Discovered in Wellington

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 804, 17 December 1954, Page 29

Discovered in Wellington

HEN a Wellington music teacher, Miss D. Heath, attended a recent concert of Shakespearian music, she saw that one of the instruments, a recorder, was very similar to a family heirloom that had lain for many years in an old oak chest at her home. She later took it to Zillah and Ronald Castle, who have done much to foster the playing of 17th Century musical instruments in Wellington. They identified it (left) as a tenor recorder made by the 17th Century English woodwind instrument maker Thomas Stanesby, senior. It was an exciting discovery, since probably no more than three such instruments of this size and make now exist. Identification of the maker seems indisputable. Most obvious, of course, is the name imprinted under the mouthpiece with a star immediately below it to distinguish it from the work of Stanesby, junior. This evidence is further confirmed by comparison with photographs of other Stanesby instruments. But the most interesting discovery was the instrument’s pitch. The Castles had understood from the textbooks that the instruments of the time were a third of a pitch below the present day; this recorder turned out to have the same pitch as that now used. However, this fits in with the fact that for 20 or 30 years in the late 17th Century, certain vocal: music’ was set at this pitch, As it has been a tradition in the Heath family for the eldest sons to be parsons, the Castles think it not unlikely that the original owner used the recorder to accompany the singing at his church in Tamworth, on the borders of Staffordshire. Although the recorder has probably not been played for upwards of 200 years, Miss Castle said the tone was still very lovely, even at first playing, and the few minutes’ blowing she gives it each day will soon, she thinks, restore it to its original tone. Solo works have been written in recent years for the descant and treble recorders, and the Castles hope that the present discovery will stimulate pieces for the tenorthe viola of this family.