I hate to call them whistles...

Whistle
1

Is it just me or do you feel odd when you play such wonderful sounds and tell the rest of the band that it is a 'penny whistle" or “tin whistle” or just a plain “whistle”?
I am looking through my bag and pondering at the wonder this instrument is and how ancient it is in principle. I own a 8 piece nickel plated copper set from Bb to sop F made by O’Brien, a Alba Alto tunable G, a Chieftain tunable low D and a Chieftain Messo A with a Chieftain Alto G on the way and I just can’t bring myself to call them whistles!
I am western Canadian which is really a cross of “British” and “US” with a dash of everything else and we don’t really have a culture of our own. Our country has a few centuries under her belt with little in the way of our own identity. A whistle to me has always been a spit drenched soother to a hockey ref or an annoying distraction from my b’ball coach beckoning me to laps or pushups.
I have dove in with both feet with this instrument and I’m really struggling with a comfortable way of identifying it. Is there possibly another name by which I can call my obsession and distraction from the wiles of this world and its inhabitants?

WTA

2

It’s called the Coolmaphone.

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33597&highlight=coolmaphone

3

PostPosted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:48 pm Post subject: Re: cooler name for whistle? Reply with quote
greg wrote:
while personaly i like the term tin whistle however i was wondering if anyone had ideas for a term that doesn’t involve ‘whistle’ i tell people im learning tin whistle and i can actualy see the picture of a kazoo forming in their mind lately i’ve been using 'irish flute ’ but oops thats also a bit misleading any sugestions?


• cooltxistu

• radicahorn

• swellophone

• groovytoob

• neatopipe

• keentooter

• flageolawesome

• hepcatone

Reasonable Person
Walden

Last edited by Walden on Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

LOL! Not really what I had in mind but…way to funny!

WTA

4

Hi WTA, It’s not the name - it’s how you say it. Delivery is everything. For example:

You’re in a pub and a 12 foot greasy hairless troglodyte decides you’d look good with your head stuck through the cieling. So what do you do?
Quick as a flash you pull the rubber chicken from your inside coat pocket and sneer “you wanna piece of me? You better discuss it with the chicken!” and here’s the important bit - you get your eye to glint “*” steely grey and manacing.

And then as they remove your head from the cieling, at least you know the pub got a good laugh.

It’s the same with whistles - whan someone asks you say:

“This?” pause - admire the instrument reverently and continue in hushed tones: "This … is a … Tin’‘Whistle’'!!! ". During all this, you’ve secretly hit the switch on the player in your pocket which gives rise to dramatic mysterious swirling building music ending in a low dramatic sting on the last glint “*”.

That always works for me.

5

End blown fipple flute :smiley:

6

You can always call them flageolets. Not exactly the same, but close enough for Generation and Sweetheart.

I think it’s a non-issue. Believe me, the first time you’re playing on the street or something and someone comes up to you and says, “gee, what nice recorder playing!” you’ll be quick to say “It’s not a recorder, it’s a whistle, dammit.” Then you’ll be perfectly comfortable calling it a whistle or tinwhistle or pennywhistle.

7

In my experience, 90% of nonmusicians are going to call it a “flute,” no matter how many times you try to tell them it’s a whistle and a flute is something entirely different. So why worry?

Of course, from a certain point of view they are correct, as whistles, recorders, and flageolets all belong to the fipple flute family of instruments.

But “fipple flute” just doesn’t work for me…calling a whistle a “fipple flute” in conversation feels as strange as referring to my Dodge as a “horseless carriage” would. :wink:

“Whistle” is a nice, simple term. Works for me.

–James

8

If you meet the Name, Kill the Name.

Loren

9

Hi WTA!
I have had a similar problem. I had taken my Susato D to a church dinner. I was going to play along with some people, and I evidently dropped it. Well, I walk back into the church basement and there is an older gentelmen blowing on my Susato! I tell him sheepishly that it is mine and he replys, “Oh, I thought it was a toy!” :frowning: :blush: I will also admit that I have been less than comfortable playing in public, seeing as I normal play classical flute. I feel ridiculous standing up infront of a bunch of people, playing what in many cases is a simple melody, on something that people think is a toy (does this make me a closet whistle player? :stuck_out_tongue: ). But here’s the thing. The whistle has been around for a long time, so that has to stand for something. And, although it can be simple to play a tune on it, playing the whistle the traditional Irish way has to be the most complicated and intricate music form I have ever seen, even compared to all those fancy flute concertos and sonatas. Play them a recording of a really good whistle player and I bet they will be impressed.
Anyway, I think this whole issue gives us a good sense of humor. How can we be all that serious when we spend our time trying to perfect our playing on an instrument that many people think is a toy? I guarantee you, go onto some classical flute forums, you will NOT find the same sense of humor you do here. Classical types can be very scary an serious. Begging your pardon to any classical musicians out there reading this :wink: .

