The original information submitted by Jeffrey Leonard indicates both “soprano” and “descant” recorders, which I have combined here since they are the same instrument. Can anyone clarify?
We thought the same. The part says Sop. and can be covered by a descant/soprano recorder. So only one recorder required for both pieces it is used in for the show.
Having just looked at these books for a production next week, I believe by descant recorder they DO mean Sopranino Here is my reasoning: it never goes below a G, but does go up to a high C (High D in the included alternate). I’ve played recorder for ages and getting a high C out on a soprano is not a simple task, and the D above that is out of the question. Sopranino is in F, and recorder music is traditionally not transposed for F instruments, instead you finger a C and call that F. What I will be doing is transposing these few bars to F so I don’t need to bother with the alternate set of fingerings.
The parts marked soprano recorder, also don’t go low enough to be out of the range of a Sopranino, so I will likely do it all on sopranino.
Whether you do this all on soprano or sopranino, the resulting pitches will still be in the same octave — on sopranino it will just involve the bottom octave and a half of the instrument, whereas on soprano it will involve the top octave and a half (and you will likely struggle with anything above an A above the staff.)
What I kindof suspect is that when originally written, the orchestrator meant it could be played on either soprano or sopranino, depending on the players preference – and somewhere along the line the terminology and instruction got messed up.
Updated per information received from Debbie Clapp
Information moved here based on a comment by David Benedict.
The original information submitted by Jeffrey Leonard indicates both “soprano” and “descant” recorders, which I have combined here since they are the same instrument. Can anyone clarify?
Here in the UK at least soprano recorder and descant are the same thing. Would it be a sopranino?
We thought the same. The part says Sop. and can be covered by a descant/soprano recorder. So only one recorder required for both pieces it is used in for the show.
Having just looked at these books for a production next week, I believe by descant recorder they DO mean Sopranino Here is my reasoning: it never goes below a G, but does go up to a high C (High D in the included alternate). I’ve played recorder for ages and getting a high C out on a soprano is not a simple task, and the D above that is out of the question. Sopranino is in F, and recorder music is traditionally not transposed for F instruments, instead you finger a C and call that F. What I will be doing is transposing these few bars to F so I don’t need to bother with the alternate set of fingerings.
The parts marked soprano recorder, also don’t go low enough to be out of the range of a Sopranino, so I will likely do it all on sopranino.
Whether you do this all on soprano or sopranino, the resulting pitches will still be in the same octave — on sopranino it will just involve the bottom octave and a half of the instrument, whereas on soprano it will involve the top octave and a half (and you will likely struggle with anything above an A above the staff.)
What I kindof suspect is that when originally written, the orchestrator meant it could be played on either soprano or sopranino, depending on the players preference – and somewhere along the line the terminology and instruction got messed up.
I cannot find any tenor recorder in the reed 3 alternate version. Anyone care to comment?
It is in the arrangement 15-piece orchestration in #7 Boy For Sale and #34 Who Will Buy? (part 1)