David Lasocki reports the earliest use of "recorder" in the household accounts of the Earl of Derby (later King Henry IV) in 1388, which register i. fistula nomine Recordour (one pipe called 'Recordour').

[27][28][29][30][31][32] Relatively fewer varieties of wood are used to make recorder blocks, which are often made of red cedar, chosen because of its rot resistance, ability to absorb water, and low expansion when wet.

This technique is an important tool for intonation, and is related to the fixed process of tuning a recorder, which involves the adjustment of the size and shape of the finger holes through carving and the application of wax.

Common features of surviving instruments include: a narrow cylindrical bore (except the Göttingen recorder); a doubled seventh hole for the little finger of the lower hand, (except the Tartu recorder), which feature allows for both right- or left-handed playing; a flat or truncated head instead of the narrow beak found on later instruments; and a seventh hole that produces a semitone instead of a tone.

And they have arranged keyboard music of the period for recorder ensembles, including the estampies from the Robertsbridge codex (14th century), or the vocal works of composers Guillaume de Machaut, Johannes Ciconia, and others.

Most of the surviving instruments from the period have a wide, cylindrical bore from the blockline to the uppermost fingerhole, an inverted conical portion down to around the lowest finger hole (the "choke"), then a slight flare to the bell.

The range of this type is normally an octave plus a minor 7th, but as remarked by Praetorius (1619) and demonstrated in the fingering tables of Ganassi's Fontegara (1535),[58] experienced players on particular instruments were capable of playing up to a fourth or even a seventh higher (see #Documentary evidence: treatises).

While the illustrations have been called "maddeningly inaccurate" and his perspectives quirky,[62] Virdung's treatise gives us an important source on the structure and performing practice of the recorder in northern Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

An instrument consisting of two attached, parallel, end-blown flutes of differing length, dating to the fifteenth or sixteenth century, was found in poor condition near All Souls College in Oxford.

Additionally, the Fitzwilliam wind manuscript (GB-Cfm 734) contains wordless motets, madrigals and dance pieces, including some by the Bassano family, probably intended for a recorder consort in six parts.

From the fifteenth century onwards, paintings show upper-class men and women playing recorder, and Virdung's didactic treatise Musica getutscht (1511), the first of its kind, was aimed at the amateur (see also Documentary evidence).

They developed the ideas of a more tapered bore, bringing the finger-holes of the lowermost hand closer together, allowing greater range, and enabling the construction of instruments in several jointed sections.

Notably, Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto TWV 51:F1 makes use some of these notes in the third octave, posing significant technical challenges to the player, perhaps requiring the covering of the bell or other unusual techniques.

The instrumentation of BWV 1057 is uncontroversial: fiauti à bec unambiguously specifies recorders, and both parts have been modified to fit comfortably on altos in F4, avoiding, for example, an unplayable Eb4 in the second fiauto that would have resulted from a simple transposition of a tone.

Vivaldi wrote three concertos for the flautino, possibly for performance by students at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where he taught and composed in the early eighteenth century.

The first suggestion was the use of the one keyed piccolo, or another small transverse flute, however such instruments had fallen out of use in Venice by the generally accepted time of composition of these concertos in the 1720s, and this opinion is no longer considered well supported.

However this suggestion has been opposed by the presence of notated F4 and F♯4 which are not within the typical compass of the flageolet, although they may be produced through the covering of the bell, sometimes combined with underblowing, as attested by theorists as early as Cardano (c. 1546) and as late as Bellay (c. 1800).

This article briefly discusses the duct flutes presented as successors to the recorder: the English flageolet and the csakan, which were popular among amateurs in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the whole of the nineteenth.

The word flageolet has been used since the sixteenth century to refer to small duct flutes, and the instrument is sometimes designated using general terms such as flautino and flauto piccolo, complicating identification of its earliest form.

Tarasov has contested Heberle's status as the inventor of the instrument, and has argued that the csakan grew out of a Hungarian war hammer of the same name, which was converted into a recorder, perhaps for playing military music.

Around 1800, it was highly fashionable for make walking sticks with additional functions (e.g., umbrellas, swords, flutes, oboes, clarinets, horns) although the csakan was the most popular of these, and the only one that became a musical instrument in its own right.

Accounts of Krähmer's playing, which report his "diminishing and swelling the notes, up to an almost unbelievable loudness" imply a developed technique using shading and alternate fingerings, far beyond a purely amateur culture of house music.

Another modification is the narrowing of the thumb hole, by way of an ivory plug on the J. C. Denner basset and an alto by Benedikt Gahn (1674–1711), to allow it to serve purely as an octaving vent, as found on many flageolets and csakans.

Among the influential virtuosos who figure in the revival of the recorder as a serious concert instrument in the latter part of the twentieth century are Ferdinand Conrad, Kees Otten, Frans Brüggen, Roger Cotte, Hans-Martin Linde, Bernard Krainis, and David Munrow.

Modern composers of great stature have written for the recorder, including Paul Hindemith, Luciano Berio, Jürg Baur, Markus Zahnhausen, Josef Tal, John Tavener, Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob, Malcolm Arnold, Steven Stucky, Sean Hickey, and Edmund Rubbra.

Owing to its ubiquity as a teaching instrument and the relative ease of sound production, the recorder has occasionally been used in popular music by groups such as The Beatles;[105] the Rolling Stones (see, for example, "Ruby Tuesday"); Yes, for example, in the song "I've Seen All Good People"; Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick on Surrealistic Pillow;[106] Led Zeppelin ("Stairway to Heaven"); Jimi Hendrix;[107] Siouxsie and the Banshees;[108] Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention; Dido (e.g. "Grafton Street" on Safe Trip Home)[citation needed]; and Mannheim Steamroller[citation needed]; Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull).

Notable historical makers include the Rafi, Schnitzer and Bassano families in the renaissance; Stanesby (Jr. and Sr.), J.C. and J. Denner, Hotteterre, Bressan, Haka, Heitz, Rippert, Rottenburgh, Steenbergen and Terton.

With few exceptions, the duct flutes manufactured in the nineteenth and late eighteenth centuries were intended for amateur or educational use, and were not constructed to the high standard of earlier epochs.

Von Huene and his Australian colleague Frederick Morgan sought to connect the tradition of the historical wind-makers to the modern day with the understanding that doing so creates the best instruments, and those most suited to ancient music.

Today, makers maintaining individual workshops include Ammann, Blezinger, Bolton, Boudreau, Breukink, Brown, Coomber, Cranmore, de Paolis, Ehlert, Holmblat, Meyer, Musch, Netsch, Prescott, Rohmer, Takeyama, von Huene, and Wenner.