Morning Mood Duet (Excerpt)

[aulos43]

Hi Ralph,

I'm feeling much more confident about scoring for recorder, now, thanks to your "challenge." Also with encouragement from this article in Wikipedia -- that I pretty much agree with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorde..._instrument%29

So, here attached, please find a more typical recorder rendition of your score. The differences are:

• Alto is written at pitch (non transposing) as I've shown, though sometimes written an octave lower, still in G-clef, resulting in octave transposition when played;

• Soprano, an octave lower than sounding (but sometimes using the all'ottava G-clef with superscript 8, as I've shown it -- in which case, it is at pitch).

As a result, the whole piece is transposed up an octave from your version and sounds closer to an actual soprano, alto duet.

Now the recorder has an inverted conical bore which attenuates the higher partials. I've heard it said that this accounts for the impression that they seem to sound lower.

Thanks

Walt

[rrayner]

Thank you very much for your insight, Walt. Between you and Jane, I have expanded my knowledge of the Recorder considerably. Before these discussions, I was simply a saxophonist dabbling in self-taught recorder. After Jane showed me the error of my ways, I found that same Wikipedia article and copied the range chart from it for future reference. I don't have perfect pitch, so it didn't really sink in for me that, yes, the Soprano really does sound an octave higher than the notes I'm writing -- didn't even occur to me. I have a very nice (for me) Hohner pearwood Alto, and even with your enlightenment, I still am sensing that it sounds lower and more mellow than in your score. Funny what the human senses can do when interpreted by the mind.

As I mentioned before to Jane, even though I now know better, I will continue to score my duets as before. My feeling is that most of the participants in this forum are probably playing other instruments anyway and are changing instrumentation and transposition, etc.

At any rate, I'm glad my writings have challenged you. Perhaps you will be scoring some pieces for two or more recorders to share with us?

Thanks again,

Ralph