Subcategories

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  Orpheus Music has solo recorder repertoire ideal for musical recorder solos on the soprano/descant, treble/alto, tenor and bass recorders.

  Explore the recorder repertoire ranging from Medieval dances, Renaissance dances and Baroque solos, to Contemporary music including extended techniques for the recorder.

  Technical recorder exercises, recorder studies and recorder teaching manuals are available for all C recorders (descant/soprano and tenor) and F recorders (Sopranino, treble/alto and bass) - perfect to hone one's technical recorder abilities.

  Studies and technical sheet music for recorder (such as finger exercises, breathing and articulation techniques) start from beginner, intermediate and extend to advanced and tertiary levels.

  There has now been more recorder music written in the last 100 years than in any other period. The recorder is an old instrument that has taken the new world by storm. Some modern music calls for the recorder to produce unusual noises, rhythms and effects, by such techniques as flutter-tonguing and overblowing to produce multiphonics. David Murphy's 2002 composition Bavardage is an example, as is Hans-Martin Linde's Music for a Bird.

  The recorder is often used in popular music, including that of groups such as The Beatles; the Rolling Stones (see, for example, "Ruby Tuesday"); Yes, for example, in the song "I've Seen All Good People"; Jefferson Airplane (see Personnel as well as Grace Slick); Led Zeppelin (Stairway to Heaven); Jimi Hendrix;^[100] Siouxsie and the Banshees;^[101] Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention; Dido (e.g. "Grafton Street"); and Mannheim Steamroller.

  In the 2012 Charlotte Barbour-Condini became the first recorder player to reach the final of the biennial BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Recorder player Sophie Westbrooke was a finalist in the 2014 competition.

   

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  Orpheus music offers over 400 titles for recorder duets perfect recorder repertoire for your next lesson or concert. Music ranges from easy or intermediate to challenging duos with arrangements for any types of recorder such as descant/soprano and alto/treble (S/A), two altos (A/A), two sopranos (S/S), treble and bass, tenor and bass, descant and tenor recorders, and many more! 

  Repertoire includes well known recorder "classics" such as the Telemann, Quantz, Hotteterre recorder duets to folk and world music arranged for the recorder. 

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  Orpheus Music has recorder sheet music for every type of recorder trio, such as descant/soprano, alto/treble and tenor (SAT); alto, tenor and bass recorder (ATB), three altos/trebles, three descants/sopranos and many more variations of recorder types!

  Your recorder ensemble is growing and its time to extend to new trio recorder repertoire, try some gorgeous Mattheson trios for three alto recorders, or some classical trios by Hook for Alto, tenor and bass recorders; or perhaps there are some folk and traditional world music arrangements by Lance Eccles that might take you to faraway countries. 

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  Orpheus Music stocks over 1100 titles for recorder quartets, ideal for soprano, alto, tenor and bass recorders. There is something for every recorder quartet whether you are a beginner or intermediate ensemble to an advanced recorder quartet. Consort music ranging from the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Classical to Contemporary music, folk and Jazz, Baroque concertos, string arrangements or well-known Orchestral pieces arranged for recorder ensembles are just some of the types of recorder repertoire we stock for recorder quartets.  

  Recorder quartets are available for all different types of recorder - for your more traditional types soprano/descant, alto/treble, tenor and bass (SATB), two altos/trebles, tenor and bass (AATB); to four of a kind - four altos or four basses. 

  There are many great pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque times as well as a growing number of great modern music. Among late 20th-century and early 21st-century recorder ensembles, the trio Sour Cream (led by Frans Brüggen), Flautando Köln, the Flanders Recorder Quartet, Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet and Quartet New Generation have programmed remarkable mixtures of historical and contemporary repertoire. Soloists such as Dan Laurin, Piers Adams, Maurice Steger, and Dorothee Oberlinger have toured and recorded widely.

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  Orpheus Music stocks a wide range of recorder quintet sheet music ideal for recorder ensembles and consorts of all levels and recorder school groups.

  Discover Baroque concertos, vocal and organ pieces arranged for recorder quintets as well as contemporary Australian music ideal for recorder ensembles and consorts. Explore the timeless works of Gabrielli, Palestrina, Byrd and many other composers with music re-orchestrated and originally composed for recorder quintets. 

  Music ranges from beginner and intermediate consorts to professional and advanced repertoire ideal for concerts. Find any arrangement to suit your recorder ensemble's needs such as two sopranos/descant, treble/atlto, tenor bass (SSATB); descant, two trebles, tenor, bass (SAATB) and many more variations of recorder sized arrangements!

