Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 33: Renaissance Recorder Music

  • Play Renaissance pieces with the modal, vibrato-free sound of the period.
  • Recognise the modal cadences that distinguish Renaissance from Baroque.

The Renaissance recorder did not vibrato, did not crescendo within a note, and did not lean on dissonance the way the Baroque would.

The recorder's first golden age was the sixteenth-century dance repertoire of Susato, Praetorius, and Arbeau. The style asks for straight tone (no vibrato), modal cadences (the leading tone often unraised), and clear, declamatory articulation.

The modal cadence

Renaissance music often leaves the leading tone unraised in its mode — Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian. The cadence sounds open or unfinished to modern ears, and that is the period sound.

D Dorian closes with C natural as leading tone, not C# — the C natural is the colour.

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Renaissance articulation

Quick and clear, but not driving — the tonguing is the voice's consonants. Avoid forte-piano contrasts; keep the phrasing even and declamatory.

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Now play these

Pavane: Belle qui tiens ma vie
Slow, dignified, modal.
Branle Simple
A side-stepping circle dance.
Branle Gay
Lighter, faster, leaping figures.
Tourdion
Vigorous, with modal cadences throughout.
Canarios
Lively, syncopated, modal.

When you can play a Renaissance dance with straight tone, modal cadences, and clean articulation — and it sounds different from a Baroque piece — move on to Lesson 34.