I played the whistle again in church. I usually play my Feadog Mark-I, as it has the tone that seems best for the church’s amazing acoustics. The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse started out as a Swedish Lutheran church and was built, I believe, just after 1900. It has a high ceiling made of stamped tin and notes just seem to gently linger for a remarkable amount of time. It was Gospel Sunday, the day many people in the church recognize some of our southern roots. We don’t always agree with the theology of the words (there is an old joke Unitarians have trouble singing hymns because we are too busy reading one line ahead to make sure we agree with the words) but we sing them out like the old friends they are. I had talked earlier with Jim Weddell, our own “Reverend Jim-Bob” about playing Amazing Grace on the pennywhistle. We had me start it out as the intro to the congregation singing Amazing Grace as the call to worship. I put emotion into my music, without going overboard. I went for the lone piper on the hill kind of phrasing, as I love the way Amazing Grace is played on the Highland pipes, Gospel music thrives on the sonic contrasts between the different cultural influences in it and I recalled Pearl Bailey had listened to the advice of jazz musicians not to over ornament music, leave some of the music plain. I played one verse, and then the piano and congregation came in and did it in a more Gospel style. I was given a lot of compliments by the congregation, including a hand written note in the mail from one of our southern church ladies whom I have great respect for. I just really love playing music for people,
Way to go Rod! I looove playing in church, many of the old classic hymns and almost all of the new stuff is easy to accompany on whistle…it adds a nice “chipper” sound to the music…
our folk group at church has dwindled down to the core three of us again and i almost always need to play the 12 string acoustic and sing. “the king of love my shepherd is” was the communion song yesterday. with an electronic keyboard and one singer, i got to play my susato d for that. we practiced that on my crystal flute but that song was meant for the whistle. if anyone is interested in praying along with me, i’m praying for one more musician and one more singer. if we’re going to go all out, i’d like a cellist and someone who likes singing in a lower range.
Good goin’, Rod! My first pennywhistle performance was also in a church, as the Not Very Reverend At All Clown Perceval. As the choir was preparing to sing the anthem of the day, I was goofing about and they left in a huff, leaving the priest to stare at me, “Look what you’ve done!” I sit on the steps to the altar, pull out the pennywhistle, and start a sheepish rendition of “Lord of all hopefullness…”. The choir comes back in, over the first verse, and by the end of the song everyone is happy and singing together. (All of this was scripted, of course…).
A Clarke Sweetone - red to match the nose, of course.
Trade prayers? I’ll pray for the musician and singer, and you pray for a guitarist for our group. When our guitarist leaves in the next few months, I’ll be stuck on guitar for most all songs. I’d much rather have the freedom to put the guitar down and whistle a song now and again. Hope you get that freedom, too.
Ancient music sounds great on pennywhistle, and so many hymns are just achingly fine on our instrument. Simple praise songs play well too, and ornament well with cuts, slides and grace notes. Who could ask for more?
I am part of a small group that supports on average about one Mass per week in our parish. My main instruments are various recorders but I have been working my whistles (Syns!) in more and more. Amazing Grace, The King of Love My Shepherd Is, and Lord of All Hopefulness all fit well (though I have to play the latter on my Susato A because we do it in D and it goes rather high). There are lots and lots of others, of course. Especially when the song is based on a traditional tune the whistles work very well and I like the effect - and the contrast with my recorders.
The rest of our group consists of a number of vocalists, my wife on Celtic harp (and recorder for some things), my son on cello, and a piano. Occasionally we are joined by a fantastic violinist as well. This combination has a very pleasing and prayerful sound and many different ways to be expressive and draw the congregation into participation - which, after all, is why we’re there.
Could not agree more. Especially in gospel type music I hate when the melody gets completely devoured by the ornamentation. Same thing applies to the Star Spangled Banner… just sing it as it is written dangit!!! Can’t count how many sporting events I have been to where the vocalist thinks they need to show off. hehe
bec, i’m pretty certain your son is supposed to move to west virginia to join our folk group. i’ve never heard the king of love my shepherd is by anyone other than our folk group. do you put flutters in at the middle and almost end of the song?
Not sure what you mean by “flutters”… I play it pretty straight as I’m just now getting to the point where I feel like I can do any ornamentation. Besides, the tune is very very pretty and doesn’t need any embellishment really.
I’ll have to suggest the move to my son - he’s coming up on 16 and hasn’t really started shopping for colleges yet .
This morning the Syns only got used for intoning the responsorial psalm (D body) and the Gospel acclamation (C body). I do play the vocal descant lines sometimes. The rest of the time it was my Kung Superios (soprano and alto) or my Dolmetsch Nova tenor…
by “flutters”, what i mean is that instead of playing the “a” note (right after the triplett, in the first syllable of the word “never”) as one dotted half note, i raise and lower my finger over the “a” quickly and repeatedly as many times as possilbe. i also do this at the end of the song on the first syllable of the word “ever.” i’ve never had formal music training and am more into folk music and have rarely heard itm.
thanks for the heads up about your son being 16, nevermind.
[quote="mutepointe]by “flutters”, what i mean is that instead of playing the “a” note (right after the triplett, in the first syllable of the word “never”) as one dotted half note, i raise and lower my finger over the “a” quickly and repeatedly as many times as possilbe. i also do this at the end of the song on the first syllable of the word “ever.” i’ve never had formal music training and am more into folk music and have rarely heard itm.
thanks for the heads up about your son being 16, nevermind.[/quote]
dear shadoe: i listened to your music on ed’s my space. that was very nice. which whistles/flutes did you use on those recordings? one day when i can get some more instruments, i’d like to consider these, you have a very nice sound.
thanks for telling me it was a trill, i was hoping i invented something.
trills are quite common in classical music. I have been told by more than one person I play the whistle like a classical instrument hehe. Thanks for the comments on the tunes on myspace. On Can You Hear Him Calling I used my Kerry Low D, on Be At Rest I used the Reyburn Low D and an Obrien’s tunable maple soprano D. The backtrack on Be At Rest is from the cd our church choir uses. When we were singing it the thought occured to me that it would sound quite nice on whistle.
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