Class Schedule
and Curriculum
The same four classes taught by our fabulous faculty are conducted each day during this two day workshop.
Here are the classes that were offered at the Fifth Fall Fipple Flute Forum in 2024. Click on the title (in all CAPS) for the detailed description of each class.
First Period 9:00-10:00
All Workshop Tutti
All workshop participants.
Our morning tutti sessions will encourage camaraderie and togetherness while honing intonation, breath support and articulation skills. Laura Kuhlman and Vicki Boeckman. The Saturday session will be conducted by Miyo Aoki and Anne Timberlake, and the Sunday session by Laura Kuhlman and Vicki Boeckman.
Second Period 10:30-11:45
B1 Birds and Beasts
For Intermediate and up level players
What does a chicken, a cat, or a donkey sound like in music? Find out in this class on depictions of and references to animals in music! We’ll play music from the Renaissance and Baroque by composers such as Jacob Regnart, Alessandro Poglietti, Heinrich Isaac, and others.
Instructor Miyo Aoki.
Flower Power Hour
For players at the intermediate level.
Gather your tuneful lilies! Stop and smell the musical roses! Featuring flower-inspired music by composers from many times and places, this class will help your ensemble skills blossom. Is it possible to stuff any more flower puns into a single course? Take this class and find out!
Instructor Anne Timberlake.
The Birth of the Italian Canzona
For players at the upper intermediate and advanced levels.
In this class we will work on some fantastic 4-part canzonas by fabulous composers relatively unknown today. This hugely popular instrumental idiom blossomed in print from the late 1570’s through the early decades of the 1600’s and was inspired by the gorgeous French and Flemish chansons of the early 1500’s. We’ll take a quick look at a couple of the chansons before plunging into the canzonas of Biumi, Cangliasi, Canale and Corradini.
Instructor Vicki Boeckman.
Ensemble Coaching for Pre-existing Ensembles
Ensembles have been contacted and this class is full. If you wish to AUDIT this class you may do so in place of your other class (both days)
This class will be led in a Master Class format where three pre-formed ensembles will play and receive coaching for ⅓ of the class, and listen to the other ensembles for the remainder of the class. Targeted for ensembles of at least three players who have been playing together regularly and would benefit from coaching.
Instructor Laura Kuhlman.
Third Period 1:15-2:30
Italians and Other Strangers
For players Intermediate and up.
Italian music was all the rage throughout 16th and 17th century Europe and across the channel in England, where composer and theorist Thomas Morley wrote in 1597 that “Italians and other strangers are greatlie to be commended.” As part of this craze, some composers even took on Italian names to further their careers, such as John Cooper, who refashioned himself as “Giovanni Coperario.” We will play Renaissance songs and dances from the Italian lands by composers such as Marchetto Cara and Giorgio Mainerio, along with pieces written in other lands but inspired by the Italian style, including the Flemish Jacob Regnart and the Englishman Coperario, alias Cooper!
Instructor Miyo Aoki.
Eff It!
For players at the upper intermediate and above levels.
Can’t commit to just one style? Tired of tethering yourselves to one particular time and place? Find freedom in fabulous music from across the centuries in this musical buffet, brought to you by none other than the letter F! Music by Fayrfax, Farnaby, Frescobaldi, Fernandez, and more!
Instructor Anne Timberlake.
Nordic Lights
For Intermediate level players.
Some of the most beautiful melodies ever written were penned by Scandinavian composers in the Classic and Romantic periods. We’ll play 4 and 6-part transcriptions of works by Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, and Swedish composers, including Edvard Grieg, Carl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, and Oluf Ring.
Instructor Vicki Boeckman.
Orlando Furioso
For players at the upper intermediate or advanced level
Orlando furioso, The Frenzy of Orlando, is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto (1474 – 1533), a lawyer and poet. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. Ariosto’s work is 38,736 lines long in total, making it one of the longest poems in European literature.
The poem is about war and love and the romantic ideal of chivalry. It mixes realism and fantasy, humor and tragedy. The stage is the entire world, plus a trip to the Moon. The large cast of characters features Christians and Saracens, soldiers and sorcerers, and fantastic creatures including a gigantic sea monster called the Orc and a flying horse called the hippogriff.
In our sessions together, we will explore the many musical settings of this epic poem, one verse or cantos at a time . . . and not the whole poem, of course! Composers included will be Andrea Gabrielli, Jacquet de Berchem, Alessandro Striggio, Eliseo Ghibel, William Byrd, Giovanni Battista Mosto, and more as research and time allow. This is an upper intermediate/advanced class. Being able to hold your own line, read alto up, bass recorder in treble clef or tenor in bass clef would be a bonus.
Instructor Laura Kuhlman.
Fourth Period 2:45-4:00
“Music with and without a dittie”
Ensemble music for Renaissance Recorders
For players at upper intermediate and advanced levels.
Please note that this class is intended for players who are confident playing on renaissance recorders with renaissance fingerings.
Much of the music we love to play on Renaissance recorders is either vocal music or has its origins in vocal genres. The instrumental canzona, for example, developed directly from the vocal chanson. We can gain insight into phrasing in instrumental music by playing pieces alongside their vocal predecessors, and in this class that’s exactly what we’ll do! We will also explore how our articulation and air can support our phrasing and work on that sonorous ensemble sound that Renaissance recorders can embody so well.
If you wish to take this class, please send a message to info@recorderworkshop.org letting us know what sizes and types (makes) of renaissance instruments you have, and whether you are familiar with renaissance fingerings but need to borrow an instrument.
Instructor Miyo Aoki.
Field of Cloth of Gold
For players at intermediate levels.
Fountains of wine, acres of cloth woven with gold, over a thousand crumpets….In 1520 in a field outside Calais, kings Henry and Francis met for seventeen days of celebration and pomp. The men were supposed to be cementing peace – but instead they were competing for power. We’ll explore the musical side of this competition with music by English and French Tudor composers.
Instructor Anne Timberlake.
Let’s Dance!
For intermediate players looking for a gentle challenge and above levels.
Sultry rhythms and heartfelt melodies are the focus of this class. We will explore the delights of playing tangos in several iterations for recorder ensemble. Paul Leenhout’s clever spoof on Beethoven’s Für Elise, a wonderful arrangement of Piazzola’s Libertango, (which wasn’t a tango at all), and Brejeiro by the inimitable Ernesto Nazareth. Full refund if this class does not leave you tappin’ your toes and swingin’ your hips!
Instructor Vicki Boeckman.
Madrigals of Madness
For players at the upper intermediate level
Whether we are talking about the weather or politics, the word “madness” or “insanity” is frequently used. Throughout history, music has been a vehicle to express our fear, our outrage, our tears. Thus, it is hardly surprising that insanity can be heard in the music of Renaissance madrigal composers like Carlo Gesualdo, who killed his wife in a fit of insanity. One can hear the distress of people at sea in Mateo Flecha’s, La Bomba. Arianna, the central figure in Claudio Montiverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna, is insane with lonliness. Orlando Gibbons poses the question, What is our life? And Thomas Tomkins finishes with, Too much I once lamented.
A joyful time will be had by all!
Instructor Laura Kuhlman.
