I play guitar in my church music group; my daughter plays flute. My music director knows I play whistle, and he’s asked us to think about a duet. Problem: It has to be sacred, not secular. At Christmas, this would be easy. In August, not so. Any thoughts on a piece?
How about some of the more traditional hymns, such as ‘Sweet Hour of Prayer’ or ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’. ‘Amazing Grace’ would also work. These types of hymns have a lot of music out there that could give you harmony lines, or you could write them yourself. Many of the traditional hymns have also been around long enough to cross denominational barriers.
Another song might be ‘The Ash Grove’ - it is trad but is also known as ‘Let All Things Now Living’ and is in many hymnals. There are several others that come out of the trad music too, such as ‘Be Thou My Vision’ and ‘Morning Has Broken’.
One song that would work is called “Canticle of the Turning”. All it is is “Star of the County Down” with Christian/Catholic Lyrics. I played it this summer at a friend’s wedding: it went over great. There are always the classics like Amazing Grace which works really great on whistle. St. Patrick’s Breatplate might be a good choice (if you can find the music to go with it.) The Christ-Child’s Lullaby could work. I wish I could be more help, but my mind is going blank on all the music that I’ve played for mass. And if you want something Marian, I heard a group (I think Great Big Sea) perform a song called the 7 joys of Mary (it has something to do with the joy Mary received from the life of her Son, Christ)
I hope this helps.
“Morning Has Broken” is found in Protestant hymnbooks, claiming Celtic origin. Pretty sweet tune but hard to get Cat Stevens’ version out of yer head whilst playing.
I have the same problem!
Mark V.
Lament of the Three Mary’s (presumably suitable for Easter) and Have You Been To Carrick? There are lyrics in Irish. Never heard the English versions. Both beautiful tunes. They’re in 100 Best Irish Slow Airs by Mel Bay, which is a great workbook w/ cd’s.
Tony
A version of St Patrick’s Breastplate is often sung by the entire congregation at Mass in Ireland to the tune which Cat Stevens popularised as “Morning has broken”, so you’re on safe ground. I have read that it is indeed a traditional Irish air (slips on flameproof pants).
Even people who aren’t familiar with the “breastplate” words would hardly take offence at the Cat Stevens association - I don’t know all the words but the theme seems to be reasonably in tune with religious sentiments.
I was thinking about Morning Has Broken. It’s in C in our Mass book, but I have a Susato C, so no problem. My only issue is finding music that allows us to harmonize, not just play the same melody.
And thanks, too, for the tip on the Irish Airs book. I bought mine a month ago in Ballyvaughan, County Clare, at Fiddler’s](http://www.fiddlersirishmusic.com/%22%3EFiddler%27s) Traditional Irish Music Shop. I think I need another book. Or maybe another bodhran or whistle. Perhaps I should go back. 
Hey Tony - you don’t have the ISBN number for ‘100 Best Irish Slow Airs by Mel Bay’, do ya? I can seem to find it on Mel Bay or amazon.
Thanks!
My daughter plays flute and I often play recorder or whistle duets with her. Morning has broken. Amazing grace. Nearer My God to Thee. One which I personally love is The Kingdom of God. (Seek Ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. This has a lovely harmony and melody though not sure if it is Catholic. Don’t some of the Kyrie Eleison Chants have parts as well? Hope you can find something.
If you want to buy sheet music, here’s the book that will help a lot:
“Favorite Celtic Melodies for 2 flutes.” The settings are plain, they include “Morning Has Broken” and “Ash Grove.” I’ve played them as whistle/flute duets with my duet partner.
All the best,
Cara
I am not sure about the book in question, but The Whistle Shop has a TON of music and method books for sale!
Including, I believe, one called 110 Best Slow Irish Airs- or something close to that.
All the Best, Tom
Found it…Thanks!
Great suggestions so far. Another tune I really like on whistle, and I imagine a flute/whistle duet would be even prettier is “I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say”, it’s in the “Word and Song” Catholic missalette. (And I’m sure many other places). It’s a tune of English origin, I believe. We do it at church (whistle and guitar) in E minor, but it could easily be transposed.
Michael Card’s “Starkindler: a Celtic Conversation With God” has some great old hymns as well as newer pieces done in Celtic arrangements. It’s a beautiful CD, although a bit too short.
Beth
Also, if you’re ambitious:
Bach’s Fifth Bradenburg Concerto
Just the first movement, bridge, then ending should be more than sufficient. And while it sounds daunting, it’s actually fairly simple. The hardest part will probably be the timing. But since you are already accustomed to playing together, that should come almost intuitively to you two.
Just a thought.
Best wishes, and have a great performance!
