'Professional' range for instrument 'Alto recorder' is incorrect

• Dec 4, 2012 - 19:12
Type
Functional
Severity
S4 - Minor
Status
closed
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

This is very minor, but it is an issue in many notation programs, and it would be nice to have one that gets it right.

The correct range for the alto recorder is 65-96, not 65-91 as initially programmed. The soprano and tenor recorder ranges are also short by 5 on the top. And yes I'm sure, I'm a recorder player.

Comments

• Dec 6, 2012 - 13:24

Interesting. (and good to see you around again)
What do you mean by "The professional range is not supposed to denote an extreme range".

I always explained amateur range by "notes that can be played by the instrument but hard to obtain", and pro range by "full range of the instrument", so note in red are notes that can't be done physically. (At least for well defined instrument such as recorder, not voice)

Reply

• Dec 6, 2012 - 18:27

Thanks, Nicolas. I think of "amateur range" as notes that can be played after some years studying the instrument, and "professional range" as the notes that can be played after many years of serious study. Then we have the extreme range that you can't expect every professional musician to master.

Reply

• Jul 27, 2013 - 10:47
Status (old) active ⇒ needs info

After some investigation it appears that modern recorders are designed to give a playable range of two octaves and a second, which is the range currently in Instruments.xml

The higher notes mentioned by the OP are playable by renaissance recorders which have differences in bore and other constructional details from the modern recorder.

There are now some recorder makers producing these instruments, which have become known as Ganassi recorders after the Italian Silvestro Ganassi dal Fontego who wrote a treatise on recorder fingering, including ways of extending the range upwards further into the 3rd octave.

At one time I had a baroque reproduction treble recorder with fingerings up to MIDI 96, which I could play in scales, but never remember being asked for in a piece of music.

Bearing in mind that the modern consort recorder is not designed to be played above MIDI 91 it seems to make sense to leave that as the upper limit, and maybe introduce another recorder instrument into the list which does have the Renaissance/Baroque range of 2 octaves and a 6th.

Are we happy with this solution?

Reply

• Jul 11, 2018 - 16:39
Status (old) needs info ⇒ closed
Status needs info ⇒ closed

We now lived for 5 years with the current recorder, alto recorder etc... and it seems nobody complained about it. I close this issue. Please reopen if you have further information.

Reply

• Nov 27, 2018 - 04:14

Just because nobody has complained about it doesn't mean it is wrong. The 'professional' range is wrong. The double high C appears in a Sonata by Telemann and is easily played with X 1 4 and overblowing. I would like a source for the idea that a 'modern' recorder should only be played from Middle F to Soprano G. It sounds more like an excuse for mediocre build quality for mass-produced recorders coupled with the coddling of poor playing ability. There is no essential difference between a 'modern recorder' and the Baroque recorders of Telemann's days. They are the same, aside from being tuned slightly differently.

Please fix this problem.

Reply

• Nov 28, 2018 - 09:33

The original posting states: "The soprano and tenor recorder ranges are also short by 5 on the top." The PR covers only the alto recorder. Can someone, who is a real recorder player give the ranges for these two instruments?

Reply

• Nov 28, 2018 - 09:39

Which original posting? I don't see soprano and tenor recorder being mentioned here?
This issue here is, and ever was, about alto recorder, as far as I can see.

Ah, must have been blind:
The soprano and tenor recorder ranges are also short by 5 on the top

PR amended

Reply