hello, complete newbie here. i am clueless about playing and making whistles.
i’m wondering if a low whistle could be made, but the tube bends back 180 degrees halfway along, so it keeps a short ‘apparent’ length.
or would the bend wreck the sound?
thanks,
charlie
Hi Charlie,
You Can make a bent low whistle (see the Overton website for pics),and Boehm system Bass flutes are bent (Trevor James make concert flutes with ‘bent’ headpieces).Saxes(apart from straight Sopranos and Sopraninos) are bent,but are keyed of course.
However,unless I have the wrong picture in my head,I can’t see how a bent low whistle would be any easier to play,finger stretch wise. 
Susato makes a bent low whistle…I think.
180 degrees is a straight line…
Strange. I just now noticed. All of my whistles have a 180 degree bend.
I wouldn’t think it would be playable, unless you could work out some kind of key arrangement. As Telegram Sam noted, 180 degrees is a straight line, which would mean that the whistle would end up with holes on both the front and the back (in relation to the player). Unless they could somehow be conveniently located so you could get at them with your thumbs…
Redwolf
That’s a funny looking whistle. 
180 degree BEND…
Charlie, it’s done on a bass flute.
I would think that bending it between the first and second set of holes would be a good place to do it, but then the lower hand would need to ‘think’ backwards. I don’t see why it couldn’t be done, though. It might effect the relationship between the octaves, however. Maybe someone ought to give it a shot.
Erik
A bend in whistle between the toneholes and the mouthpiece take angular stress off of the wrist. I use a 45 Deg. PVC fitting on Low-low-A through Low-C PVC whistles and it does keep my little bit carpal tunnel from sending the “electric shocks” down my right arm and wrist.
I’ve also built a Melody Flute Low-D (otherwise know as a transverse Low-D) and I find that it gives amazing amount of relaxation to the right hand (compared to a regular Low-D). It also has an interesting sound.
The 180 Deg bend could be used on a melody flute/whistle for whistles lower than Low-A.
The “stretch” problem in a low whistle is usualy between the lowest tonehole(6th)and the next highest(5th). If the 180 bend were made here,towards the right hand,the pinky finger would be in easy reach of the last tonehole.
If the fipple head were angled at 90 degrees, a low whistle could be held sideways, like a flute and ease the stretch even more. The Bassoon uses this form and a low whistle could have thumbholes on an extended bore to increase the scale range. Sharp angles should be avoided though, or aircolumn problems occur.
I would get a length of wide bore waterhose, bend it up to how I wanted it bent, and use metal twisty ties to keep it bent that way, then measure and put holes in it and make an easy reach low whistle like that.
But I don’t have waterhose or the skill to put the holes in the right places to make such a whistle. I would also probably discover that it didn’t work for one reason or another, but that’s how my mind travels.
i didn’t know there was this finger-stretch issue with low whistles. that would be good if this could help address that
my goal was just portability - i’d like a shorter flute than a long one, but a lower tone would be nice too, hence this idea.
i was just imagining getting copper plumbing pipe, and putting ‘u’ connecter at the end, and bringing the pipe back up to my face. in a horizontal plane as in the flute pictures, but a much tighter bend so the pipe is immediately adjacent to itself. or perhaps with some heat, one piece could be bent around and no ‘u’ connector necessary, i don’t know.
thanks for the advice people!
Charlie
If you fill the copper pipe with dry sand and cap the ends tight, you can bend the tube any way you want without deforming the circular diameter. You must anneal (soften) the copper pipe with a torch though or “ripples” will show up. I’ve made a “flute de Amore” in G, bent into a flattened “S” shape. I use it quite often at sessions.
I posted a picture of the “Willy Wonka” whistle that shows it bending both at the top and along the bottom. Kind of like what Thomas mentioned.
holy cow!!!
what on earth is that thing? are there any sound-files of it available?
Charlie,
It’s called a serpent…it’s a really weird instrument and apparently a beast to play, I first came across them when I went to a PDQ Bach show.
I snagged the image of this website (they have sound files there):
http://www.serpentwebsite.com/index.htm
Check out the pictures! I can’t imagine impressing any ladies by serenading them with one!!!
Apparently the English would ride into battle playing these honkers…now that would strike fear into the heart of the enemy (either that make them weak with laughter!).
Some opinions of others:
Willi Apel (1893-?): “A drain pipe suffering from intestinal disorder.”
Edwin Evans (1871-1945): “The Serpent was such an odious affair that nothing short of compulsion could explain its employment.”
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621): “Most unlovely and bullocky.”
American Music Journal 1835 (on a performance by one Mr. Young): “The Serpent is the last instrument in the world we would wish to hear figuring in a concerto within doors - Mr. Young really plays beautifully.”
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869): “The essentially barbaric timbre of this instrument would have been far more appropriate to the ceremonies of the bloody cult of the Druids than to those of the Catholic religion. There is only one exception to be made - the case where the Serpent is employed in the Masses for the Dead, to reinforce the terrible plainsong of the Dies Irae. Then, no doubt, its cold and abominable howling is in place.”
PC