Instrument
Recorder sheet music
8,684 titles in the index · page 1 of 181
The recorder has a serious Baroque repertoire and a large teaching literature, and the two are bought by completely different people. What unites them is one question that decides whether a piece is playable at all: which size instrument it is written for.
The listing below covers solo and accompanied recorder, consort music and graded teaching material.
Le bon espoir
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
Petit coeur franc et gratieux
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
Impossible est que je puisse vivre
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
Qui veult entrer en grace
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
Las! Il fauldra
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
The First Noel
- Flute
- Recorder
- Piccolo
Two-Part Canon
- Recorder
Adeste Fideles
- Recorder
Alle Jahre wieder
- Recorder
Am Weinachtsbaume
- Recorder
As Lately We Watched
- Guitar
- Voice
- Recorder
Away In A Manger
- Organ
- Recorder
Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella
- Recorder
Cherry Tree Carol
- Recorder
Companions, All Sing Loudly
- Recorder
Es 1st Ein Ros Entsprungen
- Recorder
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Recorder
Good King Wenceslas
- Recorder
Go Tell It On the Mountain
- Recorder
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
- Recorder
He Is Born
- Recorder
Here We Come A-Caroling
- Recorder
In Duici Jubilo
- Recorder
I Saw Three Ships
- Recorder
Josef, Lieber Josef Mein
- Recorder
Joy To The World
- Recorder
Kommet, ihr Hirten
- Recorder
Leise rieselt der Schnee
- Recorder
Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child
- Recorder
Maria Durch Ein n Dornwald Ging
- Recorder
Nous Aliens Ma Mie
- Recorder
O Come, O Come Immanuel
- Recorder
Oh, How Joyfully
- Recorder
O Tannenbaum
- Recorder
Susser die Glocken nie klingen
- Recorder
The Boars Head Carol
- Guitar
- Voice
- Recorder
The Holly and the Ivy
- Recorder
The Three Holy Kings
- Recorder
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- Recorder
Will niemand singen so sing aber ich
- Recorder
Untitled Pieces (plainsong setting)
- Recorder
Bastienne, vous aves change d'amis
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
Bon passtoreau, garde bien ta houlette
- Voice
- Choir
- Recorder
The Serpents Tail
- Recorder
Soe Gratious
- Recorder
Allens Gallyard
- Recorder
Jon Lasses Allmaine
- Recorder
So leta so yo aci
- Recorder
Buying guide
What to know before you buy
Sizes, and C or F
Recorders alternate between two fingering families. Descant (soprano) and tenor are in C; treble (alto) and bass are in F. A part written for treble played on a descant will be in the wrong key, and the fingerings a player has learned for one family do not transfer to the other.
British and American names differ for the same instruments — descant is soprano, treble is alto — and editions use whichever convention their publisher favours. This causes more confusion than the transposition itself.
Baroque repertoire and continuo
The serious literature — Handel, Telemann, Van Eyck, Sammartini — is entirely out of copyright and widely available free. As with all Baroque music, check whether an accompanied edition includes a written-out keyboard realisation of the figured bass, or leaves it for a continuo player to improvise.
Common questions
- What is the difference between descant and treble recorder?
- Size and key. Descant (called soprano in American editions) is in C; treble (alto) is in F and sounds lower. Their fingerings differ, so parts are not interchangeable.
- Can I play flute music on the recorder?
- Sometimes, for a C instrument reading a flute part, though range and breath requirements often make it awkward. Music arranged for recorder handles those differences deliberately.
- Is recorder music free?
- Most of the historical repertoire is, being centuries out of copyright. Modern graded teaching series are not, and are usually the better buy for a learner because they are properly sequenced.