A friend brought it back from argentina and I just want to know what it is… I know most of you probably have no idea either, but i’ve searched the whole net it seems and theres nothin, so I thought I’d just give it a shot.
i think it’s a really cool little one handed thingy. I mean it’s no feadog that’s for sure, I know some of you are going to be angry about it not being irish related, but hey I was able to play kiss the maid behind the barrel on it, so there…
if anyone can identify it please, say so… if not, than feel free to make fun of it all you want. (hehe, I think I’m going to bring it to the session tonight just to get a good laugh)
I just acquired a friend’s collection of Balkan tourist-trade whistles, mostly Romanian floieras. They look similarly unpromising, with frayed wood in the holes, strange spacing, and fipple geometry from hell. But surprisingly, a few of them play fairly well and almost in tune, and a few seem tweak-worthy. So I guess you never know.
I have one as well, almost exactly the same, only not painted. It plays poorly, the holes are not in place, you need twice the lungs for all the air that goes through the windway and it’s soft. So, for me, it’s only decoration.
Silly rabbit… that is a very, very rare Bolivian beer keg taper…Der Doktor ist heraus!
I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall’." – Eleanor Roosevelt
Similarly, a friend of mine went to Rome for vacation, and brought me back a ebony (I kid you not, actual, bona fied ebony) whistle inlaid rather tastefully with MOP and brass. Finger holes all the same size space appart, roughly cut (waste of a nice piece of very black ebony it seemed…), except the thing is actually pretty well in tune with itself (a few "alternate fingerings needed for a few notes) and has a pleasing volume and tone! Does take a lot of air, but nice. Seems to be pitched somewhere between F and F#
By the way, these Andean Tarkas are played in a group, usually consisting of at least four players, but as many as twenty players, with drummers. There is a small size, a large one an octave lower, and a middle size which plays the 5th in between. (It would be like having Irish whistles in high D, low D, and A playing the same tune together.)
What is odd is that this, being a fipple flute, was supposedly the result of Spanish influence but has the most non-Western scale of the Andean flutes. The kena (Andean shakuhachi) and siku (Andean panpipe) conform to the Western diatonic scale- at least the modern ones do.
I have a large number of recordings of Tarka ensembles playing in street festivals in Bolivia and Peru. The tunes are very strange and oddly catchy.
Type in “andean tarka” on the YouTube search and you will see a clip of a group coming on stage, firstly playing the Toyo (huge panpipe), then Tarkas, the Kena etc. You can at least hear the unique tone and strange melody of the tarkas.
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