First thank you for sharing the tale of this pleasant tune. I think you made an excellent arrangement, i also like the rendering.

There is something strange in the soprano recorder, here and there.

Programming, mixing and mastering are very good, i would like to have just a little bit more of ambience....perhaps it is just a matter of personal preference.

Very beautiful job, Max. Fresh music, nice arrangement (i love recorders much 😃), really enjoyable. The mix is very well balanced. Bravo !!!

Very best.

Philippe.

Thank you Francesco and Philippe.

Actually, I did this arrangement in 1998. Originalle there were no recorders involved, but 2 fretted dulcimers* (Hommel, Hummel, Vlier, Epinette...). I've done some transcription to transform the piece for the recorders. At this moment only the standard library is available (not the extended).

This recording was made with MIR Pro and Teldex, with ORF + center stereo microphone and 115° back microphone with reduced volume (to keep the room more intimate). Unfortunately, MIR doesn't provide the mikes for recorders yet. That could be the reason why the soprano recorder has here and there a somewhat odd sound. I could cut in the EQ, but I'm afraid it would influence the overall beautiful recorder sound.

Kindly,

Max

* dulcimer (I have to such instruments at home, built in Roeselare in 1994, after an original from 1730)

I just wonder how the same rendition would sound with the Impulse Response of a church. I understand it is a precise choice to use Teldex and i love that scoring stage, i just enjoy the way baroque ensembles enrich their sound when recorded in a church (live or virtually).

Best

Hi Francesco,

You're right of course. The sometimes overwhelming sound of a well chosen church can improve the playing ambience of baroque (and other ensembles), but that's a matter of taste. I could give it a try, but my personal preference always benefits the more dry chamber sound...

Thanks,

Max

Hi Max

I see what you say. Again many congrats for the excellent rendition. 😊

All the very best

Francesco

I love that tune, and it sounds very good overall.  That is amazing about the music just sitting in the pipe for all that time. 

Hi William,

Yes, it sounds unbelievable that story, but it is true. The part of the boring sermon is my version but it might have been true as well. It is a very interesting booklet with highly unusual melodies from that era. It offers 4 pieces for harpsichord as well (origin unknown so far).

Actually the finding of such a source is not rare in our region. So far, I collected some 3000 pieces from the late 18th century in Flanders, but a great many have been stolen and collected by Napoleon's army. Most of these are kept in the archives of the Paris Opera now. Most of them were dances and airs for the bourgeois peopleand nobility just before the French Revolution (1789). Most of the sources and manuscripts disappeared after the revolution and were rediscovered at the end of the 19th century and used as original folk dances as some kind of romantic nationalist reflex. It appeared later that this was a mistake, because most of them were not Flemish, but French or even Austrian, from famous and less famous opera and ballet composers. We speak here about dances such as menuets, contradances, quadrilles, cottillons, waltzes, tambourins, matelottes and even olders dances such as rigaudons, passepieds, allemandes...

Here's an example of such a dance, taken from Mozart's "Zauberflöte". It was mentioned as

"Walsch La Douce Flûte"

It was performed by my chamber orchestra in 1998. I did the arrangement before I discovered that it was one of Mozart's masterpieces. That's why it sounds pretty different. As usual, only a melody line was provided.

Best regards,

Max

That sounds excellent.  What a charming piece! 

I really love your work Max. Excellent!

Thanks Wayne. It's always a pleasure to have you in my 'auditorium'.

Max