Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 56: Contemporary Techniques, Part 2 — Multiphonics, Whisper Tones, and Harmonics

  • Produce a stable multiphonic — two pitches simultaneously — from a documented fingering chart.
  • Overblow any low-register note to its first harmonic, holding the same fingering.

Every recorder fingering, played slightly wrong on purpose, is a different instrument.

Multiphonics, whisper tones, and harmonics are variations of one idea: deliberately unbalance the standard tone production so a different acoustic result emerges. None is musical on its own; all appear, in context, in the contemporary repertoire.

Multiphonics

A multiphonic is two or more pitches sounded simultaneously, produced by a non-standard fingering plus carefully controlled breath. Do not guess fingerings — use a published chart (van Hauwe, The Modern Recorder Player, volume 3) and adjust the air pressure until the second pitch emerges.

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Hold F with the standard fingering; then switch to a multiphonic fingering on the second whole note and hold; then return.

Whisper tones

Reduce the breath pressure below the threshold at which the instrument speaks and a soft, hollow sound emerges — quieter and lower than the fingered pitch. Play a high G at normal pressure, then slowly bleed off the air until the high pitch collapses into the whisper tone, and hold it. Scores notate them as small noteheads marked w.t.

Harmonics

Keep the lower-octave fingering — thumbhole fully closed — and overblow until the instrument speaks at the octave anyway: same pitch as the upper-octave fingering, but brighter, edgier, slightly out of tune. Used as a colour it is one of the recorder's most distinctive contemporary sounds; used by accident, it is a squeak.

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Low G (standard) — high G (overblown harmonic, same low-G fingering, thumbhole closed) — same pair repeated.

Now play these

Seek out these published works:

Hans Martin Linde, Amarilli mia bella (1968)
Each phrase ends with a contemporary technique — an ideal first-application piece.
Walter van Hauwe, Brisk (from The Modern Recorder Player)
Short studies that drill multiphonics specifically.
Luciano Berio, Gesti (1966)
Multiphonics and whisper tones interleaved — listen first.

When you can produce a stable multiphonic from a documented fingering, hold a whisper tone for four beats at quarter = 60 at the softest dynamic the recorder will speak, and overblow a low-G harmonic on demand without a fingering change, move on to Lesson 57.