Denner

Johann Christoph Denner, born 1655 in Leipzig, was a member of an acknowledged instrument maker family. After his apprenticeship as a horn turner and maker of hunting signals he specialized in the making of woodwind instruments.

It is assumed that he adopted the new type of baroque recorder, three part instruments with narrow conical bore as known from the Hotteterres in France, and made them to perfection. His workshop in Nürnberg produced a large number of recorders, giving him an influential reputation even during his lifetime. A very renowned alto recorder was made by his son, Jakob Denner, who, together with his brother, took over their father's workshop when he died in 1707. The original instrument, an exhibit in the Musikhistorisk Museum in Copenhagen, responds quickly and precisely in the top range and has a wonderful tone.

My instruments are almost exact copies, the original pitch of appoximately 413Hz making alterations nearly unnecessary. The voice flute exhibited in the Germanischen Museum in Nürnberg was made by their father J.C. Denner. It is probably not the usual type of voice flute used in England at that time, but rather more a high tenor in c´. Its strengths lie in the middle and lower registers, where it has a warm, full-bodied tone.