In the car to-day, there was some orchestral music playing, (I usually have one NPR
station or another on, unless I’m listening to recordings), and there’s a pretty lead
instrument in the high range… I’m thinking to myself, that I had never before realized
how similar piccolos and whistles really sound, and that’s really very pretty…
The piece ends, and the announcer explains that we’ve been listening to the Pied Piper
Fantasy Suite, and by the way, the conductor had the lead ‘piper’ instrument switch
to the tin whistle for the final movement!
So, not only are whistles now orchestral instruments, they’re sometimes the -premier-
orchestral instrument!
(I suppose this is old news to those of you that listen to orchestral music regularly…)
Tim Janis is a wonderful composer who has had his own special on PBS. He frequently has whistle in his pieces. His album Etain has plenty of whistle and is meant to have a Celtic flavor. I believe there are a couple traditional pieces on the album as well.
That ‘Pied Piper Fantasy’ you were listening to is by Pulitzer Prizewinner John Corigliano, who is one of the great American composers alive. It was commissioned by and written for James Galway. We (the Louisiana Philharmonic) just recently played it with him here in New Orleans, as a matter of fact. He was playing on a blackwood Chris Abell whistle.
We also did a patriotic pops concert recently with a large choir, and the choir did a nice arrangement of Danny Boy that called for a solo tin whistle. Since I was the only one in the orchestra who plays whistle, they asked me to do it. Lots of fun!
Ahh, hmm… Yes, hornpiper, that’s exactly what they said! I just couldn’t keep straight
all the names and awards that the rattled off!
So between this and what slowair says about this Janis fellow, it sounds like the whistle really is getting incorporated in as an orchestral instrument. I was being a bit flippant, really, thinking that it had just been used as a novelty for the ‘pied piper’ piece. (Of course, the whistle
deserves to be recognized as just as fine an instrument as any… I just didn’t think it was! )
My sister plays oboe in the Salt Lake/Rocky Mountain Orchestra in Salt Lake City, and they often use a tinwhistle solo in order to get a more traditional sound out of certain peices. In fact, this past week they performed a medly of pieces by Howard Shore’s score of the Lord of the Rings in which they used a tinwhistle wherever the Shire theme appeared. I thought it was quite appropriate, and sounded very Prancing Pony, if you get my drift.
)