Tin whistle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The tin whistle, also called the whistle, pennywhistle, or Irish whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. The Irish words for the instrument are feadóg ('whistle' or 'flute') or feadóg stáin ('tin whistle'); feadóga stáin is the plural. It can be described as an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, Native American flutes, and many other woodwind instruments found in traditional music.

Contents
1 History
2 Contemporary tin whistles
3 Tuning
3.1 Whistle keys
3.1.1 Low whistles
3.2 Tuning adjustment
4 Playing technique
4.1 Fingering and range
4.2 Ornamentation
5 Repertoire
5.1 Irish and Scottish music
5.2 Kwela
5.3 Other music
6 Notation
7 Well-known performers
8 References

History
L.E. McCullough notes that the oldest surviving whistles date from the 12th century, but that, "Players of the feadan are also mentioned in the description of the King of Ireland's court found in the Brehon Laws dating from the 3rd century A.D."[1] The names tin whistle and pennywhistle date from when the instrument was first mass produced in tinned sheet metal. Early mass production of the metal itself occurred in Wales, in the United Kingdom. The best known early producer of tin whistles was Robert Clarke (? - 1882) who lived and worked in England. Norman Dannat boasted in The Penny Whistle (The Clarke Tinwhistle Co c1993) that Robert Clarke’s whistles "produced a unique sound which, though attempts have been made to copy it, no-one has ever improved."

While whistles have most often been produced in higher pitches, the "low" whistle is not unknown historically. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has in its collection an example of a 19th century low whistle from the famous Galpin collection.[2] During the 1960s revival of traditional Irish music the low whistle was "recreated" by Bernard Overton at the request of Finbar Furey.[3]

The whistle’s fingering system is the same as that of the six hole, simple system, "Irish flute" ("simple" in comparison to Boehm system flutes). The six hole, diatonic system is also used on baroque flutes, and other folk flutes, and was of course well known before Robert Clarke began producing his tin whistles circa 1843.

Contemporary tin whistles
The most common tin whistles today are made of brass tubing, or nickel plated brass tubing, with a plastic fipple (mouthpiece). Generation, Feadóg, Oak, Acorn, Soodlum's (now Walton's), and other brands fall in this category. The next most common form is the conical sheet metal whistle with a wooden stop in the wide end to form the fipple, the Clarke's brand being the most prevalent. Other less common variants are the all-metal whistle, the PVC whistle, and the wooden whistle.

Whistles are a prevalent starting instrument in Irish traditional music, since they are often cheap (under US$10), relatively easy to start with (no tricky embouchure such as found with the flute), and the fingerings are identical to those on the traditional six holed flute (Irish flute, baroque flute). The whistle is widely taught to schoolchildren in Ireland.

In recent years a number of instrument builders have started lines of "high-end," hand-made whistles, which can cost hundreds of dollars US each — expensive in comparison to cheap whistles, but nevertheless cheaper than most other instruments. These companies are typically either a single individual or a very small group of craftsmen who work closely together. It is common for builders of wooden flutes and Uilleann pipes to also build whistles. The instruments are distinguished from the inexpensive whistles in that each whistle is individually manufactured and "voiced" by a skilled person rather than made in a factory.

Tuning

Whistle keys
The whistle is tuned diatonically, which allows it to be used to easily play music in two major keys and their corresponding minor keys and modes. The whistle is identified by its lowest note, which is the tonic of the major key. The most common whistles are called D whistles, and can easily play notes in the keys of D and G major. Although the whistle is essentially a diatonic instrument, it is possible to get notes outside the principal major key of the whistle, either by half-holing (partially covering the highest open finger hole) or by cross-fingering (covering some holes while leaving some higher ones open). However, half-holing is somewhat more difficult to do correctly, and whistles are available in many keys, so for alternate keys a whistler will typically use a different whistle instead, reserving half-holing for accidentals. Some whistle designs by such manufacturers as Susato allow a single fipple, or mouthpiece, to be used on differently keyed bodies.

The next most common whistle tuning is a C whistle, which can easily play notes in the keys of C and F major. The C whistle is widely used in American folk music, whereas the D whistle is the most common choice for Celtic music.

Low whistles
There are larger whistles, which by virtue of being longer and wider produce tones an octave lower. Whistles in this category are likely to be made of metal or plastic tubing, with a tuning-slide head, and are almost always referred to as low whistles but sometimes called a concert whistle. The low whistle operates on identical principles to the standard whistles, but musicians in the tradition may consider it a separate instrument.

The term soprano whistle is sometimes used for the higher-pitched whistles when it is necessary to distinguish them from low whistles.

Tuning adjustment
Whistles may or may not be tuneable. If they are, tuning is done by moving the mouthpiece in or out, either the mouthpiece itself sliding over the whistle body, as in the metal tube/plastic body model, or else with a tuning slide such that the mouthpiece and the upper part of the body form the 'head' of the whistle which fits into the main body.

Playing technique
Fingering and range
The notes are selected by opening or closing holes with the fingers. With all the holes closed, the whistle generates its lowest note, the tonic of a major scale. Successively opening holes from the bottom upward produces the rest of the notes of the scale in sequence: with the lowest hole open it generates the second, with the lowest two holes open, it produces the third and so on. With all six holes open, it produces the seventh.

