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Hi everyone,
I was super-excited to find this lovely 20th century piece. It’s grade 2. Down to earth today realising that on the treble at least I am not!
Has anyone heard of the composer John Graves.
And all suggestions for (UK exam system) grade 2 treble repertoire gratefully received.
Descant and treble recorders.
https://www.instrumentalists.freeforums.netDid you concentrate on one kind of recorder or did you play more than one in the exams?
Trinity have a rule for g6 and up that you have to play descant and treble. For my g5 I voluntarily did both but you can do just one up to g5.
They will let you use sopranino, tenor or bass for one piece per exam where it’s indicated in the list, but I’ve not added that extra in ever!PS hello, hello, hello all!
And all suggestions for (UK exam system) grade 2 treble repertoire gratefully received.
The three I played when I was looking at G2 pieces for a potential performance exam were:
The Merry Milkmaids (The Renaissance Recorder_
To a Wild Rose (Time Pieces for Treble Recorder, G1-3)
Giga from Loeillet de Gant’s A minor Sonata (Duets for Fun)I loved them all!
@Maizie- I’m impressed with how people can just swap between different recorders without continuing to play the first one on the second! Did you start by learning descant or the other way round?
@Jacqui – I’m still pottering around at Grade 1 but I have played some pieces from vol 3 of the Baroque Anthology. I don’t have all the notes on the treble yet, so I have to be selective. However, the Hotteterre Bouree is a pretty little thing.
I started with descant in primary school, no idea what age, and got a tenor when I was 9 or 10. At secondary school I got individual lessons, and a treble not long after. I don’t find changing hard, I think for me where my hands are tells my body and brain what size instrument it is and the rest happens largely automatically.
Interestingly, bass is where I fall apart but great bass I am totally fine with. I have no recollection of learning to read music or the basics of a descant, so my theory is that C-instrument in treble clef is my default, really well ingrained in my brain. I can manage one step away, so F-instrument in treble clef, or C-instrument in bass clef. But make it the two steps to F-instrument in bass clef and I don’t do well at all!Maizie – that’s really interesting. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cross examine you! I have one last question – about the recorder orchestra this time (I hope you’ll tell us about it when you’ve done it). Do you know what the pieces are in advance or what? And do you take all the recorders you’re comfortable with or what? I’d love to do it but I’ll never be good enough – I’m simply running out of time. But I’m fascinated by recorder orchestras. I’ve seen quite a lot of music for them but I assume conductors sometimes simply write their own.
I tried out a couple more tunes from “The Renaissance Recorder” on tenor today. “Spagnoletta” by Michael Praetorius and the English ballade “Packington’s Pound”. Renaissance and early Baroque music just feels very confortable to play on this instrument. Not a period I know all that much about yet.
Largissimo – I felt like I should know those tunes, but it turned out I didn’t. They are both really very lovely aren’t they? Are there some challenging low notes in Spagnoletta? Anyway, it does sound well-suited to tenor. All our gorgeous Renaissance music more than makes up for not having any Classical or Romantic repertoire.
I don’t know why I wasted everyone’s time asking for grade 2 repertoire suggestions. It turns out I have the music for at least 15 treble pieces (and 10 descant which I would have the option to play too), so definitely have ENOUGH. Still hankering after one or two particular pieces, especially Boats on a Painted Sea by Donald Bousted. The ‘free choice’ option for MTB exams is perhaps not an unalloyed good. Too much choice! But anyway, that’s a long way off in the future, as I make my way slowly up to exam standard on treble via the scenic route. AKA playing lots of easy stuff I fancy first and filling in the gaps in my abilities. I realised that my four descant exam pieces didn’t have a single slur in them. It wasn’t by design, but I’m actually not that good at them. So, I have a place to start.
I love that everyone has such different tastes in their music choices.
Descant and treble recorders.
https://www.instrumentalists.freeforums.netHmm, I think there might be a copy of The Renaissance Recorder in my future…
I’ve just come across a YouTube video of Nuria Roal singing a duet with a recorder player. Actually I think it may be a voice flute and if it is then I can finally understand why it’s called that.
The video is “Michael Oman – Austrian Baroque Company & Nuria Rial” singing Haendel.
> I think there might be a copy of The Renaissance Recorder in my future…
I’m not sure if any of the pieces are grade pieces, but have you looked at the Schott Renaissance Anthology books? I really like them – there’s a Renaissance series and a Baroque series, both of 4 volumes in ascending order of difficulty. The main downside from my point of view is that both series are for soprano (vols 1-2) and alto (vols 3-4). The upside is that they have a good range of material, performance notes, and a CD with both performances and backing tracks. I only play tenor so the first two vols of each series were fine as they were; I am transposing from F to C as I go with the later vols, which is a bit of a pain, but as the pieces get more difficult the time it takes to transpose them becomes ever shorter compared to the time it takes me to learn them.
Hello Pavane, I hope you had a nice time.
Largissimo has tempted me with The Renaissance Recorder too. There are two volumes (C and F). Am I right in thinking they have different tunes? I must agree with Pavane though, that The Renaissance Anthology books are very good. Kathryn Bennetts plays with such a lovely sweet tone on the CD for volume 1. I played one of the pieces for my exam (funnily enough Pavane by Attaignant) and listening to the CD definitely helped me play it much better than I would have otherwise.
Descant and treble recorders.
https://www.instrumentalists.freeforums.netI posted something about the second volume of treble (alto) music this morning but it seems not to be on the forum. Could be me. I had my Covid and flu jabs and spent a while with a highish temperature. I may still be wonky; though personally I don’t think so!
From what I made out, the treble (alto) volume is quite different – same editor though. Agreed, the descant volume is a delight.
Hello Pavane – I did say hello in the gone into the ether post as well or in that other universe I may have been inhabiting…
Hello Linden! I popped into GP recently just for something very basic and got pounced on for Covid booster, flu jab and pneumonia jab. I really didn’t fancy 3 at once as I was about to go on a brief holiday, so let myself be persuaded into the Covid alone (my 5th, should be exceptionally immune by now) and am pledged to go back for the others. Any one can make you a bit wonky, so not surprised two did. Mind you, I’m often wonky on zero jabs.
Jacqui – thank you, I did have a nice time. I’m not familiar with the Renaissance Recorder books but I looked them up and they do seem to be completely different though with, as you say, the same editor. I wonder if they too are graded in such a way that the alto book is harder?
I love books that have CDs as I find it almost impossible to play a piece I don’t know from sheet music if it’s anything other than straightforward, which is seldom the case with renaissance/baroque music. I quite like having the backing tracks too, though some of the Anthology ones are a bit weird.
Yes, there are two different “Renaissance Rcorder” books for soprano and for alto, with a completely different set of tunes! The soprano book includes a lot of Michael Praetorius, and the alto book a lot of Tylman Susato. I’m tempted to transpose all the the alto pieces for more tenor repertoire.
Jacqui- the lowest note in the “Spagnoletta” is E, if that helps?
Sorry, I didn’t mean to cross examine you! I have one last question – about the recorder orchestra this time (I hope you’ll tell us about it when you’ve done it). Do you know what the pieces are in advance or what? And do you take all the recorders you’re comfortable with or what?
Cross-examination is fine (and I’m sorry for interrupting the conversation!) The one I play in is Metro, for tenors and below. I tend to stick to my great bass, but people are welcome to change as they want. So far, we start the year with new music, some pieces we only play on one day, others we come back to later and get to take the music away – all outstanding music collected at the end of the year. Metro doesn’t perform so there’s just the four sessions per year. Other orchestras may vary!
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