Instant Harmony Music (2026)

04/09/2026

JUST PUBLISHED!

The first book-length biography of GIUSEPPE SAMMARTINI, the most famous oboist of the Baroque period and an important composer for woodwind and stringed instruments.

The author is the well-known Belgian baroque oboist and teacher Benoît Laurent.

The book explores Sammartini’s early career in Milan and Venice, his season in Brussels, and his last twenty years in London, where he played in Handel’s Opera Orchestra, participated in the Opera of the Nobility alongside Farinelli and Porpora, then retired to compose and teach the Princess of Wales and her children. It also looks at the evidence of what exactly made him such an outstanding performer.

Includes the first-ever thematic catalogue of Sammartini’s compositions, introducing the system of GSM numbers.

Available as a pdf from https://instantharmony.net/product/benoit-laurent-full-of-fire-originality-and-science-the-oboist-and-composer-giuseppe-sammartini-an-italian-in-handels-london-including-a-thematic-catalogue-of-his-compositions/
and in print from amazon.com and other amazons around the world.

11/03/2025

My wife Giulia just published this article, which I found a wonderful and stimulating exploration of the philosophical background of Silvestro Ganassi's work. You can download a copy free from our website, https://instantharmony.net/product/tettamanti-silvestro-ganassi-and-the-valente-master-1542-43-forging-a-model-of-the-perfect-player-pdf/

26/02/2025

BACH’S FLUTE SONATA IN A MAJOR ARRANGED FOR RECORDER
AVAILABLE NOW

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata in A major for Flute and Obbligato Harpsichord, BWV 1032, is one of the most important chamber works in the flute’s repertoire.

But it has one big problem: 40 percent of the first movement is missing in Bach’s autograph manuscipt. The eminent Bach scholar (and recorder player) Professor Michael Marissen has completed this movement, based on Bach’s style and ALL the clues in the manuscript for the first time ever.

NOW Instant Harmony presents his edition of the flute sonata in a TRANSPOSITION into C major for ALTO RECORDER and obbligato harpsichord. This differs from other people’s recorder transpositions of the work in being taken from his historically informed completion of the first movement.

AVAILABLE NOW as a downloadable pdf from
https://instantharmony.net/product/bach-sonata-in-c-major-for-alto-recorder-and-obbligato-harpsichord-arranged-pdf/

Michael has also reconstructed the original version of this sonata, for alto recorder, violin, and basso continuo in C major. Available from https://instantharmony.net/product/johann-sebastian-bach-trio-sonata-in-c-major-for-alto-recorder-violin-and-basso-continuo-pdf/

And the flute sonata from
https://instantharmony.net/product/bach-sonata-in-a-major-for-flute-and-obbligato-harpsichord-bwv-1032/

24/02/2025

We are sad to report that the Brazilian flautist, recorder player, and conductor Ricardo Kanji (1948–2025) passed away today.

Ricardo specialized in the interpretation of Baroque and Classical music. During his 25 years of residence in The Netherlands, he studied in 1970–72 with Frans Brüggen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, then became his successor as teacher in 1973–95. Ricardo participated actively in the Dutch music scene, performing with the most significant early music ensembles. He was one of the original members of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, with whom he toured worldwide. After he returned to Brazil in 1995, he created the orchestra and choir Vox Brasiliensis for the TV documentary History of Brazilian Music, which earned him the Best Conductor prize in 1999 from APCA (Art Critics Association of São Paulo). From 2002 until his death, he taught at EMESP (Music School of the State of São Paulo) and performed as a guest conductor in South America, Europe, and the USA.

We at Instant Harmony were happy and honored to be working with Ricardo on a second edition of his Study Program for the Recorder. We now hope to be able to publish it before long, so that people can still learn and improve their playing from his guidance.

As the great 16th-century instrumentalist Silvestro Ganassi once wrote in the epilogue of his Lettione Seconda (1543) (freely translated): “Every work that is brought into the light has something wise in it, and this is because nature operates in everybody. In addition, you need to consider that works are made with no little effort. And I am not talking about the effort of spending five or six or more years to finish a work, but the time that encompasses all the effort the author made in his life. If you consider the fruit that one can acquire from a book, that is the opportunity to learn in a short time the secrets that someone worked so hard to learn during his whole life.” Dear Ricardo, thank you very much for having shown the way and shortened the road for many players around the world.

David Lasocki and Giulia Tettamanti

12/02/2025

ANNOUNCING AN EDITION OF
BACH’S SONATA IN A MAJOR FOR FLUTE AND OBBLIGATO HARPSICHORD, BWV 1032
with a historically informed RECONSTRUCTION of the MISSING MUSIC in the first movement.

Reconstructed and edited by the eminent Bach scholar Michael Marissen.

Why another edition?
There are already several good published editions of Bach’s sonata. The “selling-point” of this new edition is that it offers, for the first time, a historically informed reconstruction of the
40 percent of the first movement that is now missing in the autograph manuscript.

An exaggerated claim?
Many editors and performers have provided satisfying musical material to fill the gap in Bach’s score, and often they have specifically referred to their results as a “reconstruction.” But all these editions offer only completions. None truly brings an appropriate “reconstruction” or restoration of what Bach’s original material could have been. This edition does so as far as is now possible, using ALL the clues in the manuscript for the first time.

So: play Bach’s masterpiece in an edition as close as possible to his original score....

Available as a pdf from https://instantharmony.net/product/bach-sonata-in-a-major-for-flute-and-obbligato-harpsichord-bwv-1032/

11/02/2025

A “NEW” WORK FOR RECORDER BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH! (Third notice)

Can this really be true? A new work for recorder by J. S. Bach?

