The Baroque Solo Book for Recorder

The Baroque Solo Book for Recorder: If you are a keen recorder player, and find yourself marooned on a desert island, this should be your one choice of music. Contents: Select preludes and voluntaries (complete); Hotteterre, preludes and traits; Telemann, 12 Fantasias; Braun, Pieces; Quantz, Solos from the Giedde Collection, J.S. Bach, Partita; C.P.E. Bach, Sonata.

The Baroque Solo Book for Recorder aims to bring together the essential unaccompanied repertoire for the recorder from the first half of the 18th century, providing a basic technical and musical foundation for study of the instrument to a reasonable level.  I have not included any of the very easy pieces, often called “cibells”, that appear in certain English collections.

Of course we have to face the fact that relatively little of this music is “original recorder music.”  Only the Hotteterre pieces are pure and unadulterated recorder music (though even they are provided with alternative clefs for transverse flute).  The English pieces, although coming from prints that directly call for the recorder, turn out in most cases to be arrangements of violin music.