I have give this some thought, so bear with me for a moment.
While I enjoy playing the whistle immensly, I’m mainly a saxophonist. So, when I first considered buying whistlse, I went for those that were tuned in saxophone keys (Eb and Bb) very early - and they’re among my favourite whistles. But while playing them alongside saxophones or clarinets by ear wasn’t much of a problem, it proved really difficult to find sheet music parts that worked. What should fit simply doesn’t. The reason is very simple: A Bb whistle does, of course, a Bb scale, but traditionally calls for notation in D. You’ll find yourself looking for parts written strictly in C (to be able to use the standard scale), but that won’t feel right. And if you find a tune written in D, it obviously doesn’t fit. Of course, transcription is always an option, but that’ll involve mainly transcribing saxophone parts (you’ll have to go down a full note in order to make it work - not much of problem since you’ll land in C, just a lot of work), so here’s an easier solution: It’s a simple fact that on a C whistle, you can play a tune set in D for Bb instruments directly. I’m sure that many of you knew that, but I didn’t find it mentioned here on the board, so I thought I’d share. I’m sure there are more reed players out there facing similar experiences.
The catch is that people looking to play tunes together with saxophones or clarinets should rather opt for a C than b Bb whistle - or an F instead of an Eb, respectively. I’ve tested this assumption for a couple of months now - just taking a piece of sheet music in D and a C whistle to play together with soprano or tenor saxes or use an F whistle when playing with alto or baritone saxes. It works, and it doesn’t involve awkward notation math.
Think of it this way. Sax borrowed Bohm’s flute mechanism and added to it but didn’t really change it. On flute Bohm kept the traditional tube length, more or less - that for a D flute with a foot extension to C, and although his key system made it easier to play in C and keys with more flats than the simple system D flute (always a non-transposing instrument in terms of notation), it is still as much a D-centred instrument as it is a C-centred one. The six-finger note is D, but it gets referred to as “in C”. So it is with the saxes - they are pitch-named by analogue with the Bohm flute and in terms of the necessary transposition of notation for them. But their underlying acoustics remain based on the six-finger note - look at where the octave (and fingering) “break” occurs and you start to use harmonics. Acoustically an alto sax “in Eb” is really an instrument built in F, though not in terms of notation transposition: our flutes and whistles built in D are “in C” for classical score-writing purposes! If you want to find the right whistle to accompany a sax, look at the actual pitch produced by the latter’s six-finger note (called/notated as D, of course!) and use the whistle named for that note (its six-finger note!).
Jem, thanks a lot for the heads-up! This finally explains some of the differences between sax and flute fingerings for me so I have to agree - though I must add that the sax’s design was C centered from the start. Sax, prefering the clarinet to the flute (he had studied both), started out in 1840 by emulating the clarinet’s upper (clarin) register which actually begins with second C, sounding Bb (though thanks to Boehm’s keywork, you can play down to second B, sounding A), and he also used the oboe’s range as a starting point. This is still visible in some of the decisions he made when adopting Boehm’s keywork fully after almost 45 years - he made changes to make C the easiest scale available. However, some of his decisions are responsible for the fact that a reliable solution wasn’t found before the 1950’s (by Henri Selmer). Some odd things have survived, though - like the three ways to finger middle Bb, of which Boehm’s initial way is seldom used on sax.
If you want to find the right whistle to accompany a sax, look at the actual pitch produced by the latter’s six-finger note (called/notated as D, of course!) and use the whistle named for that note (its six-finger note!).
Exactly what I was thinking. Glad I got it right.
For those inspired by hoopy mike: No deal either way - though double whistle works a lot better than double sax (and no, I won’t flunk the instrument that got me back into music). Rahsaan Roland Kirk (the guy in the picture in the previous post) got it over the rest of us anyway, I’m pretty certain. Though those with similar intentions can still listen to and be inspired by some of Dana Colley’s stuff… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6naQ195c_k - the first part of the track - should be labelled “Don’t try this at home”…). But I’m sure I’m posting this on the wrong board
