Tim Cranmore – Recorder Maker
NEWS.
Due to increasing interest, I will be offering alto recorders at A392 after Bizey, and working on a soprano at the same pitch based on the Bressan 4th flute. Price will be £1500 and £1200 respectively. Contact me for waiting times.
Tim Cranmore Biography.
I started life as a biochemist, but, encouraged by my recorder teacher, moved into making in 1978 under the promise that demand for hand made recorders was sky high, as indeed it was. At the time, Fred Morgan was teaching recorder making in the Hague, but as such information did not percolate across the North Sea, I found myself in a workshop in Oxford trying to work it out for myself, but luckily with unlimited access to some of the finest baroque originals on the planet, in the Bate Collection, and also in the collection of Warwick County Museum. I decided to base my first alto recorder on the Stanesby jnr. in Warwick, and have maintained that ever since.
After some disagreements in Oxford I moved to London, and worked variously as mechanic, van driver, decorator, cloakroom assistant, church singer, recorder teacher etc. whilst working on a range of recorders. Fatherhood concentrated my mind wonderfully, and the purchase of one of Alec Loretto’s windway cutters finally allowed me to make a suitable commercial product. At that time, thousands of young Europeans were studying the recorder, and I sold well, along with the other young makers that were springing up.
Forty five years later, most of those makers are still working and a wonderful camaraderie has resulted between us. When your colleagues are spread all round the world, and you only meet them in exotic foreign capitals, it makes for a special relationship, although the time we spend together in bars has diminished!
Recently, I have been teaching recorder making, and selling copies of Alec Loretto’s windway cutter, and creating what are probably the loudest recorders I have made out of carrots for the London Vegetable Orchestra, but it is still a pleasure to go into the workshop and make holes. New makers are now bursting out again, presumably encouraged by our grey hair. I wish them the best of luck.
Exhibitions
As a member of the global recorder family, I periodically attend exhibitions held in selected locations across Europe, so if you’d like to meet in person and get ‘hands on’ with my recorders please come along and introduce yourself. Click here to open the exhibition schedule document.
Bressan Consort
I’ve created a new page dedicated to the Bressan Consort recorder. The page offers a brief history of the instrument and my personal account of bringing such an instrument to life.
Dedicated Websites
Additional information is available at the dedicated Dragonflute and Malvern Minstrelsy websites.