Video

Georg Philipp Tele­mann (1681–1767), Fan­ta­sia 3 in A minor: Largo/Vivace/Largo/Vivace, Alle­gro (trans­posed ver­sion of the Fan­ta­sia 3 in B minor from the “Fan­tasie per il Vio­li­no (sic!) sen­za Bas­so Tele­mann”, prob­a­bly 1732,TWV 40:2–13)

Con­rad Stein­mann, recorder in c” by Eti­enne Holm­blat after the instru­ment by (Johann) * Heitz, Berlin, around 1720 (?) in the Musée de la Musique, Cité de la Musique. Paris.

Record­ed in the church of Ober­mut­ten on August 14/15, 2023
The church of Ober­mut­ten (munic­i­pal­i­ty of Thusis/GR) is the only sacred build­ing in Switzer­land made entire­ly of wood. At 1863 meters above sea lev­el, it is also the high­est wood­en church in Europe. It was built in 1718 from larch wood.

Georg Philipp Tele­mann (1681–1767), Fan­ta­sia 7 in D major: Alla Francese/Presto (trans­posed ver­sion in E flat major, from the “Fan­tasie per il Vio­li­no (sic!) sen­za Bas­so Tele­mann”, prob­a­bly 1732,TWV 40:2–13)

Recorder in E flat’ by Fred­er­ick G. Mor­gan, 1996, after an instru­ment by Peter (Pierre Jail­lard) Bres­san, kept in the Grosvenor Muse­um in Chester (GB).
The orig­i­nal of the instru­ment played here has an inter­est­ing his­to­ry: in his “ six Suittes de Clavessin…composées & mis­es en con­cert pour un Vio­lon & Flûte avec une Basse de Vio­le & un Archi­lut… ” (1711, Ams­ter­dam), Charles Dieu­part ini­tial­ly called for a flute de voix in d’, while for Suites V and VI in F and f respec­tive­ly, he asked a « Flûte du qua­tre », a fourth flute which still caus­es con­fu­sion and sup­posed cer­tain­ty. An instru­ment in E flat’ — a kind of flûte de voix for B flat keys — plays the same, rather low­er reg­is­ters as its some­what larg­er coun­ter­part in D flat’, which suits this music per­fect­ly. In this way it avoids a wide gap between the upper voice and bass, which would inevitably be the case with a sopra­no flute in b flat. (Also, as far as I know, there is not a sin­gle piece for sopra­no flute with BC.) One could there­fore assume that Bres­san’s sur­viv­ing instru­ment was used pre­cise­ly for play­ing the Dieu­part Suites V and VI or was even spe­cial­ly made for this pur­pose. This assump­tion was also shared by Fred Mor­gan (1940 — 1999), the leg­endary recorder mak­er from Daylesford/Australia.

(See also: Con­rad Stein­mann, Quar­ten­mechanik, in: Drei Flöten für Peter Bich­sel, Zurich 2017).

Record­ing on April 11, 2024 in the monastery church of Ittingen/TG

Georg Philipp Tele­mann (1681–1767), Fan­tasie X in A minor: Tem­po giusto/ Presto/Moderato (trans­posed ver­sion of the Fan­tasie in F‑sharp minor from the “Fan­tasie per il Vio­li­no (sic!) sen­za Bas­so Tele­mann”, prob­a­bly 1732,TWV 40:2–13).

Con­rad Stein­mann, alto recorder by Eti­enne Holm­blat after an instru­ment by Johann Heytz, Berlin, around 1720.

You can read the fol­low­ing sto­ry about the ori­gin of this extra­or­di­nary instru­ment: “Schild­kröten­wege oder die Fir­ma Johann & Eti­enne”, in: Con­rad Stein­mann, Drei Flöten für Peter Bich­sel , vom Zauber der Block­flöte.

Record­ed on July 8, 2022 in the Gob­elinz­im­mer of the Wildtsches Haus, Basel.

Vir­go, sidus aureum from the Codex Las Huel­gas (Bur­gos), around 1300.
Pro­cess­ing Con­rad Steinmann.

Instru­ment: Sopra­no recorder (Rosen­borg) in 465 Hz. by Fred­er­ick G. Mor­gan, 1983; maple.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

After the madri­gal “Io son fer­i­to” by Palest­ri­na, ca. 1525 — 1594, and the diminu­tions by G. B. Bovi­cel­li, 1550 to ca. 1594, from his “Regole, pas­sag­gi di musi­ca”, Venezia 1594. Solo ver­sion by Con­rad Stein­mann 2020.

Instru­ment: recorder in g’ after Bas­sano by Taavi-Mats Utt, 2001; in mam­moth ivory.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

Jacob van Eyck (c.1590–1657):
Pavaen Lachry­mae from: The Fluyten Lust-hof, Utrecht 1644
after “Lachri­mae Anti­quae” by John Dowland.

