Anyone tried one of these yet? http://www.newcelticinstruments.com/whistle_index.html
Jack
That looks interesting. I think I would try that before the ring flute.
That’s pretty interesting, but the fact that the second register is an octave and a fifth above the first register would make a lot of tunes very difficult to play – or at least confusing to someone who was coming from the whistle. Didn’t Daniel B. or someone make a whistle with a clarinet mouthpiece?
– Scott
Is that necessarily true? It’s true for the clarinet, but the sax, oboe, etc. all have the second register an octave above the first.
Like it says on the website linked above, this is a feature of straight-bore single reed instruments. (Oboes are double reeds, completely different, and saxs are curved.) You get the extra octave lower sound for the same length, but you lose the nice sensible octave jump between registers. It’s something to do with the physics of a single reed instrument.
Though come to think of it, I don’t have a clue how soprano saxes work…
Unless I’m completely confused, I actually met Duncan (who makes these) at Goderich this summer, and he demoed one for us. Very weird and interesting sound. Though I didn’t get the impression he was this well-organized to sell the things yet!
Yes, the Whistle Player’s Hornpipe overblows at a twelfth. However, the interesting point is there is a good number of tunes that do fit the range. I’ll be putting up a “growing list” on the website shortly. Plus this instrument is great for “vamping” or “riffing” because its so low. Sort of like a bass. Remember, many bass players don’t play more than 5 or 6 notes throughout a given piece of music!
Oh, Hi! We did indeed meet in Goderich.
A friend of mine said that he ordered a pipers hornpipe at Goderich. I’m most interested to see it. An instrument like that is very tempting but I need another instrument like I need another hole in my head. But still…
Coloman, All saxophones are conical, including the soprano. There are also curved sopranos but you don’t see them very often. I don’t think the curvature has anything to do with the octave jump; it’s the conical bore.
Ah, interesting. So it’s a cone versus cylinder thing, eh?
Now that I think about it, bassoons are definitely conical; probably oboes are as well?
Bassoons and Oboes are both Conical (I am also a Bassoon player). I own two of the Highland Hornpipes (same concept except made for the GHB player) and they are cool instruments.
Yeah, we’re everywhere these days. 
You too. 
You too.
If the low octave is D E F# G A B c#, the upper octave is a b c#’ etc. how do you play d e f# and g ? Or am I totally misunderstanding this ? 
Jack
Pleeeese correct me if i’m wrong:
Low range (Chalmeau) d e f# g a b c#
High range (Clarino) g a b c d e f#
(edit: This is wrong, wrong, wrong!!! Follow thread.)
It took a few hundred years to add all the keys and gobbldegook to a chalmeau to bridge the gap to the clarino register.
The third register, btw, is altissimo, and doesn’t follow the rules of acoustics very rigidly.
If you’re talking the registers on a clarinet, you’ve got them backwards, I believe – the bottom register fingerings approximate the bassoon (six fingers down is G), the upper register fingerings the D whistle (six fingers down is D). (Of course, those are the notes written; on a standard Bb clarinet, the note sounded is a whole step below that.)
I don’t think you are. As far as I can tell those notes don’t exist on the instrument-except for d. It is produced by opening a thumbhole. Then when you go to the 2nd octave you start playing a a scale. That may not be right but it’s the best I can figure out.
Crud. Whoops. My transposition was totally off.
If the lowest note’s a D then that overblows an octave and a fifth higher, to A. If the lowest note (fundamental) is a G, then it overblows to D. Mea culpa.
I just looked over a bunch of hornpipe tunes, and an amazing number could be played on a hornpipe, regardless of the register gap. Imagine that! 
Ah – I never consider transposition error, I just assumed you had to be talking about the clarinet. Right, Duncan’s instrument has D for its bottom note, and the second register starts on A.
That’s right. It plays from D to D (thumb-hole, no big deal) and then from A to A.