Adviser plays a whistle worth recording

By Julie Rausch

Courtesy Photo

When she's not advising students in health professions, Kathy Wolff, left, plays recorder in two local groups. Pictured here is the Nether Consort with members, left to right, Wolff, David Gray, Dolores Granger and Marilyn Berger.

When Kathy Wolff huffs then puffs, people listen.

Wolff, a longtime adviser in health professions, plays the recorder, an instrument of the flute family dating back to the 13th century.

"Recorders were the flutes of the renaissance and early baroque periods," says Wolff. "After the mid-18th century, few composers wanted to write for the recorder. They wanted to compose for instruments with a greater volume of sound which were resonant enough to play with a full orchestra."

Though the recorder is in the flute family, its playing position is like the clarinet.

Wolff plays with two groups – Nether Consort, a renaissance and baroque quartet that sometimes performs in period costumes, and Prairie Pipes, a quintet. Both groups play early and contemporary music. The groups get requests to play for various events such as weddings, parties, luncheons, music appreciation classes, churches and other special events.

Wolff says that a lot of contemporary composers write for recordists.

People may be surprised to learn that many pop tunes feature the recorder, including "Fool on the Hill" with Paul McCartney playing the recorder. The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones plays a recorder solo on "Ruby Tuesday," and Led Zeppelin’s "Stairway to Heaven" features a recorder quartet.

Wolff learned to play the recorder for a Shakespeare performance at Texas Tech University where she was a woodwind major during the early ’50s. It’s been her instrument of choice since 1970.

Wolff says as a soloist she has more opportunity to play than she would with other instruments.

"Once you get out of school it’s difficult to play in an orchestra or band unless that’s your profession," Wolff says.

Wolff says she often plays several recorders, for example, the alto, tenor or bass, during one concert.

She earned her master of music degree from the University of the Redlands in California where she also played clarinet, oboe, saxophone and flute.

Wolff began her career in health professions at WSU shortly after her husband Arthur Wolff, assistant professor of musicology and composition, accepted a faculty position in the School of Music in 1974. Wolff’s husband died in May 1998.

Her husband came up with the names for both groups she plays in. The word "nether" refers to the low – tenor, bass, double bass and contrabass – instruments the group favors.

Other members in Nether Consort are Marilyn Berger, a violinist with the Wichita Symphony, who also serves as the group’s musical arranger; David Gray, a partner in Gragert, Hiebert & Gray law offices; and Dolores Granger, mother of Meri Goehring,

WSU instructor and academic coordinator of clinical education, physical therapy assistant program.

Members of the Prairie Pipes are Wolff, Gray; Jayne Miller and Mary Francis Hathaway who play clarinet in the Senseney Band; and Isabel Hendry, wife of WSU biology professor Bill Hendry.

The groups’ recorders are quality wood instruments ranging in price from $400 to several thousand dollars. There are about 220 recorder makers worldwide.

For a half-century, recorders disappeared from the popular music scene. The instrument’s popularity was reborn in the early 1900s in part due to Frenchman Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), a music scholar, promoter, teacher and performer.

He began making modern recorders patterned after antique models. He also organized annual recorder festivals of early chamber music, as did his son, Carl (1911-1997), who followed in his father’s footsteps, continuing to modify and enhance the instrument.

Hundreds of thousands of young schoolchildren likely are familiar with recorders made of plastic, which are commonly used for teaching music. In fact, it is estimated that 3.5 million plastic recorders are manufactured annually.

Only about 30 U.S. colleges and universities offer degree programs in early music with an emphasis on recorder performance.