strongly recommended.

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Product Description:
A wonderful selection of pieces arranged for the recorder that will delight players at any level. Includes music by Bach, Purcell, Haydn, Brahms, Shostakovich, Joplin, and a variety of folk sources.

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