Historic Articulations for Recorder: an overview
April 5, 2020 Online Zoom meeting
Greater Fredericksburg Chapter of the ARS
Chapter Rep: Dr. Kelly Kazik
Tech Officer: Jarrett Rodriguez
Instagram: fredrecorder
This post is taken from our April 2020 presentation.
Historic Articulations: A Forest and Trees approach
If you remember anything from today’s talk about articulation remember this FOREST:
1. All articulation in music whether it happens on a recorder, keyboard, or string instrument is an attempt to imitate speech.
2. Historic articulations, (and modern articulations), are trying to make a difference between strong and weak syllables.
3. Ultimately how you make strong and weak articulations will be up to you.
The TREES that many of us know...
Let’s start with modern wind playing. Modern wind playing does concern itself with articulation. Because of the high air pressure needed to play a modern wind instrument, we usually concern ourselves with the following consonants and vowels in order to articulate a note.
Too or Tah- We strike the alveolar ridge (the skin behind the upper teeth before the sharp dip) with the tip of the tongue. The result is a hard attack with a sustained center of the note.
Doo or Dah- The tip of the tongue strikes the alveolar ridge more gently and, depending on your accent, in a slighly different place on the ridge. The result is a moderate attack with a sustained center of the note.
Koo-Kah- Flutists use this syllable in “double tonguing.” (Double tonguing is the alternating of the syllable used on the alveolar ridge with a syllable that happens further back in the oral cavity.) The / k / sound is made when center(ish) of the tongue strikes the hard palate behind the alveolar ridge. NOTE: If you have ever said the words “tiki” as in Tiki Torch or “taco” as in the yummy snack, you have double tongued.
Goo or Gah- Flutists also use this syllable in “double tonguing”. Usually alternates with the Doo syllable. The / g / sound is also made near the center(ish) of the hard palate and is a medium attack. NOTE: If you have ever called your puppy, “doggo”, or discussed the paintings of Degas, you have double tongued.
Exercise: Try each of the above syllables. Doing your best not to chew with the lower jaw or vocalize the syllable, form your mouth into a recorder embouchure. Place your hand in front of your mouth. Try each syllable a couple of times. Do you feel the air coming out of your mouth? Does the air feel different which each syllable?
Trouble Shooting: If you are not feeling a change in the air coming out of you, there could be many reasons for that. Here are some common reasons:
1. You have a manner of speech (accent) that does not differentiate between T’s and D’s or K’s and G’s as much as someone else.
2. You are not blowing out properly as you make the articulations. Remember flauto playing is hard work.
3. You are anchoring your tongue. Under “normal” conditions, when the mouth is closed the back teeth should touch lightly and the tongue should rest on the ROOF of the mouth. For some people, dental work, allergies, etc. forces them to keep the mouth more open than it should be and the tongue rests on the floor of the mouth. The tip of the tongue then sits on the bottom teeth and the mid-tongue attempts to hit the alveolar ridge.
4. Your tongue is tight. The tongue is very long and connects to the body at the hyoid bone. Try this stretch.
Tongue Stretch: Look up toward the ceiling (get that chin up) and swallow. Look up and to the right. Swallow. Look up and to the left. Swallow. If you have trouble swallowing, your tongue is tight.
Ganassi’s (1492-1550) TREES...
The Recorder is a woodwind instrument, but unlike modern woodwinds, does not have a reed, or high back pressure with which to contend. Because the recorder does not have high back pressure, it is capable of using more subtle tonguing patterns than we use on modern woodwinds today.
In his treatise on the Art of Playing the Recorder, Sylvestro Ganassi, briefly discusses articulation. First and foremost he says, “be it known that all musical instruments, in comparison to the human voice, are inferior to it. For this reason, we should endeavor to learn from it and to imitate it.” Then he says that there are three basic kinds of articulations, “teke,” “tere.”and “lere.”
After Ganassi talks about the basic consonant combinations for tonguing, he then encourages the player to use the consonants with ALL of the vowels: /a /, /e /, /i /, /o /, /u /.
Let’s look at the consonants that Ganassi described...
T- This is not unlike our modern T.
D- This is also familiar today.
K-This syllable is still used in double tonguing.
R- The / r/ is not usually familiar to the modern player. The /r / sound is difficult for some people. In general we are aiming to use a soft /r / sound as in “roux” rather than a hard /r / as in “rock and roll.”
L- The / l/ is also unfamiliar to the modern player. The /l / sound is actually a difficult sound in the English language. In English, the /l / sound tends to spread the tongue out across the hard palate and forces air out the sides of the mouth rather than the center of the mouth. To the best of my thinking, we are aiming for a soft /l / as in “lulu lemon” rather than a spread /l / that happens in the word “pickle.” If you find that you are having problem with /l /, a substitution in possible. We’ll address this later.
What’s with all of Ganassi’s different vowels?
As mentioned before, the tongue is quite large, fills the oral cavity, and hooks in near the hyoid bone in the throat. The shape of the tongue influences the shape of the oral cavity. The shape of the oral cavity influences the speed that the air comes out of us and that in turn influences our sound.
Images taken from:
Heirich, Jane Ruby. Voice and the Alexander Technique: Active Explorations for Speaking and Singing. Berkeley, CA: Mornum Time Press, 2011.
Exercise: Like the first exercise, make a recorder embouchure and bring your hand in front of your mouth. Select a consonant and a vowel. Try articulating with the consonant and vowel. Try again and change the vowel. Do you feel a difference in the air as it leave the mouth? Do you feel tight or relaxed in the throat? Now try some of these articulations on the recorder. Do you hear a difference in the sound?
Trouble shooting: Have you ever had a lesson where the teacher said one of the following things? “Relax your throat.” “Your sound is riding high.” Or. “Your sound is too bright/sharp.” If so, chances are that you chose a vowel and therefore tongue position that was riding too high in the oral cavity. Choose a low vowel such as the “ah” in “father” to fix high pitch, bright sound, and relax the throat.
Quantz’s (1697-1773) TREES…
The differences in strong and weak articulations persisted through Quantz’s time.
Example from:
Quantz, Johann Joachim, Winfried Michel, and Hermien Teske. Solfeggi Pour La flûte traversière Avec Lenseignement. Winterthur, Schweiz: Amadeus Verlag, 1978.
Frederick the Great kept a notebook of assignments and notes about his lessons with Quantz. There are many passages where strong and weak tonguings are written in. You can see from the example that Quantz favored “ti,” “ri,” “di,” and something called “dll.” Which brings us to our substitution…
Substitutions for Did’ll…
In the mid-18th century Did’ll was considered the acceptable double tongue of the day. (You notice that Ganassi had NO problem with TeKe which is very close to our modern double tongue.) I have no idea how 18th century German pronounced its’ L, but I can’t do it with my lovely Midwestern American English accent. I was taught to substitute Did’ll for Ning-a. The /n / is a weaker consonant than a /t / and the soft / g/ in “ing” is apparently an acceptable replacement for /l /.
Putting our TREES back into our FOREST…
So, how do we apply all of this to our music. First, we have to know something about the piece we are playing. What century does it come from? What is the form? What are the stylistic considerations? Second, we must exercise good taste at all times. Below is a table of music gestures and possible articulation combinations that you might try to achieve the desired effect. This is not an exhaustive list.
Finale examples courtesy of James Kazik
You can find the video of this presentation at Youtube.