Any other serious Recorder players out there?

deirdre dearg

I've been playing the Recorder for about ten years and I'm about to take my Grade 8 exam with the Royal Irish Accadamy.
I play the Descant and Treble Recorders, and occasionally the Tenor. Every time I tell someone that I play the Recorder, they're like "yeah I did it in primary school......."
Does anyone else play it? What does everyone think when they hear that a person plays it to a high standard?
Also, people also dismiss it as being inferior to the piano, but a lot of skills are needed to master the Recorder.
Opinions people! Please!

ferdi

i have never heard anyone play recorder to a high standard....every instrument is as valid as the next..

robbie1876

The odd time Lyric FM play a piece written for recorder, I'm always well impressed with the potential of the instrument and the beautiful tone it produces. I'd love to listen to more stuff, who would you recommend I check out, Deirdre?

Robbie

deirdre dearg

The thing is that there aren't really any recorder players out there. Most people take it up and progress to another instrument like the claronet or the flute, and the recorder does act as a very good stepping stone to those instruments. I don't know any names to be honest. I have heard one or two pieces on Lyric though.

JC 2K3

deirdre dearg wrote:

The thing is that there aren't really any recorder players out there. Most people take it up and progress to another instrument like the claronet or the flute, and the recorder does act as a very good stepping stone to those instruments. I don't know any names to be honest. I have heard one or two pieces on Lyric though.

I am a serious recorder player, been playing since I was 8(I'm 15 now) and I'm doing grade 7 this year. I did grades 1 and 3 in the Associated Board of Music and then my teacher retired so I didn't play for about a year and then I took up more lessons and did grade 4 in the Royal Academy, then started Treble and spent about a year and a half getting used to it before I did grade 5, then last year I did grade 6....

I hate when it is described as a stepping stone to other instruments as it is a great instrument on its own and there are some very nice pieces available for it(notably the Telemann Sonatas).

oh btw I also play guitar and like rock music; I have versatile taste in music

NotMe

I agree with ferdi.... every instrument is as valid as the next. But, the recorder is generally associated with Junior Cert music so I guess most people who learn recorder would only get to a beginner/intermediate level and then give it up when they no longer have to play it.

JC 2K3

NotMe wrote:

I agree with ferdi.... every instrument is as valid as the next. But, the recorder is generally associated with Junior Cert music so I guess most people who learn recorder would only get to a beginner/intermediate level and then give it up when they no longer have to play it.

I've never heard of playing recorder being popular for JC music, then again I didn't do music for my JC.

I know someone who played recorder for his leaving cert...

I would have thought it would be associated with primary school kids playing their first instrument, a cheap plastic descant recorder, before they spend €500+ on a flute or clarinet etc.

robbie1876

I've been googling for a few minutes now and can find very few albums purely of recorder music. Apart from the Telemann stuff that JC 2K3 mentioned. I can't find anyone at all who would be a 'famous' recorder player at all. I guess part of the problem is the word 'recorder' has a lot of other meanings and is hard to google.

I did find this bird however:

NotMe

JC 2K3 wrote:

I've never heard of playing recorder being popular for JC music, then again I didn't do music for my JC.

I know someone who played recorder for his leaving cert...

I would have thought it would be associated with primary school kids playing their first instrument, a cheap plastic descant recorder, before they spend ?500+ on a flute or clarinet etc.

Well all the schools in my area teach recorder in first year music.

deirdre dearg

There are no famous recorder players that i know of, and Google was no help to me either. The best i got was some crappy place where you could but a 'learn the recorder' cd for children.
It is a really great instrument in itself. It's in its prime when doing a two recorder piece with the Treble and the Descant. My sister learns it too and we have some lovely pieces.
Grade Seven is really hard, but i managed to get honours in it. One thing that really annoys me is that we have to do piano theory work when it's not even our instrument. I mean, I have no idea about the bass clef so I'm at an immediate unfair disadvantage to the piano players. What pieces did you do for Grade 6 JC 2K3?
A lot of primary schools do it, i did for heaven's sake and i was ahead of the class because I already knew it. We did 'twinkle twinkle little star' and such degrading pieces. The RIA pieces are bloody hard!

JC 2K3

deirdre dearg wrote:

There are no famous recorder players that i know of, and Google was no help to me either. The best i got was some crappy place where you could but a 'learn the recorder' cd for children.
It is a really great instrument in itself. It's in its prime when doing a two recorder piece with the Treble and the Descant. My sister learns it too and we have some lovely pieces.
Grade Seven is really hard, but i managed to get honours in it. One thing that really annoys me is that we have to do piano theory work when it's not even our instrument. I mean, I have no idea about the bass clef so I'm at an immediate unfair disadvantage to the piano players. What pieces did you do for Grade 6 JC 2K3?
A lot of primary schools do it, i did for heaven's sake and i was ahead of the class because I already knew it. We did 'twinkle twinkle little star' and such degrading pieces. The RIA pieces are bloody hard!

hmm...pieces.....

Ragtime Razzle(on descant)
Some Lolliet(sp?) piece on Treble

And for my study I did......damnit......I'll remember later