Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/40

Story of the Flute

applied to the tin whistle in France) in contradistinction to "the Helvetian [i.e., transverse] flute," but it certainly was not an English invention, though it is depicted in a Psalter of the twelfth century preserved in the Library of Glasgow University. A Cornish miracle-play of the fourteenth century includes "recordys" among the instruments played by King David's minstrels.

The Recorder was an open pipe fitted with a fipple-head and mouthpiece like a whistle, having seven finger-holes, with a thumb-hole at the back.^[1] The lowest hole was sometimes in duplicate for the use of left-handed Recordersplayers (hence the French called it "Flute à neuf trous"); the hole not required was stopped with wax. Later examples have an open key over this lowest hole, enclosed in a perforated

Fig. 11.—Enclosed Key on Recorders.

wooden case and. fitted with double "cusps" or "touches." (See Fig. 11.) There were regular sets of recorders (called "chests," because they were all kept in one box) of different pitches and varying dimensions, ranging from sopranino to double bass, which last was over eight feet long, and was blown through a bent crook, somewhat like a bassoon, but coming out of the top. It sometimes had two pedal keys played by the feet of the performer, between which the end rested on the ground, the sound escaping through

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1. For pictures of Recorders see English Music, pp. 132, 136, 138, and 485.