Doomed! Doomed you be!

Whistle
1

You’re walking alone through the woods one fine summer’s day, wrapped in scents and gentle breezes, lost in wonder as shards of sunlight dance and flit through the leafy woodland canopy. You pause, smiling, and overcome by the simple beauty of the day, draw out your whistle, and play a haunting air.

“DOOM!” a bellicose voice blasts through your reverie. “Cursed be you this day!” And the air turns chill, as though you’d been wrapped in a cloak of winter’s early mists.

Mortified, you turn, agog you stand, and there before you on a fallen bough stands the King of the Faeries, eyes ablaze and finger pointing straight at you. And he is, oh dear, extremely p*ssed off…

Suddenly you see the reason for his ire…in your musical reverie you have blundered through a tiny glade, and a trail of miniature catastrophe marks your passage. Small tents flattened, trestles splintered like matchwood, a faery feast carpet-bombed by your own careless feet, and a host of very traumatised faery-folk gazing up at you in utter disbelief.

“This to you I say!” His most p*ssed-off Majesty declares, “This is your doom! No matter what instrument you choose, the very next tune you play shall be the only tune ever you may play, from now 'til your dying day!”

A shudder runs the length of you, the cloak of mist tightens, and the curse is sealed. You blink, and the scene of doom fades, and you find yourself alone once more, with darkness all about, and you flee the sinister glade… But the king’s words haunt you “…the very next tune you play shall be the only tune ever you may play, from now 'til your dying day!”

One tune. For the rest of your life, you’ll only be able to play one tune on your whistle, or flute, or pipes, or any other instrument for that matter.

Which tune would it be?

Yeah, I spose I could’ve just said “if you could only every play just one tune from now until you croak, which would it be?” but where’s the fun in that? And besides, someone would try and bend the rules (‘on whistle it’d be so-and-so, on the dulcimer so-and-so, on the Wurlitzer so-and-so’ etc etc). Faery King curses don’t permit rule-bending. Much more interesting…

2

this one?

3

Don’t know what tune I’d play,but a word of warning- there’ have been threads about Elderwood whistles lately.
In case anyone is tempted to collect Elder to try their hand at making their own whistle,did you know that you have to ask PERMISSION from the ‘Goodfolk’ (don’t use the ‘F’ word-it’s bad luck) before you can cut Elder?
A similar fate could afflict illicit Elder gatherers! :astonished:

You could end up with a Whistle that would only play one tune-a bit like the ‘Auld Orange Flute’ in the song performed by the Dubliners.
The gist of the song story is Protestant Northern Irish guy runs off and marries a Catholic girl,changing his religion in the process.
He takes his old flute with him,and when he attempts to play it at the R.C. church on a Sunday,the only tune it will play is ‘The Protestant Boys’,so it s burnt at the stake as heretic!

4

Really? You reckon he’d take pity on you and cancel the curse? :smiley: I don’t think faery kings do that!

5

Yes, that was the idea :laughing:

Do songs count by the way? Or is that cheating – since songs need accompaniment, one gets two tunes for the price of one!

If only one tune, then I’d choose something with plenty of crossfingerings/half-holing to keep my busy. Something in A, with a few Fnats spinkled in.

If a song, it would be either “Lucy Wan” or “Springhill Mine Disaster”, both as performed by Martin Carthy.

Cheers,


Az

6

Already with the rule-bending!!! :smiley:

7

an extremly tough question, one tune that springs to mind is
Inion Ni Scannlain http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005K9SK/qid=1087551146/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/104-4360838-3551143?v=glance&s=music
so beautiful…
but there are so many more.. :slight_smile:

8

That’s an easy one, it would most certainly be…uh…hmmmm…er…I’ll have to get back to you on this one. :smiley:

9

It would be Scottish. Have to try out a few more first.
I’d probably learn to sing better instead.
(that might really p*** the Faery king off.)

10

:slight_smile:


I wonder would His Majesty allow me " Variations on a theme by Carolan",
Slan,
D.

:wink:

11

That would indeed be a punishment: a tune that goes below the range of a D whistle!

12

Wonder if he’d let me get away with choosing all 6 Bach Brandenburg Concertos as one tune… making them work on a whistle would be enough to last a lifetime.

13

Hmmm, should I…?

Nah…

Why not?

Well, as long as you’re doomed, anyway, might as well make the pain complete:

I choose…

DANNY BOY

14

I’d probably just take my whistle and stab the faerie king in the head with it. Better if it’s a sweetone, I’d wager…

15

Go Sam!

16

Me thinks Gary has way too much time on his hands.
Nice scenic setup, though.

I’d probably be tooting out “Summer Summer” on that fateful walk in the woods. I’d end up playing that tune forever. Doomed would I be? Well, it is a lovely, simple tune, one of the first I learned(and by ear, no less). I wouldn’t feel miserable playing it, either. It has a cheery quality.

I don’t have to ruin tiny villages to feel doomed. I’m doomed most of the time, anyway.

17

Red Haired Boy

18

No matter how many “classic” trad songs I learn, my kids favorites are still going to be the theme from Gilligans Island and Green Acres (they like to sing along) so I guess I’d pick one of those true masterpieces! :blush: :laughing:

19

The Fairy Dance

20

Nah. Just play the low B an octave above instead. It sounds fine that way, trust me. So fear not, your doom is intact.

Man, I just love being helpful.