I’m pretty much a musical ignoramus. I know what I know, but most of what I know has been acquired by interest and instinct, with practically no formal direction.
What is a “low whistle?” What are the definitions or distinctions between the various whistle types that I see referred to often in this forum? I play a wooden Sweetheart flageolet, which I bought to get a richer sound than that produced by the tin whistles sold by reenactment merchants. This has six holes only, with no thumbholes underneath. How is a flageolet related to these various whistles?
A low whistle is simply one pitched in the lower octave. A Sweetheart flageolet is indeed a whistle. Ralph Sweet makes his whistles in a manner similar to recorder-making, but they are whistles, having six holes, no thumb vent, and producing the second octave by overblowing.
Depending on whom you talk to, low whistles begin either at low-G or A (both between D and low-D).
Ralph Sweet’s whistles are not flageolets in the traditional sense of the word. A flageolet has a chamber between the beak and the windway. I’m not sure the exact reason for this, but I presume it’s to prevent clogging. I have an antique French flageolet and a modern one from Alba. You can look at the Alba website to see the difference between whistles and flageolets.
I’ve seen some folks refer to whistles in the A-F range as “Alto” whistles.
But I suspect that “Low” really means “lower than any of the cheapies” - since the lowest Generation is Bb, I guess an A whistle qualifies.
I think an A is great key, BTW - has a lot of that lovely low whistle sound, responsive enough to handle fast play, and only slightly larger than the Generation Bb (for the small-hands set). If you can play a Gen Bb, you should be able to play any of the A whistles I’ve seen.
Since the highest “high” whistle I’ve heard of is a high G, it would make sense for low G to be the highest “low” whistle. (Not that language usage has to make sense.)
