Little biographical information is known about the makers of the mostly unsigned surviving renaissance recorders. However, the makers’ marks found on the instruments, often give clues which help speculation about their origins. Of the recorders I make, there are three main types which are reflected in the makers’ marks of the original instruments.
For more information and explanation please see my 2023 article: Sets or Consorts of Recorders c1500–1670, The Galpin Society Journal, LXXVI,
AA / Schnitzer
Around 11 surviving recorders worldwide, found in Merano, Vienna, Brunswick Brussels, Copenhagen, Vermillion (USA) and Lisbon.
Mostly only surviving basset sizes, with a single bass and tenor in Merano. High degree of regularity in like instruments. Sizes in fifths from c.
Nuremberg, Ulm, first half of the 16th century.
!! (Rabbits Foot – Hasenohren) Bassano Family
50 recorders in diverse museum worldwide, with many different versions of the same symbol.
Their technology is more advanced: bores are better defined, tone-holes are standardised and are often angled down or up the bore. Caps are tuned to the instrument, in that the space inside the cap is made to dictate the size of the air reservoir created. The crooks and holes inside the caps show similar ingenuity, having a taper to the inside space of the cap which softens the flow of air into the recorder and reduces problems of stability of the attack.
Follow Praetorius’ pattern to a point, built from f size up and down in fifths, with a lower forth.
Venice & London, Mid–late 16th century.
HIER S· / HIE·S – Gerolamo Salbrun ‘dalli flauti’
Recorders found only in Vienna, Sibiu and Verona (Biblioteca Capitolare).
High degree of irregularity in like instruments, the tenors obviously coming from the same set, but showing inconsistencies. Cruder design and straight tone-holes. Cruder crooks and keys. Sizes in fifths from F.
Venice, Late 16th century.