Kamala Bain Photo: Supplied / Kamala Bain
Recorder specialist Kamala Bain brings a selection of her instruments into the RNZ Concert studio, from the little sopranino to the baroque bass, and gives us a taste of what a recorder can sound like in the hands of an expert.
She spoke with RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump about the different types of recorder, and why she keeps a hot water bottle in her instrument bag alongside the wooden instruments.
"Recorders speak much better if they're warm - they don't really like the chill in the Wellington air particularly. They tend to clog and fog up if they're feeling a bit chilly."
A selection of Kamala Bain's recorders (top to bottom): baroque bass, voice flute in D, Ganassi alto in G, baroque alto in F, sopranino Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The recorder was Kamala's first instrument.
"I started, like many people, at primary school... I'm sometimes am amazed that I continued, because we used to play on the asphalt in the summer, in small circles, with a child leading these small circles."
"So I think by Standard 2... I was already leading a group, and it was a cacophony of sound because each group was playing something different at the same time outside!"
"But I really loved [the recorder] and... continued playing."
Kamala also demonstrated playing two recorders at once, as well as a variety of 'extended techniques' - non-traditional ways of playing to produce unusual sounds and effects, such as multiphonics (producing several notes at once) on a single instrument.
Why stop at one when you can play two recorders Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Music performed by Kamala Bain in the interview:
Sopranino
Handel, George Frideric: Hush, ye pretty warbling quire, excerpt, from Acis and Galatea or
Ganassi alto in G
Van Eyck: Pavaen Lachrymae ("Flow my Tears"), excerpt
Voice flute (a recorder in D)
Telemann: Dolce, from Fantasia 6
Alto in F
Andriessen, Louis: Ende, excerpt (a demonstration of two recorders being played at once)
Linde, Hans Martin: Music for a bird (a demonstration of some contemporary techniques)
Baroque bass
Taki, Rentarō: Kōjō no Tsuki (The Moon over the Ruined Castle)
