One of the reasons I bought a low D whistle was to play it in church. I am looking for some nice arrangements of traditional hymns, maybe with a celtic flavor to them, maybe not. We have a great pianist, so the accompanyment can be easy to hard. The whistle part should be melodic and reasonably easy. If you know where I can go to get some nice sacred music, please let me know.
you should ask Walden!
I don’t know if this will suit your purpose or not: http://free.gentle.org/users/gospelhymns/Whistle/Lessoncartoon.htm
Cyber Hymnal says that they have over 3800 hymns on their site in various formats. Give them a try at:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org
I just played whistle (in various keys) with an organist for a church christmas revelry and you will find that most hymns can be played. I ended up just figuring which notes I needed and then writing out the music/or memorizing the tune. I was suprised how many were in D.
Believe me, you will have fun.
On 2002-12-30 18:11, claudine wrote:
you should ask Walden!
That was precisely my first thought!
Welcome to C&F, KM4SX!
Kim
I took up whistle, not with the idea that I would play it in sessions, where I’d rather play my bodhran – hey, I’m a drummer – but that I would play it occasionally in church. Finally got my chance this Christmas, playing “The First Noel” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” in a duet with my daughter (she, on tenor recorder).
If I played low D (sadly, still struggling), I would choose the following hymns:
- “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” music attributed to the Irish saint, Columba. Really easy, but lovely.
- “Amazing Grace.” A natural.
- “Morning Has Broken” (or “The Breastplate of St. Patrick,” sung to the tune of “Morning Has Broken.”)
If you’re Catholic, check out the Mass parts. I’ve just noticed that all of the parts of “Mass of God’s Promise” lend themselves easily to the whistle treatment. The Celtic Alleluia is another natural.
And don’t forget Slane (Be Thou My Vision/Lord of All Hopefulness)…another whistle natural that would sound lovely on a low. Also Cwm Rhondda (Guide Me O, Thou Great Jehovah) and The Ash Grove (The Master Hath Come).
Redwolf
On 2002-12-31 09:12, Flamman wrote:
- “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” music attributed to the Irish saint, Columba. Really easy, but lovely.
I would love to play this, but can’t find the notation! Do you know where it is?
Michael Card sings this on his album “Star Kindler” and it is just gorgeous. John Mock and Chris Abell play whistle on the album and I truly love it.
Good Shepherd may I sing Thy praise within Thy house forever...
Just gorgeous.
K
Hymns work really well on the street,
in fact. Maybe it isn’t a hymn,
but we do ‘I’ll fly away.’
Also ‘Gonna lay down my sword and
shield, down by the river side…’
The hymn, “My Shepherd will Supply my Need”, also sounds great on the whistle. Another one which works is, “It is well with my Soul”. The Moravian hymn, “Morning Star” is also workable on the whistle, but I don’t know how it would sound on a low D.
The vast majority of church hymns are suited to the whistle. Just the melody straight from the hymnal. Here is a link to a page with recordings of some of our fellow whistlers playing sacred music on whistle.
On 2002-12-31 11:02, Kim in Tulsa wrote:
On 2002-12-31 09:12, Flamman wrote:
- “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” music attributed to the Irish saint, Columba. Really easy, but lovely.
I would love to play this, but can’t find the notation! Do you know where it is?
Michael Card sings this on his album “Star Kindler” and it is just gorgeous. John Mock and Chris Abell play whistle on the album and I truly love it.
Good Shepherd may I sing Thy praise within Thy house forever...Just gorgeous.
K
Hi Kim,
They may have it at CyberHymnal. If not, if you can arrange to borrow a copy of the Episcopal Hymnal 1980, it’s in there (I’m not sure what key it’s in…I can check later though, if you want). I was going to link you to the Anglican Cyber Hymnal at episcopalnet, but it seems to be no longer in business 
Redwolf
Seems that this cyberhymnal has changed its URL, but when I when to episcopalnet, I found
http://www.episcopalnet.org/CHymnal/ACH/index.html I had some trouble bringing up the hymns there, but it seems basically functional. Redwolf, thanks for this lead; I’d not yet known about this resource for hymns.
The cyberhmnal looks great, but how do you look at the hymns? I see a .pdf order form. Do you have to mail that to unlock whatever it is to get the printed music?
I couldn’t find it at Episcopalnet…
I’ll keep looking and if you come on it, let me know!
Great link though!
K
The King of Love My Shepherd Is can be found on Cyber Hymnal. To get to the hymns there, from the main page click on Titles. Choose from the alphabet - K for The King of Love My Shepherd Is.
From the list of K hymns, select the one of interest.
If you right click on MIDI (PC users) and then “Save Target As..” you can download, not surprisingly, a midi file of the hymn. The midi file can then be converted to notation by any of the several notation programs out there.
If you right click on “score” and “Save Target As..” you can download a .nwc file, which is a Noteworthy Composer file. Noteworthy Composer is a good shareware notation program and will readily convert either .nwc or MIDI files to notation.
Hope this helps.
Not only just the regular hymns, like the ones mentioned from the Episcopal 1982 hymnal, but try some of the plainsongs. Most are in C and are very pretty, especially on a lower whistle.
Also you might want to check out Lift Every Voice and Sing-a collection of African-American hymns used by the Episcopal Church. Most of the tunes are heard in the Baptist church, but a few- like Go Down Moses,Wade in the Water or Wayfaring Stranger are pretty unique.
On 2002-12-31 23:18, BobP wrote:Hope this helps.
Well, I downloaded the evaluation Noteworthy program and got the notation all right…but I can’t read the notation! It has so many notes on the lines I don’t which is which!
Well, I guess it’s back to “It’s a Small World” for me.
Kim
But I got “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” to work and could play along with it! What a fantastic program! Kinda sounds like you’re playing along at a funeral, but I’m so desperate to play with somebody I’ll take it!
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him both Star and Sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk, till all my days are done.