Pitch?

Whistle
1

I think I have found something of a discrepancy (sp?) here. According to my whislte book from McCullough, D whistles are in concert pitch. All holes covered, first octave D is the space just below the staff in treble clef. Now, the book didn’t say anything about a difference between what the note sounds like on the whistle and how it’s notated, so I didn’t think there was one. I play that same D, at the same octave, one something else that I know is correct; namely, my pitch pipe. It seems to me that the whistle sounds an octave higher than written, and the music is transposed down an octave from actual pitch, like piccolo, I think. Technically, this is concert pitch by most people’s definition (a notation program on my computer, Finale 2002, thinks of it differently: to be concert pitch, it has to be notated at same octave it sounds, besides other transposing for other instruments that are like, Bb or something else, like trumpet. Actually, it is with this program that I first discovered the discrepancy).
In other words, does tinwhistle sound an octave higher than notated, or is it just me?
If it is, then I gues a low D wouldn’t actually start on d in the the middle of bass clef, but it would actually start on the d at the bottom of treble clef.

Timotheus

2

True.

The music is written as it is for ease of reading, but the D whistle actually plays an octave higher. Imagine trying to read the music if it was written at the actual pitch of the whistle.

By the same token, most music for whistle is written in the key of D or G, no matter what the key of thw whistle it is played on. Check the thread on the Clarke Original whistle & book set to see how this can confuse!

“I suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle…” Miss Helen Stoner, The Adventure of the Speckled Band (circa 1892) :wink: to Gary

[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-08-01 06:17 ]

3

Or imagine trying to sing some of that stuff if the pitch you hear on the whistle were the same as the written pitch! I sing second alto, and I can BARELY sing the low D on a whistle.

Redwolf

4

Ok. That’s what I thought. Thank you very much for your help.
Timotheus7