The instrument without music: The reconstruction of recorder repertoire in England, c.1900–1939

Abstract

Between 1900 and 1941, the recorder gradually regained its place as a living instrument in England after one hundred years of virtual extinction. Its potential was realized especially through its pioneer players, Arnold and Carl Dolmetsch and Edgar Hunt, who contributed significantly to the rediscovery of its previously lost repertoire. Through Hunt's music publications in particular, the recorder's music—much of it from the so-called ‘golden age’ of English composition of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—resonated strongly with musical authorities’ encouragement of music that exhibited England's particular cultural values. This article discusses the repertoire that became readily available for recorder players, and examines its nature with regard to its context: that of a nationalistic environment, which was so conducive to the growth of the recorder—mainly because of its music—as an art-music and educational instrument, that it would soon become practically ubiquitous.