Another unusual design in Vienna.
In May 2000 I was granted permission by the director of the Musical instrument collection of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches museum to measure the all recorders in their collection. This was probably the first comprehensive study of whole collection since Bob Marvin's celebrated 1972 Galpin Society article and I am very grateful to the direction of the museum, for allowing me access.
At the time of writing, the measuring is finished and a catalogue is in the early stages of preparation. This experience led me to a trio of anonymous instruments hitherto undocumented, which bear a makers mark with an unusual motif, reminiscent of a pair of apples. These three recorders have proved a good basis for a late renaissance model with baroque fingering. The three instruments are: a soprano size, inventory number: SAM 130 in modern c", and alto, SAM 140, at around modern f"' and a small tenor, that suffered a baroque "remod" , SAM 148 in modern d'. These instruments have fairly similar bore profiles to the "rafi" models, except that their actual diameter is proportionally much greater, and surprisingly they play a full two octave range, using the fingerings of Jambe de Fer and Van Eyke.  On the other hand, their voicing and blowing characteristics, seem far closer to baroque instruments than the Rafis. The unusual interval between the tenor and alto sizes may suggest that their original use was intended more in a solo than a consort capacity.

Reconstruction.
The reconstruction of these instruments has proved to be remarkably straightforward. The high notes are very reliable and no particular problem was encountered in achieving a good balanced instrument. This is at least as applies to the alto size recorder. The most important problem has been knowing at what pitch to make them, considering that most players would probably want to explore 17th century Italian music with this kind of recorder. I have finally turned to instruments in a=415hz and a=440hz, the later as a compromise to those wanting to play with cornettos and brass; instruments, whose players are renowned for their inflexibility with regard to pitch.  For the moment I will content myself with an alto in g' and soprano in c", and possibly think later about a tenor size. The low pitches would almost probably rule out an instrument below modern d', meaning that any conformity with the other sizes would be lost if I produced an instrument in a=466hz.
I will make these instruments in one piece, with no joint and will of course be prepared to tune them to existing instruments, liable to be used in a common programme.