Luogo e data di registrazione		- Bennebroek (Olanda) - marzo 1967 [1-15] - Bennebroek (Olanda) - maggio 1979 [17, 21-24] - Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem (Olanda) - luglio 1979 [25] - Doopsgezinde Kerk, Amsterdam (Olanda) - gennaio & novembre 1971 [18-20]
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Wolf Ericson [1-15, 17, 21-24]
	Prima Edizione LP		- Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9511-B - (1 LP) - durata 40' 07" - (p) 1967 - Analogico [1-15] - Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9482-A - (1 LP) - durata 48' 01" - (p) 1966 - Analogico [16] - Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9545-A - (1 LP) - durata 41' 45" - (p) 1969 - Analogico [17, 21-24] - Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - SAWT 9582-A - (1 LP) - durata 52' 43" - (p) 1971 - Analogico [18-20] - Telefunken "Das Alte Werk" - 6.42365 AW - (1 LP) - durata 39' 49" - (p) 1979 - Analogico [25]
	Edizione CD		Teldec - 4509-97465-2 - (1 CD) - durata 64' 20" - (c) 1995 - ADD
	Note		-

The works included in the present disc cover a period of 200 years in English musical history from the time of Henry VIII to the early 18th century. Although these years were notable for a lively exchange of stylistic ideas between Britain and Continental Europe, English music none the less retained its distinctive charactec not least in terms of the various types of instrumental music. From the outset instruments were used in dance music independently of the human voice. Anthony Holborne suggests several possible combinations of instruments for his dances, with winds as alternatives to viols or violins. English audiences were particularly fond of the sound of viol and recorder consorts. In the case of “broken consorts” (i.e., consorts of different kinds of instruments), the preferred combination was viols, recorders and plucked instruments. John Taverner’s Missa “Gloria tibi Trinitatis” includes a setting of the Benedictus that was to provide the model for a new and purely instrumental type of music, in which one voice takes the cantus firmus in long note-values, while the other voices provide an accompaniment in the form of elaborate polyphonic textures. The Latin words that are sung to the chorale tune in Taverner’s version gave their name to this exclusively English genre, which was henceforth known as the In Nomine. The works by Tye and Byrd included here indicate the range of compositional possibilities inherent in the genre. “Browning” was the title of an English l6th-century popular tune that was used as the basis for elaborate instrumental variations by a number of English composers, most notably by William Byrd in his five-part “Browning”. The fantasia drew its musical material not from an existing tune but from the composers own imagination. By the l7th century fantasies were increasingly divided into clearly compartmentalised sections, while the middle voices grew less important and were often omitted entirely not least as the continuo developed in significance. Andrew Parcham’s Solo in G major shows the juxtaposition of old and new with individual self-contained movements appearing alongside brief, contrastive sections that are linked together without a break. The advent of a private, middle-class musical culture in late Elizabethan England brought with it a boom in printing and publishing. In 1598 Elizabeth I granted Thomas Morley a monopoly over music printing, according him a 21-year royal patent. Apart from his own works, Morley also published Italian madrigals and in doing so popular ised the genre in England. His two-part canzonets combine Italianate influence with the English fantasia tradition. But the influence was by no means unidirectional, since many English musicians travelled to Europe, where their music met with immense acclaim. Thomas Simpson's Ricercar was only one of many works to appear in printed anthologies in North Germany in particular. A “ground” is a bass melody recurring many times in succession and accompanied by continuous variation in the upper parts. Notable examples were written by Robert Carr and Henry Purcell, but, unlike Purcell, Carr dispensed entirely With virtuoso figures. The works by Pepusch and Babell, finally, are typical examples of the high or late Baroque and are formally indebted to the Italianate sonata and concerto, which by this date had become the structural norm. Christian Bothmann ····· A brief history of the recorder 3. The recorder in the 17th century Early recorders had been made of either a single piece of wood or of a single tube with a movable foot-joint, and it was not until the 17th century that the modern recorder with its three jointed sections was first evolved, although we do not know exactly how, when or where. All that we can say for certain is that the change appears to have taken place in parallel with an evolving tonal aesthetic. Throughout the centuries woodwind makers generally preferred softer woods such as maple, pear and boxwood: all these types of wood are easy to turn and carve and generally produce a warm tone. The Kynseker Consort in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, for example, is made of these softer types of wood: it comprises two descant and two treble recorders of plum, and two tenor and one bass recorder of boxwood. All these instruments are in two sections and based in their construction on 16th-century principles. All the holes are single, with only the lowest being double, thereby allowing the instrument to be played either left- or right-handedly. Hieronimus Kynseker was active in Nuremberg in the 1670s and 1680s as a wood- and ivory-turner. He was the first maker of woodwind instruments to sign his full name and hometown on his instruments. Eleven of his recorders and a single flageolet have survived the intervening centuries. By this date Nuremberg had a long-standing reputation as Germany's leading centre for woodturning and, hence, for the manufacture of woodwind and brass instruments. In 1675 we find evidence of a Jacques Hotteterre at the English court. Although recorded as a musician, he was probably also an instrument maker and may have been responsible for the introduction of French woodwind instruments into England. The Hotteterres hailed from La Couture-Boussey in Normandy and had become famous as musicians and wood-turners in the early 17th century The oldest member of the family to make a name for himself was the tourneur en boys, Loys de Haulteterre, who died c. 1620-25. Of those of his descendants who were active as musicians and instrument makers suffice it to mention only Nicolas l'aîné (c. 1637-1694), Martin (c. 1640-1712), Louis (c. 1645/50-1716), Nicolas le jeune (1653-1727) and Jacques-Martin (1674-1763). Around twenty of their instruments - treble, tenor and bass recorders, in addition to flutes and oboes - have survived. Most of them are made of boxwood or maple, but some are of harder woods such as ebony and granadilla. Ivory rings and ornamental carvings were often used to embellish such instruments. All are in three sections, with an inner bore that is very wide, smooth and almost conical. The result is a sound low in overtones but very warm, relatively soft and round, all qualities associated with the Baroque recorder. In 1677 Bartolomeo Bismantova, a member of the Ferrara Cathedral orchestra and also of the city’s Accademia dello Spirito Santo wrote his treatise Compendio Musicale, which contains a section on the recorder. It is a particularly valuable work in that virtually no other wind-instrument method has survived from this period. The instrument that he describes reveals an interesting combination of Renaissance and Baroque features. Particularly striking is the fact that Bismantova refers to the recorder as the flauto italiano and that he prescribed far softer articulatory syllables for the recorder than for the cornett, for example. Peter Holtslag Translation: Stewart Spencer