The Desert Southwest - A Mecca for Early Music Lovers?

What images come to mind when you picture the Desert Southwest?  Multicolored sunsets, cacti, square dancing, cowboys, tumbling tumbleweeds? How about groups playing early music on recorders?  

Early music comes to us from the past, principally the Renaissance (1450-1600) and Baroque (1600-1750) periods of history.  The Renaissance has always held a special fascination for me, the music in particular.  Who would have thought that I could enroll in a beginning recorder class in my home town of El Paso, Texas?

That very opportunity presented itself to me this summer as I perused the catalog of class offerings from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), located on the campus of the University of Texas of El Paso.  OLLI offers a variety of courses to adults 50 + in a relaxed setting.  I signed up for a six weeks course, ordered a recorder and music book from amazon.com, and showed up for the first class session, still struggling with assembling my recorder. (I am careful to explain that my recorder is an Alto Baroque Recorder, a little bit of ego so that people won't think I am playing the recorder they played back in third grade!)

My new alto recorder and music book

Six weeks later, and I am hooked on playing early music.  Our instructor Ricky Vilardell, a local musician, introduced the class not only to the basics of fingering the recorder and reading music, but also to the history of recorders and their significance in ancient societies. One of Ricky's principal points was that early music was not written down in as much detail as modern music; therefore players can improvise, much as they do when playing modern jazz.  To quote Ricky, "...music before the end of the Baroque era allows for so much more creativity among performers."

Recorders are woodwind instruments.  They are generally available in the same ranges of those of the human voice, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.  The bass recorder must be a treat to play!

Girl playing alto recorder

The sound of the recorder is described as being clear and sweet.  I'll be the first to admit that I have a long way to go to be able to produce a sound of that description.  I'm just trying to avoid making squeaking sounds, which occur when you don't have the finger holes covered or you are not breathing gently enough.  Here is a classic engraving of what playing the recorder correctly should look like.

Playing the recorder

My plan is to practice daily so that I can eventually join the local Rio Grande Chapter of the American Recorder Society.  

Meanwhile, I can watch videos of recorder music and dream of someday making beautiful music.

Fantasia No. 7 for Recorder.