Con­rad Stein­mann plays a Renais­sance flute in g’ from mam­moth ivory, by Taavi-Mats Utt (Esto­nia), 2003.

Con­rad Stein­mann, 12/8 — Pas­tic­cio (from : Con­cer­to per la Flau­ta di Giuseppe San Mar­ti­ni and Con­cer­to per flauti­no (del Vival­di) RV 443, Tori­no : Gior­dano 31, ca. 1722)

Con­rad Stein­mann, recorder in c” by Eti­enne Holm­blat after the instru­ment by (Johann) * Heitz, Berlin, around 1720 (?) in the Musée de la Musique, Cité de la Musique. Paris.

Record­ed in the church of Ober­mut­ten on August 14/15, 2023
The church of Ober­mut­ten (munic­i­pal­i­ty of Thusis/GR) is the only sacred build­ing in Switzer­land made entire­ly of wood. At 1863 meters above sea lev­el, it is also the high­est wood­en church in Europe. It was built in 1718 from larch wood.

An Entry/ La Beauford/ New Provo/ Nightingale/ Budro, an Irish Dance

With the excep­tion of “Nightin­gale,” first pub­lished in the “Pleas­ant Com­pan­ion: OR NEW LESSONS and INSTRUCTIONS for the Fla­gelet By Thomas Greet­ing, Gent. LONDON, the oth­er pieces are from “Apol­lo’s Ban­quet, Con­tain­ing Instruc­tions and a Vari­ety of the Lat­est Melodies, Ayres, Jig­gs, and Min­uets for the TRIPLE VIOLIN, now in Use in the Pub­lic The­aters and in the Schools of Danc­ing, most of them being in the Range of both Flute and Flagelet.

Fla­geo­let by Fred­er­ick G. Mor­gan, Daylesford/Australia, 1984, after an anony­mous instru­ment around 1800 in Hz. 415.

Record­ed on June 24, 2022 on the Mörs­burg, Switzerland.

Qale Gnizza
8th sound of the church Qale Gniz­za, ev. from the 6th cen­tu­ry, hand­ed down by the archdea­con Asmar from Beirut, with a com­ment of August 20, 2019 by Con­rad Steinmann.

Con­rad Stein­mann plays a Renais­sance bass recorder in C by Bob Mar­vin, 1991.
Played in front of the sculp­ture “Enve­lope of pul­sa­tion 1” by Peter Ran­dall-Page on the occa­sion of his solo exhi­bi­tion in the monastery Schönthal/Langenbruck (Switzer­land).

Plačí, plačí, naplačí se (trad. aus Bulgarien)

Wine, wine, Marí Máro ejo,
Cry your­self out,
Your girl­hood is over…

Con­rad Stein­man plays on a Rafi tenor flute by Evgen­ji Ilar­i­onov (Kiev)

Con­rad Stein­mann, dou­ble flute [Alghoza] from Rajasthan

Record­ed in the church of Ober­mut­ten on August 14/15, 2023
The church of Ober­mut­ten (munic­i­pal­i­ty of Thusis/GR) is the only sacred build­ing in Switzer­land made entire­ly of wood. At 1863 meters above sea lev­el, it is also the high­est wood­en church in Europe. It was built in 1718 from larch wood.

Con­rad Stein­mann, cru? si! Hom­mage à Hans Krüsi (2023)

(Dou­ble flute by Paul J. Reich­lin, 1987, left flute col­ored with lapis lazuli, lat­er paint­ed by Hans Krüsi ca. 1989)

Pho­to tak­en on April 11, 2024 in the Hans Krüsi exhi­bi­tion at the Ittin­gen Art Muse­um. With many thanks to the muse­um man­age­ment for per­mis­sion to take the photo.

See also: Con­rad Stein­mann, HsK oder: Wie aus einem Netz ein Schlüs­seltanz, in: Drei Flöten für Peter Bich­sel, vom Zauber der Block­flöte. Rüf­fer & Rub, 2016.

Music for a Bird (1968) by Hans-Mar­tin Linde. Con­rad Stein­mann alto recorder

Let­ter from Con­rad Stein­mann on the occa­sion of Hans-Mar­tin Lin­de’s 95th birth­day on May 24, 2025:

Once upon a time there was a Japan­ese bird who loved music very much. He was par­tic­u­lar­ly fond of flute music. He had been told that his Eng­lish ances­tors were lucky enough to have noble peo­ple play them melodies on small flutes until they could sing them. The best thing was that each bird was giv­en its own melody. Our bird remem­bered this and want­ed to have his own music. He asked for it for a long time and final­ly he got it, his “Music for a Bird”.

