RECORDER RANGES, CLEFS, AND OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION
Ann Bies
(a quick guide put together for a composer friend in October 2003)

A quick overview of ranges and clefs is on this webpage (it uses British
terminology, but has the American usage also):

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory29.htm#recorder

But those are essentially possible ranges rather than practical ones
(actually, the possible ranges go a bit higher than what's on that page,
especially for baroque soprano and alto, say up to C for baroque alto).

More practical ranges, depending on the type (baroque or renaissance) of
instrument and the skill of the player, are

soprano: C (written middle C, sounds an octave higher) to A or B (not quite
2 octaves higher).  Up to C or D with a baroque instrument and a strong
player, a step or so higher with an exceptional instrument and player.

alto: F (written F above middle C, sounds as written) to E (conservatively,
almost 2 octaves higher).  Lots of baroque music goes higher, up to G (just
over 2 octaves), so that's fair game with a baroque instrument and a good
player.  The notes higher than that are really hard to play, but possible
up to C.  Of all the sizes, baroque altos tend to be the most able to play
high notes (mostly because they were the baroque solo instrument, so they
tend to be designed for that).

tenor: C (written and sounds middle C) to A or B (almost 2 octaves higher).
The notes higher than that are rare for tenor.

bass: F (written as the space below the F/bass clef, sounds an octave
higher) to C (written middle C).  Most basses don't play much higher
than C well, though you do occasionally see Ds or higher.

For all of these instruments, 
- the lowest 4th is the quietest part of the instrument
- the middle range is the richest and most flexible (from the fifth note
	from the bottom to an octave above that; C-C on alto/bass, G-G on
	soprano/tenor) 
- the low part of the high register is the loudest part of the instrument,
	bright and generally very clear (high C-F on alto, G-B on soprano)
- the high part of the high register is hard to play on most instruments,
	and many casual players never use it (above high G on alto, above
	high B on soprano)
- the two lowest accidentals are the weakest notes on the instrument (low
	F# and G# for alto/bass, low C# and D# for soprano/tenor), and many
	tenors and basses do not have the lowest accidental (F# bass, C#
	tenor) because of how the keys work
- the chromatics in the highest register are tricky and often involve
	stopping the bell with your knee, so most casual players don't do
	that either (although the notes actually sound perfectly well).
	This is maybe most notable for the highest F# on alto and C# on
	soprano, since they're the most likely to come up (but it also
	applies for many sharps higher than that) 
- aside from the natural dynamic range across the range of the instrument,
	there is a little dynamic range for any given note, but not much
	(without varying pitch).
	The usual compensation for this is to vary note length and
	articulation (which makes for quite noticeable differences with a
	skilled player), or potentially to work with alternate (either
	louder or softer) fingerings (but most amateurs don't do much in
	the way of alternate fingerings). 
- there are quite a lot of differences in color throughout the range of the
	instrument that have to	do with cross fingerings as well, which we
	could look at some time if you like :-)

People are used to reading open score, treble clef for soprano, alto and
tenor, and bass clef for bass.

OK, so that was probably *way* more information than you wanted!!
Let me know if you have any questions...