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  Orpheus Music offers a large range of recorder sextets including orchestral arrangements, new contemporary compositions and traditional recorder repertoire for recorder ensembles ideal for school groups, or small chamber groups.

  There is recorder sheet music available for a sextet of lower consort recorders (such as bass, great bass, sub-bass and contra bass recorders) as well as higher consort recorder music (sopranino, descant/soprano, alto/treble and tenor recorders). 

  Your recorder ensemble is now a small chamber group and perhaps you want to branch out and learn new recorder sextets for your school group or recorder consort. Why not explore the chamber music of Bach, Vivaldi or Purcell arranged for recorder? Or some contemporary music by Lance Eccles, Benjamin Thorn, Irmhild Beutler and Alan Davis? 

  Numerous C and F recorder groups are available from sopranino recorder, descant/soprano, treble/alto, tenor, bass, great bass down to Contra sub-bass recorders. 

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  Orpheus Music offers a range of orchestral arrangements for recorder ensembles ideal for school groups, recorder orchestras or large recorder consorts.

  There is music for lower consort recorders (such as bass, great bass, sub-bass and contra bass recorders) as well as higher consort recorder music (sopranino, descant/soprano, alto/treble and tenor recorders). 

  Discover the music by popular classics for recorder by composer such as Peter Warlock, Gershwin, Scott Joplin and Tony Lewis, or delve into the Baroque and Classical periods with music by Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart. 

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  Orpheus Music offers conductors, recorder teachers and players looking for music for a recorder school groups, recorder orchestra or large recorder ensembles that can cater for recorder societies and guild meetings.

  We stock a large range of sheet music from well-known tunes, to music from the baroque, classical, romantic repertoire to contemporary music specifically composed and written for the recorder family. These arrangements cater for all recorder sizes - such as sopranino, descant/soprano, treble/alto, tenor, bass, great-bass, sub-bass and contra bass recorders. 

  Modern recorder parts are notated in the key they sound in. Parts for alto, tenor and contrabass recorders are notated at pitch, while parts for sopranino, soprano, bass, and great bass are typically notated an octave below their sounding pitch. As a result, soprano and tenor recorders are notated identically; alto and sopranino are notated identically; and bass and contrabass recorders are notated identically. Octave clefs may be used to indicate the sounding pitch, however usage is inconsistent.

  Rare sizes and notations include the garklein, which may be notated two octaves below its sounding pitch, and the sub-contrabass, which may be notated an octave above its sounding pitch.

  Like their historical antecedents, modern recorder players frequently also play from parts written for other instruments, reading in a variety of clefs and transpositions, and must make appropriate choices of instrumentation.

   

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  Recorder Christmas music can take many forms from solo descant/soprano or treble/alto to duets, trios, quartets and larger groups. We stock over 100 Christmas tiles from well know tunes to classic early music songs.

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  Orpheus Music offers over 1000 titles of recorder music with accompaniment. This includes both C fingering recorders such as descant/soprano and tenor recorders; and F fingering recorders such as sopranino, treble/alto and bass recorders. The accompaniment can include recorder and either piano, harpsichord, organ, guitar and percussion. 

  Discover the great baroque trio sonatas by Handel, Telemann, Corelli and Vivaldi; or perhaps discover the music of the french baroque sonatas by Loeillet, Hotteterre and Boismortier. Or learn music for contemporary recorder with jazz and folk influences perfect for performing with piano. 

  This area of recorder repertoire includes both beginner, intermediate and advanced music with much of the AMEB, trinity and ABRSM examination syllabuses repertoire coming out of this category. 

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  Musical recorder repertoire in this category is carefully collected in order to offer an array of anthologies that are ideal resources for solos and ensembles. This includes musical collections selected by either musical periods (medieval, baroque, classical or modern) or by genre - whether it is dance music, ensemble repertoire, a collection of technical studies or music from a particular country. These recorder collections are ideal for recorder music teachers, conductors, musical directors and recorder players.

  These collections start at beginner recorder ensembles or solos to intermediate and advanced levels for recorder quartets and quintets. 

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  Orpheus Music has a wide variety of recorder concertos on offer with works for recorder and strings, recorder and orchestras and recorder and percussion. Discover the Baroque recorder concertos of Vivaldi, Telemann and Corrette. Most works offer all members of the recorders family, with pieces for sopranino, descant/soprano, treble/alto, tenor and bass recorder concertos. 

