recorder
A woodwind instrument with a whistle mouthpiece and finger holes, one of the oldest and most widespread instruments in Western music history.
In Depth
The recorder is a duct flute with a windway that directs air against a sharp edge, producing sound without the player needing an embouchure. It comes in sopranino, soprano (descant), alto (treble), tenor, and bass sizes. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the recorder was a serious concert instrument with a vast repertoire — Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach all wrote significant works for it.
The instrument fell out of favor in the late 18th century as the transverse flute offered greater dynamic range and projection. Its 20th-century revival has been twofold: as a school teaching instrument (often maligned due to cheap plastic models) and as a serious early music performance instrument. Professional recorderists today command astonishing virtuosity on historically informed instruments.
The recorder was so popular in Renaissance England that Henry VIII owned 76 of them at the time of his death — one of the largest instrument collections of the era.