A while back I was looking for something with a reed and whistle fingering. Someone put me on to the whistle players hornpipe which I bought. I couldn’t get to grips with it and it is now on ebay. Can anyone help me in the search for what seems to me not too difficult a thing to construct. I’ve seen a mouth blown uilleann chanter on the web. Anyone tried one out?
I was about to propose the exact intrument you say you couldn’t handle when I saw the thread… pity (I own the Highland Hornpipe which uses a bagpipe chanter’s layout but is otherwise similar - but it’s a little expensive for what you get - the Whistle Player’s Hornpipe has a metal body… The sound’s intrigueing, though).
Is something clarinet-like out of the question (I ask since you consider Uillean pipe layouts… other fingerings, that is)? There are several instruments that’d fit that bill - I know of Daniel Bingamon’s PVC clarinet, and I myself play Xaphoon(s), Clarineau (a kind of hybrid instrument between chalumeau (mouthpiece) and recorder (fingering - well, at least almost)). There are other similar instruments around I can comment on. If anything sounds interesting to you, I can elaborate…
M.
I put a clarinet mouthpiece on a low D tube once as an experiment. I have zero clarinet experience so the results were inconclusive except that I was able to get notes out of the “Frankenwhistl-net.” FWIW, the tube was from a Dixon low D.
Of course, a reed (single or double) on a cylindrical whistle tube gives you a closed end cylinder which 1. Sounds an octave lower, and 2. Overblows the 12th, not the octave. The latter means that the range is effectively only 1 octave, which is fairly limiting.
if you search for “wood pocket sax” on ebay, I just put up an instrument that’s fingered like a pennywhistle and has a saxophone mouthpiece.
MTGuru’s correct physics-based analysis does determine the possibilities here. Amongst existing traditional instruments that might somewhat fit the bill are, of course, most of the members of the shawm family worldwide, which have an expanding conoid bore and double reed. The Uillean and Highland bagpipe chanter are actually both members of or derivatives from that root. Whether mouth or bag-blown, depending on reed set-up and control methods, these may play only one octave, or more as they overblow to the octave. Basic shawms played with total reed-into-mouth insertion, lips against a “pirouette”, have no proper control to overblow. The Breton Bombarde is one such, but with modern playing approaches and adoption of some classical oboe lipped-reed technique, most players now extend the range well into and even beyond the 2nd 8ve. I don’t exactly know the fingering, but it is not dissimilar from whistle - probably closer to straight-off diatonic than it is to say recorder or pipes fingering.
Of course, such directly blown double reed instruments are a significant challenge to learn to play at all - development of facial musculature to sustain the pressure involved takes a fair bit of work!
A similar vein of thought would suggest investigating the Baroque oboe which fingers very similarly to the Baroque flute and is based on a D diatonic scale. Various modern makers such as Jon Swayne and Jonathan Shorland have made “pastoral oboes” based loosely on Baroque oboes and bombardes and other shawms. The Bretons too have developed lower voiced bombardes such as the “piston” - investigate some of the Breton makers’ websites (on The List) such as Gilles Lehart, Hervieux & Glet, Yvon Le Coant and also the Galician/Spanish makers… One can also at times pick up C19th French “musettes” - like mini-oboes. All of these have basic diatonic fingering somewhere between whistle and recorder.
There are also all the mediaeval/renaissance winds to explore, especially the wind-cap families like crumhorn, kortholt etc - visit websites like Moeck’s or The Early Music Shop’s - either US or GB. Most of these again only have one octave (no overblowing again) or an octave extended a tone or two downwards (like many bagpipes) and either straight or recorder-like fingering: they may have single or double reeds and assorted conoid or parallel bore profiles, but these variations chiefly affect tone character and maybe ease or difficulty of playing rather than tessitura.
Last but not least, there is the Welsh pibgorn and its relatives in Eastern Europe, North Africa and elsewhere. This of course is really just another windcap instrument, a survival from the Middle Ages. The Welsh version has a single reed like a bagpipe drone reed and has only a single octave range with fingering very close to whistle except at the top end, where it has to use a thumb-hole (as do many bagpipes). DIY info here.
Although a tessitura limited to an octave (or even a ninth as in GHB) is “limiting”, but there is plenty of great music out there specifically designed for sich instruments (“Nine Notes That Shook The World”!!!) and many other tunes can be arranged to suit by dint of octave folding, partial harmonising, melodic variation and other such fudges.
MTGuru’s right, of course - that’s what makes the Xaphoon and/or the Clarineau (and similar instruments - enhanced chalumeaux, really) special since they leave behind those limitations, offering two full octaves (and more if you’re able to produce and control it). The Highland Hornpipe offers an additional register (over the natural ninth it plays), but there’s a considerable gap between lower and upper register, and upper’s a real beast to control - not for the faint of heart…
But: Xaphoon/Clarineau fingering is considerably more quirky than that of the tin whistle. On the other hand, you get a fully chromatic scale (mixolydian is easiest for a whistler, followed by major, but you can do just about anything) and a beautiful low end.
The great thing about the Xaphoon is that it’s just a tube with holes (no keys of any kind), an integrated mouthpiece and a really big reed to produce an impressive sound; pitch can be a problem, though - it’s not tunable the way a whistle is, so it’s down to the player to get it right. It’s no whistle (never as elegant and fluent), but it has its merits nevertheless. As a reed player, I love it.
A D Xaphoon (pretty small!) covers the same basic range as a low D whistle - but sound’s really different. As soon as you’re experienced enough, you can go really mellow, though.
M.