Actu­al­ly, the sto­ry goes a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly: Hans-Mar­tin Linde was already so famous in 1967 that he was invit­ed to Japan for the third time to demon­strate his skills on all kinds of dif­fer­ent recorders. One can well imag­ine that he also played his own “Fan­tasie e Scherzi”. In any case, after a con­cert in Tokyo, a gen­tle­man came into the artist’s room, not only to thank him with a big bow, but also to approach him with a request. Would he be pre­pared to write a kind of inci­den­tal music for him as a mime, a kind of bird-man music? Even now, it is easy to imag­ine that Linde-san was so tak­en with this idea that they imme­di­ate­ly agreed not only on when the music would be com­plet­ed, but also on the size of the fee.

Months lat­er and after much exper­i­men­ta­tion, the piece was final­ly put on paper. The fee was paid on time, but the client him­self, the bird pan­tomime, had dis­ap­peared with­out a trace, even after sev­er­al attempts to con­tact him.
The Japan­ese bird was gone, just as the Eng­lish birds of the time had long since dis­ap­peared. But just as their music has remained with us as “Bird Fan­cy­ers Delight”, for­tu­nate­ly the eter­nal­ly fresh “Music for a Bird” also remains.

Dear Hans-Mar­tin,
I’ve done the math: When you wrote your clas­sic, your “Music for a Bird”, I had only recent­ly become your pri­vate stu­dent. With your music, you encour­aged me to find my own sounds. I can’t thank you enough for that!
I remain
Your Con­rad in a long and cor­dial relationship

Con­rad Stein­mann, in May 25

Con­rad Stein­mann: Tenor flute in c’ (440 Hz) by Yamaha
Robin Michel: Sound installation
Lau­ra Mietrup: Sound sculp­tures. https://lauramietrup.com/
Chan­dra Mäder: Video pro­duc­tion. https://photo-by-chandra.com/

Record­ed on 7.11.2022 on the occa­sion of the exhi­bi­tion “base­ment hum” in the exhi­bi­tion space Klin­gen­tal, Basel

Inspired by the hum­ming sounds of elec­tric­i­ty and ven­ti­la­tion shafts, the exhi­bi­tion “base­ment hum” shows sound sculp­tures that are con­nect­ed by a sys­tem of pipes to form a spa­tial instal­la­tion. Lau­ra Mietrup’s sound sculp­tures for­mal­ly imi­tate and freely inter­pret ven­ti­la­tion shafts. The indus­tri­al-look­ing ducts form a three-dimen­sion­al draw­ing that runs through the space togeth­er with the noisy, flat sounds of the sculp­tures. Robin Michel’s algo­rith­mi­cal­ly gen­er­at­ed and nev­er-repeat­ing sounds form the basis, the “base­ment hum”, for Con­rad Stein­man­n’s instant com­pos­ing. Final­ly, a fourth lev­el is added with the calm video shots by Chan­dra Mäder.

Oka and the Rhi­no: „The Beau­ty and the Beast“ for an Oca­ri­na in G

Con­rad Stein­mann: Oka­ri­na in G
Robin Michel: Sound installation
Lau­ra Mietrup: Sound sculp­tures. https://lauramietrup.com/
Chan­dra Mäder: Video production

Record­ed on 7.11.2022 on the occa­sion of the exhi­bi­tion “base­ment hum” in the exhi­bi­tion space Klin­gen­tal, Basel

Genie in a bot­tle with over­tone flute in the Hum­mzen­trale of the underworld

Con­rad Stein­mann: Over­tone flute in F (a=465) by Lukas Rohner
Robin Michel: Sound installation
Lau­ra Mietrup: Sound sculp­tures. https://lauramietrup.com/

Record­ed on 7.11.2022 on the occa­sion of the exhi­bi­tion “base­ment hum” in the exhi­bi­tion space Klin­gen­tal, Basel

Con­rad Stein­mann: vivace e suave (2017)
for 1 alto recorder
with thanks to Sylve­stro (Ganas­si) and Ivo (Dim­chev) for inspiration

Con­rad Stein­mann: sopra il lamen­to di Reso per sopra­no solo (2014)
Para­phrase of the ” Lamen­to ” for flute solo by Reso Kik­nadze (Geor­gia)

Con­rad Stein­mann: 4pm (2013)
for a nar­row bored renais­sance flute in c”

Con­rad Stein­mann plays on a tenor flute by Evgen­ji Ilar­i­onov (Kiev) after a mod­el by Claude Rafi, Lyon, c. 1540, at the pitch of 465

Con­rad Stein­mann: alfa­bet (2010)
for a bass recorder
inspired by the poem “alfa­bet” by the Dan­ish poet Inger Chris­tensen and writ­ten for “Alif Beh” by the Egypt­ian artist Hazem El Mestikawy..

Ikt­suar­pok (2020) by Con­rad Stein­mann (*1951)
Plex­i­glas over­tone flute in F on 465 Hz. by Lukas Rohn­er, 2006

Ikt­suar­pok is a word from the lan­guage of the Green­landic Inu­it and describes the yearn­ing feel­ing of an Inu­it who steps out of his igloo to scan the wide hori­zon with his eyes, in the vague hope of dis­cov­er­ing a pos­si­ble visitor.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.