Aulos Tenor Recorder Baroque/English A211A

by Aulos

Product Features

• Includes a brown leatherette zippered bag; cleaning rod; fingering chart; joint grease; and detachable thumb rest.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.5 x 3.5 x 1 inches ; 1.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000T4BC1I
• Item model number: A211A
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,545 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #33 in Musical Instruments > Band & Orchestra > Woodwinds > Recorders

Product Description

Aulos three-piece C tenor recorder, with Baroque-English fingering. Dark brown recorder with ivory trim; double holes for low C and C#, low D and D#. Made of durable ABS resin, with a curved windway. This recorder does not have a low key, but smaller and less widely spaced finger holes make this a suitable instrument for a small hand. Recorder is approx. 24-1/4" long. Includes a brown leatherette zippered bag; cleaning rod; fingering chart; joint grease; and detachable thumb rest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful low tones, August 30, 2008

By 

Patti Cake "basschick" (los angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aulos Tenor Recorder Baroque/English A211A

This is a beautiful recorder with a sound almost like an oboe but warmer and less nasal - it sounds wonderful. It comes in a really nice leatherette case, and the recorder itself feels sturdy. Just keep in mind that smaller reach isn't small reach - I'm 5'3" and it will take me a couple months of stretching my hands to be able to comfortably reach one of the notes.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aulos A211 Tenor Recorder, March 8, 2010

By 

Dmitry (Moscow, Russian Fed.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Aulos Tenor Recorder Baroque/English A211A

I bought this recorder a month ago and I enjoy it very much! I have played a German-fingered Hohner wooden soprano (the cheap one) for over a year, and of course I like the sound of a wooden recorder better, but I had two problems with it: first, I could never really play C# and D# well enough because it doesn't have double-holes. I know that baroque sopranos do, but the holes may be too small for my fingers to close one hole easily. Anyway, I don't have this problem with Aulos A211A, I could take C# and D# almost from the first day of playing, which means I can play along with almost any melody! Also, remember that other tenor recorders have a C/C# key, which means (as I understand) that you won't be able to play both C and C# in one melody. With this one, you can play anything you like.
Secondly, the wooden recorder (I have two-pieced one) falls apart if you don't play for two days because wood gets dryer. I call it 'recorder jealousy', maybe you don't have this with more expensive wooden recorders? If someone could tell me, I would be grateful. Anyway, the Aulos is always ready to play - it's plastic so it doesn't matter if you don't play for weeks.
I always wanted to have a lower recorder, and tenor's just good for me. You don't have to learn much new fingering after having played a soprano recorder because it's in C too. After having played piano for a couple of years it wasn't so hard for me to reach the holes with the fingers, the only problem being the G (a bit hard for the fourth finger of the left hand to reach that hole fast).
As you all know, the only problem is that it doesn't hold water at all, as all plastic recorders don't. But I'm very glad I bought this recorder at a great price and I really enjoy it! A pretty case it comes in is worth mentioning too, of course.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A workable compromise, May 23, 2010

By 

J. Gwen Ingram (Dexter, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aulos Tenor Recorder Baroque/English A211A

"Smaller reach" is indeed a relative concept. I can (with consistent stretching) reach a 10th on the piano without striking other notes along with it. With that as a possible common point of reference, I can then tell you that this Aulos A211A tenor recorder fits my hands well, and that's a good thing. It is still a tenor, however, and that means fingers and hands will be in a somewhat unnatural position with some unnatural tension to cope with the size -- just as playing 10ths on the piano all the time would eventually get to me, too.

As a comparison, the Yamaha 300 series tenor I tried was terribly uncomfortable, even with the keys. I couldn't play it for much more than a few minutes! I had such high hopes for the Yamaha and loved the sound and response, but I had to pass it on to a friend with larger hands and fingers.

On the downside, this Aulos just doesn't sound or respond as nicely as the 300-series Yamaha recorders. It's adequate for times when plastic is THE order of the day -- that concert in the park with the unstable weather report ... on the road where some music would be nice and a soprano is too shrill (or someone else already has one) but not so nice that it would be worth the risk of damage to a valuable wooden instrument ... when there's no way around leaving the instrument in the car for an extended period, say, because you have to go straight from work to the gig. The rest of the time I'm grateful that I bought a Rosewood Moeck tenor many years ago. This Aulos is worth owning just to spare the Moeck any risk, but I wouldn't be too happy with it if it were my only tenor recorder -- I'd have to keep looking.