Lesson 54: Finger Vibrato (Flattement)

Add a gentle pitch dip with your finger while keeping steady air.
Compare a plain phrase with optional finger vibrato.

Let the phrase decide.

Flattement is finger vibrato: a gentle pitch dip repeated on a held note; Hotteterre (1707) gives fingerings for particular notes.

The mechanics

Hold A4D5 with steady air, then tap hole 4 lightly with your right index finger; adjust the touch until you hear a gentle dip.

Editorial sustain exercise

Time Signature: 4/4

Breathe between bars; keep bars 1 and 3 plain and add finger motion in bar 2.

Play: Loeillet of Ghent — Sarabanda largo, bars 17–20

Published: Jean Baptiste Loeillet of Ghent, Op. 4 No. 1, movement V; Hans-Thomas Müller-Schmidt (2018), recorder edition, CC BY-SA 4.0. Continuo omitted; uniformly down P4 for soprano, native alto restores D minor; beaming normalised.

Time Signature: 3/4 · Key: A minor

Time Signature: 3/4 · Key: D minor

Optionally shade the final A4D5; no flattement sign is printed. Playback stays plain.

Now play these

Loeillet of Ghent: Op. 4 No. 1: Find another sustained Sarabanda note.
Loeillet of London: Op. 3 No. 4: Compare one Largo note plain first.
Galliard: Op. 1 No. 2: Try the same comparison in the Grave.

When the finger motion makes gentle, even dips while the phrase keeps its beat, continue to Lesson 55.