10

I always tell askers that it is an Irish whistle. The next question that comes about this familiar thread is how to pronounce The brand name whistle Feadog. Do you say Feadog, or Feadog? I always say Feadog.


Tommy :slight_smile:

11

In early English literature we have

“They herde no pype, ne flagel” also “And a pypyd a moot in a flagel” about AD 1300 in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” The flagel being an early whistle.

Chaucer uses ‘flowte’ and ‘pipe’

“They haueth in greet mangerie
Harpe, tabor, and pype for mynstralcie.” 1387

“Calam hath that name of thys worde Calando. sownyng: and is the generall name of pypes, A pype hyghte Fistula; for voyce comyth therof For voyce hyghte Fest in grewe, other sowne.” 1398 Here we have pipe again and fistula which is also a word for whistle that is often used for whistle in early modern English.

“Sambuca is the Ellerne tree bro tyll. And the bowes therof ben holowe and voyde and smothe. And of those same bowes ben pipes made and also some manner symphony.” AD1398 Here we have whistle made from elder tree branches being called pipes.

“When they hadde these instrumentes they recorded songes besyly tylle that they were . . . parfyte ynowe in al maner musike.” AD 1483 John Lydgate here uses the word ‘recorded’ in the the old sense of ‘sing like a bird’ which is one of the theories of the origin of the name recorder.

“Therfore first recorde thou, as birde within a cage,
. . . thy tunes tempring longe,
And then . . . forth with thy pleasaunt songe.” AD 1510 Alexander Barcley in “Mirror of good manners” Again use of the word recorde to mean to whistle or flute a song like a bird.

“I recorde as yonnge byrdes do: Je patelle.” 1530

“This byrde recordeth all redy, she wyll synge within a whyle: C’est oyeslet patelle desja, elle chantera avant quil soyt longemps.” 1530

Recorder a pype fleute a ix neufte trous. 1530

“… and thinke it not a smalle thinge to have lerned to playe on the pype or the recorder.” 1532 Pipe and recorder are different here.

There are thousands of references to flutes which seem to refer to whistles and sometimes to recorders.

There are extant whistles in Britain from about AD 900 made with bone and used clay fipples. They were diatonic and possibly not a lot different to the ones the writings above refer to. It was a few hundred years later that we have the first find of a Viking whistle in Dublin but that was similar to the earlier ones found in Britain which I think shows that the same instrument was quite widespread.


Sorry, this turned into a mess. I was trying to give a few references to early names used for whistles in English literature. :sniffle:

12

Thank you Tommy for clearing that up for me :slight_smile:
I was just about to post and ask that very question, since I received my Feadog yesterday.
But seriously, folks (ok not too seriously) how do you pronounce Feadog? :confused:

Thanks-
**Tina

13

Thank you Tommy for clearing that up for me :slight_smile:
I was just about to post and ask that very question, since I received my Feadog yesterday.
But seriously, folks (ok not too seriously) how do you pronounce Feadog? :confused:

Thanks-
**Tina

14

I like calling it a whistle; it’s a simple, basic, nonpretentious name for a simple, basic instrument that is used primarily for playing peasant music. And it’s no accident that in a folk context people use the term “fiddle” rather than violin; it distinguishes the context: high culture versus folk culture–both extremely valuable.
Finally, if you go back and look at your McCullough tutors, you’ll find that the word “whistle” has its own fairly venerable history.

15

Especially the Serpent ChromeMoly - excellent for flagellating someone! :smiley:


Isn’t that the point? That there exists an instrument that can hold its own in beauty and form that is disparaged as a “lowly whistle” by those who believe themselves superior in some way?

William, you, above anybody on this website I think, should be familiar with the old Shakespere verse “A rose, by any other name, smelleth as sweet”.

It’s a whistle, dammit - and don’t let anybody make you feel like a fool concerning it! The thing about the whistle (for me at least) is that it touches and stirs something in the soul that can’t be reached in other ways - something ancient and lasting, a memory you can almost grasp of something good and noble and valuable - something that will be around long after the disparagers have turn’d to dust.

16

I think fiddles and violins have the same body but differant strings.

17

:laughing: That question comes up a lot. Here is an old post in which the head of the company explains how to say it:

__

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=27791&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=feadog+pronunciation&start=0

18

Hi Cynth-
Thanks for clearing that up!
I’m always learning something new here :slight_smile:
Now, if I can figure out why my reply was posted twice… sorry about that, I must have hit the wrong button :blush:

**Tina

19

It just occurred to me that “fistula” and “whistle” look to be be related words, like “fiddle” and “viol”, or “guitar” and “cittern”.

Don’t know if I’ll call it a fistula. That’s one of the more hilarious words in the language to me.

20

Same body, different spirit.