I have created this post because I’ve found myself in a dilema:
I was questing for new pennywhistle knowledge tonight and while I was wildly searching the internet I came across this strange hybrid of pennywhistle and saxophone. WOAH!
Somebody buy one and then tell me…
Is the instrument any good?
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=35550&highlight=hornpipe
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=32784&highlight=hornpipe
-The sound clips are nice, eh? Those look & sound like intriguing instruments. I like the tone of the low ones myself but (disclaimer) haven’t played any. If you like the sound of a reeded mouthpiece played in the diatonic scale-this would seem to be just the thing. -Buy one and post a review!
-My own musicianship on whistle won’t tolerate adding a reed yet -if it ever will. OTOH, the reeded hum of these is nice, no?
I believe this is essentially a one octave instrument. The webpage talks about an upper register, but I couldn’t find any soundclips that had any upper register notes. The webpage does say it’s essentially a one octave instrument. Because this is a cylindrical, closed tube instrument, I believe the upper register will overblow to the 12th(?) like a clarinet, rather than to the octave like a whistle or a closed conical tube (sax) instrument.
Best wishes,
Jerry
The website says that 2nd register plays octave and fifth higher and that is like Jerry said because the cylindrical bore of the instrument. There is however at least one sound clip that you can hear the higher register, the air “Port na bPúcaí”.
Hmmm… probably not. But it might not be necessary if you get one in a lower key and point it down while playing. O.O
All seriousness aside, however, Jerry is spot on. I built one from the body of an alto G whistle and the upper register is actually physically painful to hear.
Unlike Jerry’s tweaked whistles, which are very nice, indeed!
And not painful in quite the same mode as an alto Village Smithy in its alternate use as a cosh.
LOL
Bill
I just don’t understand the appeal. I could just play my student
clarinet, which cost less, and it sounds pretty much the same.
And it’s chromatic.
Are clarinet fingerings similar enough to whistle fingering for a whistle player to pick one up and start playing? If not, then I assume that’s the appeal.
Sax is actually pretty close (for the basic notes…C and F# are a little different, but not much), but I never learned clarinet.
-Brett
Brett, Clarinet is like Sax, only what we sould call a ‘D’ they call a ‘G,’ and it is a Bb instrument so it is really an F. Then you have the upper octave which is a diferent thing conpletly.
Dave Cantieni plays flute and whistle, but in his band, Wild Asparagus, he likes to play sax. Sax fingering is a lot like pennywhistle; the instrument overblows an octave (I’ve played the sax myself). In contrast, the clarinet overblows a 12th. This means 3 fingers down could give you a G (as on a pennywhistle), but when you blow harder you get a high D (the 12th note above G: it’s the High Register, not the High Octave). The reference points change (3 fingers means low G or high D). This also means that the simple instrument you see will have a gap in the scale like this: 3 fingers, low G; then lift a finger for A, then B, then C# (all open). The next highest note with all closed would be A. To get the missing notes (D, E, F#, G, for example), clarinets solve this problem with the left thumb key plus normally closed keys (like trill keys on an old flute) that reach a couple notes up the bore. There are also normally open keys to close below the usual “all closed” on a pennywhistle (they’re like the low C# and C keys on a flute). Clarinetists pass thru these keys in a ritual called “crossing the bridge”. This arrangement is partly responsible for the clarinet having a range near four octaves (as opposed to three or so in a flute, for example). The flared bore was Joseph Sax’s innovation; the same guy developed Saxhorns (like the Cornet, and made in a family of voices).
It is played with GHB fingering, which is different than whistle fingering. Most GHB players are not multi-instrumentalists, and would not take up the whistle in order to avoid confusion.
The upper register on clarinet is the same as the sax, or flute, or
whistle. The lower register is different, though. But I think the
Hornpipe suffers the same problem:
I bought a xaphoon (pocket sax). It uses a sax reed. Goes from C to next octave G starting below low D but is only half the length of a low D so very portable. It is great fun and has 9 holes so chromatic. Also it’s very cheap and portable..
I have several single-reed instruments that have a very simple fingering system, huge tonal range, overblow the octave like pennywhistles, and can be used in myriad styles of music. Some are even silver plated!
They’re called saxophones.
OT: If one could ever find one, there is such a thing as a simple-system Tarogato. It’s a conical-bore wooden clarinet / soprano sax thingy native to Hungary, I believe. I’ve played the Albert system and a Modern system (Boehmish) tarogato, and they’re super fun. Imagine a soprano sax with a mellow woody tone, and even worse intonation problems.
I believe you are quite right about this. One would need keyes, very much like a crumhorn, to get some extra notes. There is an instrument called chalumeaux, which was a forerunner to the clarinet. It cannot be overblown.
http://www.e-m-s.com/front/emsframes.html
I think this is a better choice than the clarinet/whistle hybride. And it´s made in different sizes too!
I’d be skeptical. I’ve played trad music on my alto sax and it sounds quite nice, so I doubt you need some specialty instrument (admitedly it is cheaper than a sax). The alto’s rich tone quality is really nice on peices like “Danny Boy” that can get a bit shrill on their higher notes.
Moreover, I don’t really trust the discription on the web site. It says that if you know whistle you should pick up whistler’s hornpipe easily, but that’s not completely true. When you add the reed/sax mouthpeice into the equation, there’s a lot of technique to learn that a whistle player may not know like how much pressure to apply to the reed for different octives.
Finally, what is the quality of the instrument? I’d like to know what kind of mouthpeice they use. From personal experience, I can tell you that there is a huge difference in sound quality between the cheep plastic mouthpeice I started out using and the slightly better hard rubber one I have now.