whence the flageolet?

Whistle
1

There’s a picture of Stephen Foster’s flageolet in a topic on the Flute Forum.

According to http://www.flageolets.com, the mass-produced tinwhistle took away the amateur market, and the flageolet has been marginalized ever since. But why? From the bits and pieces I’ve heard, it sounds like a very pleasant instrument, there’s classical and traditional/folk repertoire for it, and it seems very close in technique to playing the whistle. Is it time for a flageolet renaissance? Does anyone here play it?

2

I seem to recall a couple of players here, including one who was restoring an old instrument. Dang if I can remember anything more than that though. Sorry.

Personally, I’m waiting for the crwth to become mainstream again.

3

Perhaps it would be more common if it were easier to pronounce!

4

Now I’m intrigued! Is that an accordian(?) playing with it in the sound clip? It drowns out the flageolet so I’ll go surfing the web and see if I can find some more sound clips of it. There’s 1 for sale on ebay $20 but cracked down the barrel. Probably not a good one to try! :smiley:

5

“Crwth” is perfectly easy to pronounce! “W” in Welsh is a vowel, roughly equivalent to a long “O”. “Crwth” rhymes with English “truth” (with a rolled r). No problem. BTW, the English called the same instrument (a bowed lyre) a “crowd” or “crowder” or “crouther” or some such, all derived from the same Latin root - it’s just that the Welsh hung on to it longer than most of the rest of Britain, ditto the pibgorn (hornpipe) and the triple harp. Here are some links for info on it - The Wikipedia article is excellent!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crwth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/traditional/pages/crwth.shtml
http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com/taxonomy/term/2
http://www.crwth.org.uk/find_out.htm
http://www.ellisium.cwc.net/crwth.htm
http://www.taylorviolins.com/crwth_page.html


Back on topic (kinda :smiley: )
I wonder if there has been a long running misunderstanding about mediaeval and later “flagellants”? Perhaps it all started as a misprint and they were really “flageolants”? Darn tootin’! We wouldn’t want to beat ourselves up over it, though.

6

I’d always understood that the name flageolet referred to the fast whipping motion of the player’s fingers over the tone holes.

And yes, crwth rhymes with tooth, youth, truth, booth…

7

Not with “booth” as that has an even longer “ooooo” and a voiced (soft) th, not unvoiced.

8

You’re right, booth and tooth ar two different sounds. Nevr noticed that before.