In any flute, including the tin whistle, the second and higher octaves are achieved by increasing the air speed into the embouchure hole. This increases the frequency of the air pressure waves created. On a transverse flute this is generally done by narrowing the lip aperture.[4] Since the size and direction of the tin whistle's windway, like that of the recorder and other fipple flutes, is fixed it is necessary to increase the speed of the air stream by over blowing. This can be done by blowing fractionally harder.

Fingering in the second octave is generally the same as in the first octave, though alternate fingerings are sometimes employed in the higher end of the octave to correct tuning.[5] Also, the tonic note of the second octave is usually played with the top hole of the whistle uncovered instead of covering all holes as with the tonic note of the first octave; this makes it harder to accidentally drop into the first octave and is usually more in tune.

Various other notes (relatively flat or sharp with respect to those of the major scale) can be accessed by cross fingering techniques, and all the notes (except the lowest of each octave) can be flattened by half holing. Perhaps the most effective and most used cross fingering is that which produces a flattened form of the seventh note (B flat instead of B on a C whistle, for example, or C natural instead of C sharp on a D whistle). This makes available another major scale (F on a C whistle, G on a D whistle).

The standard range of the whistle is two octaves. For a D whistle, this includes notes from the second D above middle C to the fourth D above middle C. It is possible to make sounds above this range, by blowing with sufficient force, but, in most musical contexts, the result will be loud and out of tune.

Ornamentation
Traditional Irish whistle playing uses a number of ornaments to embellish the music, including cuts, strikes and rolls. Most playing is legato with ornaments to create breaks between notes, rather than tongued. Vibrato can be achieved on most notes by opening and closing one of the open holes, or by variation of breath pressure.

Repertoire
A number of music genres commonly feature the tin whistle.

Irish and Scottish music
Traditional music from Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Scotland is by far the most common music to play on the tin whistle, and comprises the vast majority of published scores suitable for whistle players. Musicians who play Irish and Scottish music on the tin whistle perform both solo and as members of bands. While the tin whistle is very common in Irish music to the point that it could be called characteristic of the genre and fairly common in Scottish music, it is not a "required" instrument in either one.

As ornamentation and improvisation around a simple melody is characteristic of both genres, many traditional musicians frown upon the use of musical scores, believing that learning "by ear," from recordings or live instruction, is the best way to learn these aspects of whistle performance. Hence, students of the tin whistle may be advised not to use musical scores, and will certainly be expected to spend a substantial amout of time listening to other performers even when scores are used. Scores are never used in live performances and usually discouraged in sessions. Nevertheless, it is a common practice to transcribe traditional tunes, both for the purpose of preserving melodies and as a learning tool. When traditional tunes are scored there are seldom if ever separate scores for individual instruments; hence, tin whistle players use the same score as all other musicians.

Kwela
Kwela is a genre of music created in South Africa in the 1950s, and characterized by an upbeat, jazzy tin whistle lead. Among all genres of music featuring the tin whistle, kwela is distinctive as the only one which is totally dominated by the instrument; without a whistle you really cannot play kwela. The low cost of the tin whistle made it an attractive instrument in the impoverished, Apartheid-era townships; the Hohner tin whistle was especially popular in this genre. Kwela was mostly superceded in South Africa by the mbaqanga genre in the late fifties, and with it the saxophone largely supplanted the tin whistle as the lead instrument for music from the townships. However, kwela master Aaron "Big Voice Jack" Lerole continued to perform into the 1990s and a few kwela bands, such as London's The Positively Testcard continue to record kwela music today.

Kwela musical scores are rarely if ever published and many of the recordings of founding kwela artists are out of print and rare.

Other music
The tin whistle is used in many other types of music, though not to the extent that it could be called characteristic as with Irish music and kwela. It is not unusual to hear the tin whistle used in bluegrass, praise music, and movie soundtracks, and published scores suitable for tin whistle performance are available in all of these genres.

Notation
There is no universal system of notation for the tin whistle, because it is very much a transposing instrument and there is no real consensus on how tin whistle music should be written, or on how reading music onto the whistle should be taught. It can be said, however, that when music is scored for a soprano whistle, in the key in which it is to sound, then it will be written an octave lower than it sounds, so avoiding use of ledger lines and making it much easier to read.

Reading directly onto the C whistle is popular for the obvious reason that its home key or name key is the all-natural major key (C major). Reading directly on to the D whistle has become popular because much traditional fiddle music is written and played in D or closely related keys. Some musicians are encouraged to learn to read directly onto one whistle, while others are taught to read directly onto another, and learning to read directly onto a second whistle will tend to disturb, seriously, facility gained on the first.

Basically, at present, the whistle player who wants music to read on to all whistles will need to learn the mechanics of written transposition, taking music with one key signature and rewriting it with another.

Well-known performers
In 1973, Paddy Moloney (of The Chieftains) and Sean Potts released Tin Whistles, which helped to popularize the tin whistle in particular and Irish music in general. Mary Bergin's Feadóga Stáin (1979) and Feadóga Stáin 2 (1993) were similarly influential.

Other notable players include Joanie Madden, Brian Finnegan, Sean F. Ryan, and Andrea Corr. The low whistle rose to public prominence thanks to its use by Davy Spillane in the stage show Riverdance and Tony Hinnigan on the soundtrack to the 1997 film Titanic. Many traditional pipers and flute players also play the whistle to a high standard.

Certain Irish punk bands use the tin whistle as well. One example is Flogging Molly.