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 Music for the English Court Recorder Consort played by Mezzaluna (Renaissance recorders). 

Although the recorder is probably known primarily as a baroque instrument amongst the general public, it is rather the 16^th century, which should actually be considered the golden age of its history. At that time, single recorders were certainly used in mixed ensembles of instruments, but from numerous sources there is clear evidence, that it was especially the homogeneous recorder consort, or "a whoall noyse of recorders", as some English sources would call it, which enjoyed an unprecedented popularity with both amateurs and professionals. The English Court however, constitutes a special case, since it is the only known establishment, where over a period of no less than ninety years, a group of specialized instrumentalists was officially enrolled as recorder players and members of a standing recorder consort: the Royal Recorders.

It is a sad fact that none of the royal instruments seem to have survived. Mezzaluna plays on copies of the most complete group of surviving Renaissance recorders which today are to be found in the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum. The individual sizes of the instruments reach from the great bass measuring just under 2 metres to the tiny sopranino at 21 centimetres, representing the great diversity of musical idioms offered by the recorder consort at the beginning of the 16^th century.

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