Duets for Alto Recorders. Arranged by Nicholas Wynne from Wilhelm Klingenbrunner's Studies for Csakan (Vienna 1782 - 1850)

Introduction - The Walking Stick Flute

This is a very popular instrument on account of its pleasant tone and the slight amount of effort required to play it. It also bears the more appropriate name of flûte douce and is not always tuned sufficiently purely despite having been improved several times. Only a few excellent instrument makers have adequately perfected it. Thus it is necessary to make a careful selection from amongst them.

The common appellation, Csakan, a walking stick with a hook on the handle after the Hungarian fashion, implies it may well originate from there. The various forms of this minor part of the headjoint have not hte slightest disadvantage. However, both mouth holes are advantageous. The Csakans with a key are the only ones that can be recommended. A tuning slide which is formed by the head joint for the accurate tuning of the csakan to a simliar or different instrument is also very useful.

Particular attention must be paid to the small opening on the back for the thumb of the left hand; it is especially recommended for the second and third octaves. The thumb must never be removed from the instrument itself as it secures the lightness and purity of the tone far more if it is pulled back slightly as the need arises.

The range is at its purest from A flat below middle C to the A flat two octaves above middle C. Several csakans permit the production of fairly tolerable notes as high as the first D flat above the treble stave, and, very occasionally, the E flat above this. However, these notes are generally unstable and less than pleasant. The discerning composer will therefore either avoid them completely or only use them at a point where an advantageous fingering - relative to the preceding or following notes - permits. 

- Wilhelm Klingenbrunner 1815 (Translated from the German by M. B.)

Score only: 40 pages.