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Douglas MacMillan is an organologist, music historian, and recorder player. He began to play the recorder in his teenage years and subsequently founded and directed the Baroque ensemble Camerata Oriana. Encouraged by Carl Dolmetsch, he began a pioneering study of the history of the recorder in the nineteenth century which led to the diploma of FTCL and to the publication of the initial results of his work in the early 1980s. After further research into the nineteenth-century recorder he gained his PhD from the University of Surrey and has published a book on the topic.
Noting a lacuna in the literature of the flageolet, Douglas proceeded to study the instrument, its music and social context in England in the nineteenth century as a student at the Royal College of Music. He graduated DMus (RCM) following submission of his thesis ‘The Flageolet 1800 - 1900: the Instrument, its Music and Social Context’.
An earlier study of the English concerti for small flutes (recorders) became the foundation for a doctoral project based at St. Cross College, Oxford. Douglas’ thesis ‘Octave Flutes in England 1660 - 1800’ encompassed a comprehensive review of the organology of small recorders, flageolets, fifes, and piccolos: he received his DPhil (Oxon) in 2018.
Now an independent scholar, Douglas continues his research into - and writing about - the flageolet and the recorder, with a particular interest in relating the development of musical instruments, their pedagogy and repertoire to their contemporary social environment. He continues to perform on the recorder and undertakes voluntary work in musical instrument collections. Douglas has contributed over thirty articles and reviews to musical journals and has given conference presentations both in Britain and overseas. He is a member of the Galpin Society, the American Musical Instrument Society, the Dolmetsch Foundation, and the Royal Musical Association.
