The 600-year-old school staple has recently faced news of an impending classroom extinction. But a network of passionate enthusiasts are working to ensure its survival
t’s been well over 30 years since I first reached into a school crate and pulled out a plastic descant recorder, and yet I can still remember the visceral thrill I got from coaxing birdlike sounds with my fingers and mouth. I was a shy five-year-old – I hadn’t started speaking until I was two – and although it might seem corny to suggest that this eight-holed baton acted as some kind of magical wand for my confidence, I don’t think that my trills and toots are wholly unrelated.
Perhaps that’s why I fell for it so fervently. It’s arguably why the 600-year-old instrument is so regularly mocked as the Marmite of the woodwind world – a description I bristled at only last monthgave rise to yet more jibes. It may well be a shrieking tool of torture for some. But for me, and so many others, it’s provided a gateway to some of the greatest, and most beautiful, music I’ve ever heard.
And yet “it’s a vastly complex instrument,” says Sarah Jeffery. “It’s even a little bit dangerous”, she adds with a smile, “because every little move you make can be heard.” My first encounter with Jeffery, a classically-trained recorder player and educator, was via her, a platform where she publishes weekly tutorials on all aspects of playing and music-making.
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