I like whistle for all the usual reasons - simplicity, cheapness, the relative ease with which you can make good music on it, the relative difficulty of damaging your health with it, etc. etc.
Yesterday though I was struck by another reason I think whistles are great instruments, for Irish trad music anyway.
While doing endless piles of washing up (wearing my househusband/nurse’s helpmate apron) I put on an old tape I haven’t heard in years and listened to a (then) young Comhaltas champion concertina player interpreting the Wicklow hornpipe.
It was revolting! The player was filling in almost every available gap between notes with chromatic runs, and playing tripletty things that included notes that were so far removed from the mode/scale of the tune that I practically vomited into the washing-up bowl.
I thought of transcribing it for you to demonstrate what I mean but couldn’t face the prospect. But believe me, it was ghastly.
And then I thought: implementing that particular kind of bad taste is all but impossible on the whistle, given its diatonic nature.
And then I thought: yippee! Up whistles!
What other unusual qualities do any of us appreciate in the tin whistle?
I love that the tinwhistle adds a unique tone to the texture of music. As a singer with a very high range, I’ve always loved to increase the range of harmonies in a big group singalong and the whistle has the same effect.
I will never have to add additional rooms to my house to house my whistles because they are SMALL.
Since I have a contralto voice I can soar on the high notes with the whistle, something that I can never do singing.
They are LOW MAINTEANCE. You don’t have to have fancy hardshell cases, you dont have to restring them every month or so, they are MUCH easier than tuning a twelve string.
On 2002-03-17 20:29, StevieJ wrote:
Yesterday though I was struck by another reason I think whistles are great instruments, for Irish trad music anyway.
I put on an old tape I haven’t heard in years and listened to a (then) young Comhaltas champion concertina player interpreting the Wicklow hornpipe.
It was revolting! The player was filling in almost every available gap between notes with chromatic runs, and playing tripletty things that included notes that were so far removed from the mode/scale of the tune that I practically vomited into the washing-up bowl.
And then I thought: implementing that particular kind of bad taste is all but impossible on the whistle, given its diatonic nature.
Well, Steve, I saw Breda Smyth on a comhaltas tv programme recently and she really topped it for bad taste, and Seamus Egan can pull a few in that respect. Yuk. It is the player who introduces the bad taste runs, not the instrument.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-03-18 05:11 ]
Well, it’s already been stated, but I love that whistles fit in my pocket. It’s portable music. Of course, beware of the back pocket - bent mine in half not too long ago
I will never have to add additional rooms to my house to house my whistles because they are SMALL.
Ha! That’s what you think now. But you just wait and see!! I know I could use an extra room for my low Fs - the low G room is getting too crowded with them in there…
For me the tin whistle(soprano)simply has a voice that is perfectly suited to Irish traditional music and has brought me nearer to the genre than any other instrument has before.The voice of a whistle is a natural one..untrained and child-like and unlike the fiddle one is rarely tempted to give it a classical music voice as it was never an orchestra instrument to begin with.The whistle is a good mimic,able to express the complex,subtle tones of the human voice,pipes,fiddle, harp,concertina etc as well as sounds that occur in nature,birds,wind and so on .Its a sensitive instrument,sadness,joy,longing, inspiration and the entire gamut of our emotions are at our fingertips.The tin whistle is a true folk instrument,affordable,durable and easy to play.These are just a few of the things I love about the tin whistle.Thanks Steve for posting such an interesting topic and sharing your thoughts.My one complaint is it,s impossible to play whistle and wash dishes at the same time! peace, Mike
These have all been touched on in one way or another. My primary attraction to it is that it’s diatonic (my other instrument of choice is the lap dulcimer). This makes it more difficult to hit sour notes. It’s inexpensive, which means that one can invest in several in different keys and that have very different character. And the portability.
Why I like the whistle.
It is a great stress reliever and healer to me.
I can be feeling a little under the weather and when I play it, helps me to forget my aches and woes of life.
Music has always helped me through difficult times before. I too have found great pleasure in the mountain dulcimer. The whistle is more easily accessible. Like mentioned before you do not need to tune it before you play it.
If I need to kill some time. Like waiting for the car to warm up. Or an extremely slow download, well, my whistle is always there to entertain me.
Sounds like I am describing a faithful friend or something.
I like the whistle because with me, it just seems to ‘fit.’ I play many other instruments, and none really seem to ‘fit’ like my whistle. It feels like that’s the one I’m supposed to play. I’m getting a little deep here, I know, but it kinda feels like Destiny…
I agree with Tony Dixon when he said “The whistle is an instrument that can rip the living soul out of a person.”
A friend who plays oboe joined our group for a classy gig a few years ago. During a rehearsal, she and I were playing a whistle/oboe duet. I continued playing my whistle in a slow air while she laid the oboe in her lap, closed her eyes, and smiled.
When I finished playing, she broke the silence by saying, “Now, ain’t that a sound that just calls you home?”
She was right. When I listen to the whistle, it’s not my ears that hear its sound; it’s my heart.