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  This music may include one or more recorders with instruments such as strings, woodwind, keyboard, percussion, voice and many other instruments. In this category you will find orchestral works, chamber and string quartets, woodwind chamber works, trio sonatas, vocal music - that all include the recorder.

  Please Note: Unless the bass line is specified as one of the soloistic elements of the composition, the bass part  is not counted in the melody line and is therefore counted as accompaniment. For example music with a descant recorder, violin and cello goes in 2 players, as the cello is playing the role of the bass/basso continuo. 

  This category has a wide variety of music ranging from the renaissance, extending to contemporary music. This may use a combination of C and F fingering and may use bass clef for the bass recorders. This category may include recorders from garklein, sopranino, descant/soprano, alto/treble, tenor, bass, great bass, contra and sub contra bass recorders. 

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  The category of "Other" includes slightly different musical ensembles which might include recorder (sopranino, descant/soprano, alto/treble, tenor and bass recorders) with harp, guitar, piano, voices, lute, flute, violin and strings, tuned percussion or even an accordion!

  This category is perfect for a recorder ensemble that has a slightly unusual instrumentation- with an extra cello or singer? Or perhaps a percussionist is keen to join your recorder consort?

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  Orpheus Music stocks over 200 titles of teaching resources and instruction manuals on how to learn the recorder perfect for teachers and students looking for new recorder teaching methods. 

  Teachers looking to teach descant/soprano and treble/alto to school children we stock the very popular series 'Abracadabra for Recorder', 'Recorder from the Beginning' by John Pitts, 'Fun and Games with the Recorder, and many more!

  Adults who have come to recorder and music later in life we have many instructional recorder teaching manuals, with popular titles such as 'Enjoy the Recorder' and 'From descant to Treble' by Brian Bonsor, 'The Sweet Pipes Recorder Book - a method for older beginners', 'Basic Recorder Technique' by Hugh Orr, 'Method for the recorder'by Mario Duschenes, 'The Trapp Family Recorder Method' by Edgar Hunt and many more!

  Advanced recorder players looking to improve their technique 'Advanced Recorder Technique' by Heyens and 'The Modern Recorder Player' by Hauwe. 

  Recorder players looking to learn bass recorder and the other lower recorders in the recorder family, we have many teaching manuals such as 'Workshop Bass Recorder' , 'The Bass Recorder' by Hunt and 'The Big Bass Recorder' by Davey. 

  Teachers looking for recorder music classroom resources we stock Suzuki, Orff and Kodaly teaching manuals. 

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  Orpheus Music stocks examination recorder sheet music, scales and arpeggios booklets, examination pieces with accompaniment, musicianship and music theory books as well as resources to help you with the sight reading, music theory and ear tests components. 

  We stock all recorder music for Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB), Trinity London and ABRSM.  

  Those looking to do music theory will enjoy the series 'How to Blitz Theory' by Samantha Cotes, 'Theory Fundamentals', 'Music Craft', 'Musicianship' and 'Master your Theory' by Dulcie Holland. 

  We have 'Sound at Sight' and 'Specimen Ear tests' for those looking to improve their sight reading and ear tests for exams.  

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  Orpheus Music stocks music theory, sight reading books and ear tests resources to help you learn in your next AMEB or trinity exam.

  Those wishing to study music theory will enjoy the series 'How to Blitz Theory' by Samantha Cotes, 'Theory Fundamentals', 'Music Craft', 'Musicianship' and 'Master your Theory' by Dulcie Holland. 

  We have 'Sound at Sight' and 'Specimen Ear tests' for those looking to improve their sight reading and ear tests for exams.  

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  Recorder players looking for the history of the recorder or literature about the recorder, or perhaps historical treatises on how to play recorder, its articulation, ornamentation, embellishment or improvise upon it - look no further!

  Orpheus Music stocks a wide variety of books that include well-known titles such as 'the Acoustics of the Recorder' by Martin, 'the Recorder today'by O'Kelly, 'The Cambridge Companion to the recorder' and many more! 

  There are many titles on how to interpret music from the Baroque period, historical performance practices during the renaissance with treatises about the recorder by Ganassi, Quantz, Hotteterre and many more old masters.

  Other books include practice diaries, fingering charts, play along booklets with CDs, composition handbooks and the Fred Morgan Book ' Recorders based on historical models'.   

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  All of the Orpheus Recorder Boutique 2025 Set Works are now available. Please click on each session and check your group for any updates. Info from each tutor included in each group.