Haka Tenor in C, a’=422, 415Hz

Ricard Haka (1646-1705) was born in England and later moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He started producing woodwind instruments around 1660. In addition to recorders, he also produced traverso, shawm, oboe, chalumeau, bassoon, etc. He was one of the oldest makers of baroque recorder. In the early days he also made a single-tube Renaissance type recorder. He was one of the first generation who started the three-part method for woodwind instruments. J. Steenbergen and A. van Aardenberg, the representative Dutch makers, and his nephew, C. Rijkel, apprenticed under him.

This tenor a’=415Hz is based on the original recorder in the collection of Ueno Gakuen University. Its middle-low register sounds deep and full, while high notes plays sweetly and genteelly with quick response. What you should get surprised at with this keyless tenor would be the almost perfect intonation of F# and G#, which is usually difficult for a keyless tenor recorder to sound in tune.

The original is made of ebony with four ivory mounts. However, as both materials are very difficult to obtain today, our workshop basically uses rosewood, which has a similar density and charactors. Additionally, we can also make one using maple, which is lighter and easier to hold.