Solo Woodwind Repertoire: Recorder

The little recorder music I've listened to before has been of the renaissance or baroque eras, and although I knew that the recorder was still prevalent as a music teaching device, and that there were serious amateurs and professionals who currently engage with the repertoire, I hadn't thought of the instrument in the context of modern composition, and certainly not as something on which you would perform extended techniques.

Alun Hoddinott - Lizard (1997)

 Due to the relatively recent composition of this piece and its relative obscurity, there was no chance I would find the score freely available on the internet, or any kind of analysis, so I will detail my own observations and thoughts on the piece.

The piece opens with a short 2-note repeated motif, which is then heard numerous times throughout the piece. I find this piece actually quite bird-like with the sounds produced, rather than lizard-like! It appears to be structured in multiple seemingly contrasting sections, with clear breaks between each. A broad tonal range is demonstrated in the piece, and it doesn't appear to use traditional major/minor scales, sounding wistful with touches of the oriental here and there. In the often intricate melody I could detect lots of variety with regards to the articulation; trills are used plentifully, as are quick staccatos, and some very effective use of flutter tongue and pitch bends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece, and was surprised to hear something so high-calibre written for the recorder. It proves the versatility of the instrument, and showed me technique that I didn't even know it was able to produce. The flutter tongue and pitch bends were certainly highlights of the music for me.

I was looking forward to listening to more contemporary solo recorder music, but was unable to find the other suggested pieces on either spotify or youtube. I searched spotify for different examples, and could find lots of old music but nothing modern or contemporary. I am keen to listen to newer compositions in order to further explore extended playing techniques. On a positive note, with the flute and recorder being similar instruments in many ways, I believe there is a lot more scope to listen to more solo flute music, many of the techniques of which can also be performed on the recorder.