Someone gave me the excellent suggestion to post this request here. So…
I’ve set myself a personal project and on the assumption that many people approach tasks much as Mark Twain did (“I love work… I could watch it all day.”) I’m soliciting help and advice on how to do the job.
What’s your favorite non-D whistle tune?
Why?
I’m looking for traditional Irish and other jigs/reels/hornpipes/airs/et cetera, including Quebequois and contra dances, not usually played in D–Julia Delaney, for example, has one flat in the key signature, putting it (I think) on the F whistle. (Although I just learned some play it on the C whistle–which still counts in my search!)
Thanks!
Marguerite
Boehm flute, mostly, but learning to love the whistle.
Clarification: Are you just looking for tunes that are not in the key of D but can be played on a D whistle, or are you looking for something that will sound nice on a whistle that has a higher or lower pitch? Just wondering because I think most of us play tunes in keys other than D, even if all we have is D whistles…but there are tunes that I LIKE better on an F or Eb whistle, just because the timbre of those particular instruments seem to better suit the tune.
There are a bunch of O’Carolan tunes in other keys. Hewlett is in A, #171 (aka O’Carolan’s Welcome) and, I think, Planxty Burke are in C, it goes on and on. His complete works (in the original keys, including at least one piece in Db) are still in print from Ossian.
On 2002-08-02 11:48, Redwolf wrote:
Clarification: Are you just looking for tunes that are not in the key of D but can be played on a D whistle, or are you looking for something that will sound nice on a whistle that has a higher or lower pitch? Just wondering because I think most of us play tunes in keys other than D, even if all we have is D whistles…but there are tunes that I LIKE better on an F or Eb whistle, just because the timbre of those particular instruments seem to better suit the tune.
Redwolf
Okay, since my original post didn’t quite get at the heart of what I’m after–I’m thinking also of whistle tunes that are fun to play in session or at a dance, where you don’t get to pick the key.
Say your fiddle player only plays Fisher’s Hornpipe in F instead of D because he’s an old New England contra dance musician and “that’s the key God intended it be played in.” But that’s fine because you like Fisher’s (though I’m not sure at the moment whether it CAN comfortably be played on a whistle) so you pick up the F whistle and join in.
Shortened version–I’m curious about tunes NOT normally played in D nor on a D whistle. I’m looking for tunes in any of the other keys in which whistles can be found or made to play (as much the same way that D whistles can play G tunes without too many problems).
Hmmmm… the only two session tunes played around here much that require something other than a D whistle are Julia Delaney and The Broken Pledge, both in D minor/modal (use a C whistle). On the plus side, they’re both great tunes.
Incidentally (sort of reversing the subject), there’s a Newfoundland version of Julia Delaney which is in E minor (so you can use a D whistle). In general the melody is simplified a little bit, and the A part (counting repeats) is 12 bars instead of 16. It’s very fun to play that way.