What a great little whistle! It sure has the punch expected of a high G, but it is quite mellow and woody at the same time. Most pleasant to listen to.
Chris will even off set the LH 3 hole by about 15 degrees from center in order to allow that small bit of extra room for fingering faster pieces.
I get to try it out in concert in two days (Saturday, December 18). I’ll report again.
Cool! Tommy, have you also played Chris’s high f? If so, how do they compare?
(sorry it’s taken so long; my father-in-law, who lives in our in-law section of the house, had a stroke on Friday morning and I’ve been a bit busy)
The good part is I actually got to use it during performance tonight, so I can tell you a bit about it. Though definitely a high G, it’s so woody it’s almost mellow. It’s very similar to my high F, though probably about as similar as the D to the C (and they can sound quite different). I know, that really helps! Members of the band melted visibly when I played Jem Moore/Aryana Lydon’s modal version of What Child Is This? tonight with “my” band.
The most interesting comment, perhaps, came from our sound engineer: I’d warned him that it would knock his socks off (and, in truth, upper register C and above are quite powerful), but it didn’t. I only played lower register and upper below C, but his comment was that Bill (“Byll” on the list), the band’s fearless leader, has whistles louder. I know that Bill has nothing higher than a D and that he uses Burkes darn near exclusively (save for an itinerant O’Riordan and his new Overton low D), so I imagine Edward (sound guy extraordinaire) was likely referencing some Burke pro session high D whistles (Bill has both brass and aluminum).
I absolutely love this little high G!
Tommy Kochel
–
“Free nations do not export terror. Free nations listen to the hopes and aspirations of their people. Free nations are peaceful nations.” - from Bush’s speech to Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004, as transcribed by The Federal Document Clearing House.
“So, what does that make the U.S.?” - Tommy Kochel, 2005