Kenneth
These are all great ideas! I’ll have to make notes for future use, myself 
I don’t have the opportunity to play with the choir as much anymore since our second son came along, but used to throw in a little whistle once in awhile rather than sing or play clarinet. One thing my wife and I would do when our choir director asked us to occasionally come up with a duet to play while the choir went to Communion was look ahead at the other music scheduled for that Sunday and also the Readings for the Mass. That always proves to be a suitable guide to what would be liturgically fitting to that Sunday’s Mass as well as some good tune ideas. There are a lot of Hymns that work well as instrumentals and are pretty easy to adapt, especially if your choir has the instrumental accompaniment book or there are parts available (even vocal). A thing to consider is where in the Mass you’re going to play and if it’s too big of a deal that some people may want to sing (especially true, we found, when playing a Marian Hymn–which is actually really cool unless it’s supposed to be a quiet, reflective period).
One that I really like is How Beautiful. Nice with Piano and Whistle though Guitar and Flute or Whistle and Flute would be very nice, too, and it works well on a D whistle. There are a lot of Marian Hymns that are very beautiful: Ave Maria (almost any version, though I think Schubert is particularly nice), Salve Regina, Immaculate Mary, Hail Holy Queen, and Hail Mary Gentle Woman are a few. My wife and I took the vocal parts to Pie Jesu and played a clarinet duet one year that brought out a few tears in the pews (it should work on flute and whistle, though I don’t recall the key so I don’t know how easy it might be to do). In addition, you might consider songs like You Are Mine, Prayer of St Francis, Be Not Afraid, Here I Am Lord, One Bread One Body, I Am The Bread Of Life–all in suitable keys and with instrumental parts and vocal harmonies which make them easy to adapt as duets.
My wife also plays Recorder and has some nice Sacred Hymns duet books that we’ve played as Recorder/Whistle or Clarinet/Whistle duets. I’ll check with her for the book titles and a couple of the Hymns to pass along. As I recall, they were very simple, but very nice. And, the books themselves have a range of music throughout the year so it was easy to find a quick, last minute duet for Lent, Easter Season, Advent, Christmas Season, or Ordinary Time.
Thanks for bringing up this topic, Flamman! I love the Mass and I love Sacred Music. Do you know of any other forums that discuss these subjects? I haven’t had time to really look for any Catholic music forums (I’m sure they exist), but I do often lurk on the PWA site which is a forum for Praise Whistling started by Mack Hoover. It’s a very good Christian forum at:
Hello,
Any Choral arrangement that you can find will help you with the duets, (providing it fits with your key and has a limited amount of accidentals)
However, dont let that stop ya. Transpose, take the opportunity to buy a new whistle. ( great excuse, I did, thats why I purchased my Bb Brass Burke) or fudge around with the arrangement if you do happen to come across an accidental. It’s your opportunity to be creative.
Is a good place to start. I cant recall the name of the choir book that I lent out to a co-worker. It is from ocp and all of the arrangements are for choir. It has traditional Catholic songs and also some of the newer contemporary Catholic songs.
Spirit and Song is another good investment for the contemporary Catholic. Again another ocp song book. Included is guitar chords and two part vocal arrangements.
Being a music director at my church, I have tons of choral arrangements. You may wish to ask your choir director to borrow a few songs that you think will go well.
Descants are good as well to use with a duet.
I play my whistle when ever I can get a chance along with flute and violin. I play guitar as well. (not at the same time. 
)
Hail Mary, Gentle Woman is a good one… I like to play the beginning like an air… You may wish to have the flute take over the Gentle Woman part as the range skips around a bit for whistle. The refrain then goes into parts.
Good luck and enjoy the adventure.
Please feel free to email for anymore new ideas we can toss about.
Oh, there is a catholic musicians forum.
Go to:
Scroll down to Membership then click on mailing list.
There you can join a NPM yahoo group of your choosing.
Hope this helps.
Laura
Ps. I feel the need to edit this… I cannot play flute or violin. I meant. I play along with the violin and flute… Oh how I do wish that I could play these two instruments. My life would be… well, almost complete.
The Summons is a lovely Scottish trad hymn which we do at our church, the words start ‘Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?’
I found this discussion so interesting I’ve joined the community instead of just reading other people’s posts.
I’m not sure how many of the lists besides [npmusers] are active. I’ve been a member of that list for almost 6 years. Note that you don’t have to be a member of the NPM to join the list; I’m not.
Just to warn people, discussions can get quite heated at times (in a religious forum, can you imagine? ).
Also, although it’s true that almost everyone’s Catholic, there are a few Protestants on the list.
John, hasn’t been asked to play whistle at church since a flautist joined the choir for his Mass