No one knows for certain when the recorder originated. Guillaume de Machaut (1300 - 1377) writes about a variety of "flutes", some of which might have been recorders.
The oldest known recorder was found in the moat of a fortified house in Dordrecht in Holland. The house was known to have been occupied between 1335 and 1418 when it was abandoned following an assault.
Part of an instrument which was probably a recorder was recovered from a well in Wurtzburg in Germany and has a suggested fourteenth century date. It is likely, therefore, that the recorder emerged sometime during the second half of the fourteenth century.
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Copyright © Geoff Walker 2001 - 2003
Last Modified 22 December 2003