A practical exploration of the historical fingerings of Baroque Recorders in England, France and Germany

Name: Koske Nozaki Main Subject: Recorder Research Supervisors: Inês de Avena Braga and Peter Van Heyghen Title of Research: A practical exploration of the historical fingerings of Baroque Recorders in England, France and Germany Research Question: What is “historical fingering” for Baroque recorders, and how does it work and affect our modern recorder performance practice. Summary of Results: The recorder was an important instrument in the Early Music revival, partly due to its large repertoire of Baroque music. However, most recorder players today do not use the instruments that were most commonly used in the Baroque period, i.e. those with historical fingering systems. Instead, we normally use instruments with “modern fingering,” a slight modification that simplifies fingerings and homogenizes notes. With our modern instruments and their different fingering systems, several notes and trills do not work with the existing fingering charts for Baroque recorders. The Investigation of this research, on 7 actual original 18th century recorders from England, Germany, and France, and 40 fingering charts from historical methods shows us; it is a very logical system. The people at the time were playing the recorders in a different way, with differently tuned instruments. Fingerings on the recorder have always been found by trial and error, by players, with their own comfort and ease in mind. Though it is clearly not possible to know how the people in the Baroque period were choosing their fingerings; the best approximation is to have the same instrument tuned in the same system from the time. Historical tutors allow us to realize how their system of thought was different, which helps us to get closer to them. A bit of effort to accept the valuable tips from centuries past, with a taste for authenticity on the Baroque-fingered recorder, is a necessity. Biography: Koske Nozaki (Tokyo, 1988) began playing recorder at the age of 9. He loved the friendliness of such a simple flute with so many possibilities, and had a lot of curiosity for repertoire and the instrument itself. His school life at a beautiful seaside was focused on the recorder ensemble with his friends, which taught him a lot of basic musical knowledge. In his high school life, on a mountain this time, he learned not only recorder, but cello in the school orchestra as well. He studied recorder and Early Music performance at The National Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, where he obtained his Bachelor degree. After three years of working as a recorder player and teacher in Japan, he moved to The Netherlands in 2014. He is currently completing his Master’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he studies recorder and baroque flute.

Author: Koske Nozaki