I’ve have a CD by EJ Jones (Willow Band) and one by Bothy Band where the key of Eb is used a lot. Then today I read a comment about the use of the key of Eb for “purity”. Is there some history behind this? Was Eb a common key for ITM at one time? I happen to love to play in that key. Sounds perkier to me.
TM
It was quite fashionable for a time, and some musicians are known for playing in Eb. Tommy Peoples, for instance. Then there is the joke about how De Dannan should really be called Eb Dannan. Nowdays, Dervish plays amost exclusively in Eb. From what people tell me, Eb sessions used to be common for a while to, supposedly because the fiddles like the brightness. Then of course some musicians (forget who, of course) may have had other reasons such as “keeping the riff raff out,” or so I’ve heard from Peter.
I love my Eb whistles (a Gen and Sindt).
I find that very interesting. I have a brass gen and a nickel gen in Eb. They are both beautiful whistles with a very bright sound. The 3rd octave Eb will stop dogs dead in their tracks. These are some of my favorite whistles that are not in the key of D. The other favorite is a Dixon G.
Ron
Ron,
is that a high G or lower-than-D G? I have a high G Generation. It’s almost too small for my fingers.
Tom
That is a G below D or an alto G. It has a wonderful sound, plays easily, and is a nice compromise in stretch over a Low D. It also matches in key the Olwell bamboo flute that I have. It is also not very expensive.
Ron
One interesting thing about the key of G is that you can play a viola along with it the way you can play a violin along with the key of D. That is, if you ignore the fact that the whistle is in G and just play the same fingering as you would for the D whistle while reading the music for a tune- then you can pick up a viola and, also ignoring that it’s actually tuned lower, play the same piece along with the G whistle. Viola is alot of fun for fiddling and you can almost dig into it a little easier because it’s tuned lower than the violin. Many will scoff but you can get a fairly decent cheap one through Shar for a couple of hundred. --mike
There’s always been this thing among Flutes to pitch a little higher to sound brighter. I guess someone has finally decided to just move to the next higher key and be done with it.
I love my Eb whistle as well (Abell). Nothing sounds better on John Skelton’s “The Road to Buggleskelly”.
I’ve always assumed a role was played by flute players, who seem to like the Eb flutes as having a better sounding (or at least, easier to play) low root note (i.e., the bottom D or the bottom Eb). The low D can sound weak on some flutes by some players.