Captain Picard's Ressikan whistle

[pancelticpiper]

I'm a member of a TV/film prop site and the subject of Picard's "flute" came up.

A number of people were creating replicas out of Clarke whistles.

When people posted screen shots of the thing it was obvious to me that it was made in the Overton style, starting with a metal cylinder and forging the head in to a rectangular shape, resulting in the distinctive cutouts on the top and both sides.



I posted this photo of the heads of two of my Goldies to show the people on the prop site- who know nothing about whistledom- that Picard's whistle can only have been made in that way.



In fact you can see in the screen shot that the head of the Ressikan whistle is alloy which has been painted gold.

To me two possibilities present themselves:

1) the show contracted a maker such as Phil Hardy or Colin Goldie to make the prop.

2) the prop department made a non-playing prop based on photos they had seen of Overton-style whistles.

As we can see the body of the whistle is conical, and joined to the head with a silver tube.

I suppose an Overton-style head could have been married to a Clarke or Shaw body, both painted gold to match.

Does anybody know who made the prop? Does it play?

[Nanohedron]

Nice catch. But is it just me, or do I see that the Ressikan Flute's fipple window is just a circular drilled hole?

[pancelticpiper]

Sorry, the screen shot above shows the window at an extreme angle.

It is rounded indeed, but a rounded rectangle. Has anybody made Overton-style heads with rounded windows like that?

You can see in this photo the inward dip of the surface just under the window, exactly as seen in the Goldie heads above.

It's a conical body joined to the Overton-like head by a silver (alloy?) band. Note how the gold paint on the body doesn't go all the way to the fingerholes, making it obvious that the body is tin or perhaps aluminium painted gold.

There's a strange slight lip around the finger-holes, I wonder if anyone has seen whistles like that.

All in all it looks like an alloy Overton head married to a tin Shaw or Clarke body, painted gold.

What do people reckon the size is? D? C?

[Nanohedron]

This much we know: Apparently the instrument was strictly a prop, and cannot be played. This from Wiki:

The Inner Light (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

From October 5–7, 2006, the Ressikan flute was one of the items up for bid at the Christie's official studio auction of Star Trek memorabilia. The prop flute, which cannot actually be played, was originally estimated to have a sale price of US$300. Auction directors admitted that their estimates for many items did not "factor in that emotional fury generated around this kind of material". The estimate was later raised to $800–$1,200 on Christie's web site. In the days leading up to the auction, Denise Okuda, former Trek scenic artist and video supervisor, as well as co-writer of the auction catalog, said: "That's the item people say they really have to have, because it's so iconic to a much-beloved episode." The final bid for the flute at the auction was US$40,000. Including the additional 20% fee Christie's collected on all items from the winning bidder, the total price for the flute was $48,000.

$48,000! Try calling it a pennywhistle now.

Looking at the full-on shot of the window, I was pretty sure the item was only a prop, because to my eye there isn't even the pretense of a blade. The extreme angle shot seems to confirm this.

That aside, there was apparently some attention paid to detail, because the tonehole arrangement and comparative sizes seem plausible enough for a D whistle, at least. Actual size? Not a clue.

[busterbill]

$48,000! Try calling it a pennywhistle now.

Someone had an extreme case of WAD. At least they got a solid case and a pretty tassel thingy.

[Nanohedron]

I find the foam bed just a bit too careless; sorta like watching a movie scene of the OK Corral with a contrail overhead. I suppose the rationale was, "Hey, everyone's going to have cheap foam material. It's the Federation. It's normal." Get a grip, man! This is the Ressikan bloody Flute we're talking about, here. It deserves to repose in finery - Tholian silk, or a tasteful tribblewool frieze, for example - not on a chunk of some weekend warrior stuff from your interplanetary hardware store.

[Byll]

Ach... I am headed for a medical procedure in the next few days... the hopeful positive conclusion to 18 months of unpleasantness. And lo and behold, I check out C&F before turning in for the night, and I find a post from Richard... bound to make me get my mind off my current woes. And then, Nano and busterbill join in... The conversation reminds me of erudite and tongue-in-cheek dialogues on C&F from the days of yore, many years ago.

Gentlemen: Thank you for the humor, the interesting information, the camaraderie, etc. I needed this...

[Nanohedron]

Ach... I am headed for a medical procedure in the next few days... the hopeful positive conclusion to 18 months of unpleasantness.

I hope it goes well for you.

The conversation reminds me of erudite and tongue-in-cheek dialogues on C&F from the days of yore, many years ago.

We still get our wheels rolling, now and again.

But OTOH, it sort of seems as if there's not a whole lot left to joke about these days, doesn't it.

Gentlemen: Thank you for the humor, the interesting information, the camaraderie, etc. I needed this...

Anything to help. Care to fill us in? If not, that's fine.

[maestrosid]

The composer of the tune is Jay Chattaway, who wrote music for four of the Star Trek series and many movies. He owns a gorgeous sailboat named Cadenza. It’s at my marina in México. I walked by it the first day I was here and knew it had to belong to a musician. The tune is probably the best known piece he ever wrote in a long and prolific career.

[pancelticpiper]

Let us all hope for a positive conclusion!!

I'm glad we could offer some old-school nonsense.

However I do think it would be cool to have a working whistle like that. It probably wouldn't be too difficult, if somebody has a high D or C Goldie, to find the right-sized Shaw body to stick on there. That, and a short bit of aluminium tubing and a pot of gold paint, and Bob's your Uncle.

[pancelticpiper]

The composer of the tune is Jay Chattaway, who wrote music for four of the Star Trek series and many movies. The tune is probably the best known piece he ever wrote in a long and prolific career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjCxl9JL6Ug

I wonder who played that tune on the soundtrack. Probably Chris Bleth. Most of the time if you hear any kind of flute or whistle, or even Duduk, on a big-budget project it's Chris.

I know it wasn't me, though I did work on TNG once, doing uilleann pipes.

[Tyler DelGregg]

I don't like the tassel.

[TxWhistler]

IMHO:
There's not a whistle on this earth worth $48,000.....

[ecadre]

IMHO:
There's not a whistle on this earth worth $48,000.....

It's OK, because it's literally not a whistle.

[Byll]

[quote=Nano] Care to fill us in? If not, that's fine. [/quote]

Quick version: April 2, 2019 entered hospital for new right shoulder...old body reacted badly to anti-biotics...C-diff helped to perforate colon...resulting in sepsis and colostomy...fast forward to June, 2020...entered hospital for colostomy takedown (re-connection)...successful, but for some wound problems, which were repaired, but more antibiotics were used...more C-diff...along the way, my vertical ventral incision herniated in places..one place went active, months ago...tomorrow, will have surgery to repair ventral hernias, including the one that is active.

Heck, you asked, Nano. I am thankful for life and health. All good. Because of Covid-19, my band did not have to postpone any concerts because of my... uh... adventures. The venues had to cancel themselves...

We have hopes of all lost venue new dates, next year. The beat goes on... And, the new shoulder works great.