Alto recorder

It has the same general shape as a soprano, but is larger in all dimensions, resulting in a lower pitch for a given fingering.

In the early 16th century, books were published by Virdung,[6] Agricola,[7] and Ganassi,[8] all of which describe the smallest of three sizes of recorder (tuned in fifths) as an instrument with the bottom note G. Appropriate to the highest instrument of the set, it is given a name used for the highest vocal part in music from that time: discant,[9][10] Virdung also calls it clain flöte—"small flute", kleine Flöte in modern German) and sopran or soprano.

This type of instrument continued to be produced through the 17th century and into the early 18th, though around 1650 it began to be made in three separate parts.

This new version of recorder (first depicted in a painting from 1672) was first made in Paris and, shortly later and under French influence, in London.

In most languages, this was the instrument meant by the word for flute alone: German Flöte, Dutch fluyt, Italian flauto, Spanish flauta.