Upon hearing an Inkuyo CD, I muse . . .
Incan music is usually played on panpipey and flutey type instruments (and guitars and drums), but are any of those cool toons accessible to whistle players?
I don’t know where to begin to look for a piece of such music as I don’t see anything like “Azucena Tika” on Clips & Snips.
Anyone got any ideas on this?
Thanks.
miffle
The flutey type instruments is actually a type of whistle called a Quena.
I have seen one, but I couldn’t sound it right. The owner could, however.
The quena is not a type of whistle.
It is an end blown flute.
So is the pennywhistle.. 
(but the embouchure is easier)
Ok, the quena is not a type of whistle because it is an open end blown flute.
Whistles are closed end blown flutes, in that the instrument itself forms the air way onto the blowing edge.
You tried a shakuhachi?
I thought the lower lip closed off the end of the quena. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t sound it.
No, I haven’t tried the shakuhachi . The whistles I have and the uilleann bagpipes are enough for me to handle…
So much to learn, so few brain cells left…
Yes there is cool pan pipe tune that is playable on the whistle and it can be played fast or slow and improvised. "El Condor Pasa’’ is on almost every cd of that type of music.
I thought the lower lip closed off the end of the quena.
But your lip isn’t part of the instrument.
Then:
Please don’t confuse the poor piper. If the end is closed with anything, wouldn’t that make it a closed end blown flute? Hmmm?
Hey, I found El Condor Pasa. I keep thinking of “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail”, but I would rather not be, as they are the words that were added later after the tune was “borrowed”, “cannabalized”, or “recycled”.
So, I take it that the queña is not a whistle because there is no window not formed by a lip?
EL CONDOR PASA (Quechua) http://www.andes.org/songs.html
Yau kuntur llaqtay orgopy tiyaq
Maymantam gawamuhuakchianqui, kuntur kuntur
Apayllahuay llaqtanchikman, wasinchikman chay chiri orgupy,
Kutiytam munany kuntur kuntur.
fuga.
Kuzco llaqtapyn plazachallampyn suyaykamullaway,
Machupicchupy Huaynapicchupy purikunanchiqpaq.
English translation: The Majestic Bird passes overhead
Oh mighty condor owner of the skies, take me home, up into the Andes
Oh mighty condor.
I want go back to my native place to be with my Inca brothers,
that’s what I miss the most, Oh mighty Condor.
fuga.
Wait for me in Cusco, in the main plaza,
so we can take a walk in Machupicchu and Huayna-picchu.
So, I take it that the queña is not a whistle because there is no window not formed by a lip?
You lost me on that one.
The whistle, like all ducted flutes, has an airway that guides the air onto the edge, the window is a fix size, the angle at which the air hits it is fixed, the size of the air stream is fixed, and the bore is a fixed length.
In an open end blown flute like the quena and shakuhachi, the player’s embouchure determines the size of the window, the angle at which the air hits it, the focus of the air and the size of the air stream. Also the lower lip can move altering the bore length. All these things can be used throughout playing to vary the pitch and tone colour of the notes to great effect, especially on shakuhachi which is probably the most expressive of all wind instruments in this regard.
Some people don’t consider anything with a ducted airway such as a whistle or recorder to be a flute at all. They were created to make blowing flutes easy and in doing so took away a lot of the expression from the player.
Anyway, considering the above, the quena is definitely not a type of whistle.
Most “Panpipe Flutes” are attributed to Peru and the Maya. The central american tribes(Aztec/Inca) mostly used whistles and clay ocarinas.
The tune “El Condor Pasa” means “The Pass of the Condor” and refers to the Andean mountains in Peru as well.