I don’t agree with Pipers Grip’s general remarks about responsive whistles, as you quoted them in the OP.
Thanks, Hans. That comment in itself is helpful.
But don’t put too much in it. I am just weary of generalisations. They may be well-meant, and stem from good observations, but may easily confuse different factors contributing to the observed whistle behaviour. And describing it all in words is itself just asking for trouble. Piper´s Grip review may well have valid points, I don’t wish to dismiss the observations. I am just weary of generalisations.
Very interesting Hans! I’d not thought about the ‘responsiveness’ in terms of the time it takes to generate sound from unmoving dead air. This would be very important in a style using tongued articulation, not nearly as important in a style like the old-style Irish flute style that uses diaphragm pushes rather than tonguing to initiate sound, and uses gracenotes rather than tonguing to articulate.
Since I play mostly Low Whistle, and play in a flute/pipes style that relies on gracenote articulation, the response of tonguing isn’t as important to me.
It’s another reason I prize nimble octaves: I’m not tonguing the octave switches but relying on breath control and a responsive whistle.
Richard you may have a point there, but then what happens with a player, or physically within a player, is quite a different topic. I was only remarking on “dead” air within a whistle. The air within a whistle needs to get excited to vibrate in the desired frequency. Larger whistles with more volume will react a bit slower, changes involving bigger tone holes will be a tiny bit slower, whistles with thick walls will be a little bit slower, because of extra amounts of air within each tone hole. At least this is how I picture it within my mind.
The style of playing does not affect any of these physical characteristics.
And yes, easy octave changes which do not require tonguing to kickstart a tone, but can be achieved with changing breath pressure alone, without going through squawky intermediate stages, are IMO one characteristic of a responsive whistle.
And IMO one characteristic of a good whistle.
I think there is a general characteristic, something like, “How fast does the air in the whistle adapt to a different playing regime when the playing conditions change,” that we can call “responsiveness”. From what little I know of the pipes, they respond very quickly to fingered articulations: if you want a tiny, little blip, you can get a tiny, little blip. This isn’t necessarily true of all whistles. I think responsiveness in octave changes is related to responsiveness in fingered articulations.
Getting back to the OP, I don’t think responsiveness is necessarily an impediment to playing airs and laments. You still don’t want “squawky intermediate stages.”
And as to how the whistle maker achieves this, I wish I knew. Hans’ comments on “dead air” are a good place to start. I suspect window and windway dimensions also have an effect, although I don’t know that windway length has as much impact as Dr. Gonzato suggests.