Ganassi recorders

Silvestro Ganassi was a theorist who in 1535 published a book about recorder playing and playing diminutions. This book was called la Fontegara. In this book he describes several kinds of recorders and also different fingering systems these recorders are playing. Remarkable are the fingerings with which some types of recorders can play a range of more than two octaves which was not very common in this period. Most renaissance recorders only play one octave and a sixth. This fingering system we nowadays call Ganassi fingering and recorders playing with this fingering Ganassi recorders although Mr. Ganassi himself never made recorders as far as we know.

The Ganassi recorders I make are based on a model that Fred Morgan developed in the end of the seventies and that he based on an alto recorder in the Museum in Vienna (Nr. 8522).

Consort and solo

These Ganassi recorders have a cylindrical bore and they have a big sound and play with Ganassi's fingering very well over more than two octaves. This makes these recorders very suitable for solo voices.

Types

I make sopranos in C (A=440 and/or 415Hz), altos in G (A=466 and/or 440Hz) and tenors in C (A=440 or 415Hz).

Maplewood

Maplewood is the wood I always use for these instruments because historically it is the wood the most frequently used for recorders and because I find the sound of this wood very suitable for this type of instrument.