Yes, in a sense. The eminent Bach scholar (and recorder player) Professor Michael Marissen has reconstructed the original version of Bach’s famous Sonata for Flute and Obbligato Harpsichord in A major, BWV 1032. And what was the original version?

A Trio Sonata for Alto Recorder, Violin, and Basso continuo in C major.

In the process, Michael has uncovered many earlier readings of the music throughout that are reflected in the edition. He has also completed the first movement, which is partly missing in the autograph manuscript of the flute sonata, based on Bach’s style and clues in the manuscript.

Recorder players can now “own” this beautiful music, about 300 years after it was written for them. A splendid addition to the recorder’s Baroque repertoire!

Please note: this is NOT an arrangement of the flute sonata, as other editions have done before: it is a RECONSTRUCTION of the original version.

The earlier readings and the reconstruction should also be of interest to traverso and flute players.

Available now as a pdf from the Instant Harmony website: https://instantharmony.net/product/johann-sebastian-bach-trio-sonata-in-c-major-for-alto-recorder-violin-and-basso-continuo-pdf/

28/10/2024

A NEW BOOK FROM INSTANT HARMONY (Third Notice)
The English Waits and the Recorder in the 16th and 17th Centuries

by David Lasocki with Giulia Tettamanti

Available as a pdf from https://instantharmony.net/product/the-english-waits-and-the-recorder-in-the-sixteenth-and-seventeenth-centuries/ with a free bonus of our edition of the Phancy for Recorder Quintet by Edward Blancks (a member of the London Waits). Also available in print (without the bonus) from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and other amazons around the world.

The waits in England were minstrels, later called musicians, who worked for cities and towns, similar to the Stadtpfeifer on the Continent of Europe. They performed official ceremonial duties, played in the streets at night, and were available for private hire.
Waits originally played waits pipes, or shawms. During the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries the main groups also acquired most of the wind and stringed instruments of the day: cornetts and sackbuts, curtals, violins, viols, members of the lute family—and recorders. Recorders—sets or consorts or individual instruments—owned by cities and towns or the waits themselves have been be traced in documents about London (1568) and nine other places, where they were presumably used for indoor functions such as dinners, breakfasts, and weddings.
This book discusses in depth the Waits of all the cities and towns where recorders are documented: their duties, numbers, other instruments, sometimes singing and acting, hiring and firing and otherwise departing practices, pay and standard of living, occasional follies, and role in civic life. Biographies are included of all the members who played, or probably played, the recorder. Finally, there are reflections on the consorts, both pure and mixed, in which the Waits would have used recorders, and the sizes and numbers of instruments involved.
Please note: this book is an updating of portions of David’s doctoral dissertation, together with brand new material on the Waits of Lincolnshire, Oxford, and York plus the reflections on consorts

05/10/2024

A NEW EDITION FROM INSTANT HARMONY (SECOND NOTICE)

Phancy for Recorder Quintet by Edward Blancks (ca. 1590), edited by David Lasocki and Giulia Tettamanti.

Available as a pdf from https://instantharmony.net/product/phancy-for-recorder-quintet-by-edward-blancks/ on its own or as a free bonus with the new book by David Lasocki with Giulia Tettamanti, The English Waits and the Recorder in the 16th and 17th Centuries.

The only surviving sixteenth-century piece associated with the civic musicians in England called waits and suitable for a consort of recorders is the five-part Phancy or Fantasy by Edward Blancks (fl. 1582–1598). Blancks served in the London Waits from November 1582 until he resigned in 1594. As a member of this group, he would have mostly played wind instruments, including recorders, “a whole set” of which had been bought for the group in 1568.
This fantasy alternates polyphonic passages (including opening imitative entries) and homophonic passages in a pleasing manner. Harmonically, although it is nominally in what would later be called A minor, it ventures out to E major on the sharp side and E-flat major on the flat side.
The edition is presented in two ways (score and parts in each case): (1) In the original clefs, for players who would like to use the original notation (with added barlines) using Renaissance recorders in an FCCGG combination in any register available. (2) In modern clefs, for bass, two tenors, and two altos (Baroque recorders).

05/10/2024

A NEW BOOK FROM INSTANT HARMONY (SECOND NOTICE)

The English Waits and the Recorder in the 16th and 17th Centuries

by David Lasocki with Giulia Tettamanti

Available as a pdf from https://instantharmony.net/product/the-english-waits-and-the-recorder-in-the-sixteenth-and-seventeenth-centuries/ with a free bonus of our edition of the Phancy for Recorder Quintet by Edward Blancks (a member of the London Waits). Also available in print (without the bonus) from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and other amazons around the world.

The waits in England were minstrels, later called musicians, who worked for cities and towns, similar to the Stadtpfeifer on the Continent of Europe. They performed official ceremonial duties, played in the streets at night, and were available for private hire.
Waits originally played waits pipes, or shawms. During the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries the main groups also acquired most of the wind and stringed instruments of the day: cornetts and sackbuts, curtals, violins, viols, members of the lute family—and recorders. Recorders—sets or consorts or individual instruments—owned by cities and towns or the waits themselves have been be traced in documents about London (1568) and nine other places, where they were presumably used for indoor functions such as dinners, breakfasts, and weddings.
This book discusses in depth the Waits of all the cities and towns where recorders are documented: their duties, numbers, other instruments, sometimes singing and acting, hiring and firing and otherwise departing practices, pay and standard of living, occasional follies, and role in civic life. Biographies are included of all the members who played, or probably played, the recorder. Finally, there are reflections on the consorts, both pure and mixed, in which the Waits would have used recorders, and the sizes and numbers of instruments involved.
Please note: this book is an updating of portions of David’s doctoral dissertation, together with brand new material on the Waits of Lincolnshire, Oxford, and York plus the reflections on consorts.

Instant Harmony Music

04/09/2026

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