Playing Recorder Sonatas: Interpretation and Technique

This is a comprehensive introduction to the art of playing recorder sonatas, written by a teacher and player of wide experience. It is designed not only for students and teachers, but also for those self-taught recorder players who have reached the point where they feel ready to embark upon solo sonata playing. It aims to encourage players whose experience has been limited to consort music to extend their playing to sonatas by Handel, Telemann and others, so increasing their enjoyment and skill in recorder playing in all its varied forms. Through this book they will encounter sonatas from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and twentieth centuries, which often make challenging demands upon the recorder's expressive capabilities. Each of the sonatas considered is described in relation to its musical background (illustrated by parallels with other arts) and to the performance practices of each period.

Table of Contents:
The approach to playing baroque sonatas - some general points; sound and expression - Handel's "Sonata in G Minor"; dynamics and Italian style - Telemann's "Sonata in D Minor"; French style and inequality - Lavigne's sonatas; articulation and slurs - Herbert Murrill's "Sonata" and Handel's "Furioso" ("D Minor Sonata"); ornamentation and improvization - Fontana's "Sonata Terza"; further aspects of performance; other sonatas. Appendices: "Three Blind Mice" and baroque trills; suggestions for starting to explore the recorder-sonata repertoire.

Review :
`Players will find other stimulating ideas here and much thought-provoking material to read and try out with their music. The book deserves to find its way into school and college libraries and to circulate amongst a wide range of treble recorder players.' The Consort `This book gives a comprehensive approach to playing Baroque Sonatas. ... In this book Rowland Jons helps his players to recognise and appreciate the purposes of the conventions of musical communication of the Baroque period and to understand that its music is as carefully crafted and impassioned as is its architecture. ... We are also given excellent descriptions of "affect", "the passions" and "rhetoric". The whole art of performance in this period is well described and the reader and player are guided expertly through the complexities of modern research into the necessary areas of study; allowing for a truly well-informed knowledgeable performance. ... the concepts of this book can be appreciated by many different players at many different levels.' RCM MAG Spring 93 `This book stems from close personal involvement with the recorder and should stimulate interest among a wide range of other players. It treats the instrument as so much more than a humble pastime for beginners and amateurs. There are many approaches to recorder playing and some readers may find certain aspects controversial. However, in this book the recorder is deservedly presented as a sophisticated vehicle for the most advanced musicianship, affording unlimited scope for virtuosity and, above all, expressive playing.' Carl Dolmetsch 'This is a fine book, of great interest to all recorder players, professional and student alike ... There are plenty of provocative thoughts with which to disagree, but this makes it all the more thought-provoking and stimulating to read.' Joan Dixon, British Journal of Music Education, Volume 10, 1993 'Anthony Rowland-Jones is one of the most respected living writers on the recorder and its music. This new book not only lives up to expectations but exceeds them. It is constantly stimulating, rewarding in its insights and practical in its recommendations. Anthony Rowland-Jones exemplifies the best in the British tradition of recorder scholarship, possessing a strong literary and artistic sense, a warmth and humanity and a complete lack of zealous fanaticism.' J.M. Thomson, Music in New Zealand, Winter 1993, No. 21 'Players will find other stimulating ideas here and much thought-provoking material to read and try out with their music. The book deserves to find its way into school and college libraries and to circulate amongst a wide range of treble recorder players.' Gwilym Beechey, The Consort, No. 49 (1993) 'This is a superb book. The author's approach is wonderfully illuminating. I cannot imagine that any serious recorder player will want to be without this fine book. The book is superbly produced with a generous allocation of musical examples illuminating many points in the text in a very effective way, and a number of excellent photographs.' Niall O'Loughlin, Musical Times