Flute in Star Trek episdoe

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Tillek
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Post by Tillek »

I just got back from Las Vegas and the Star Trek Experience. They have a museum that you walk through before you get on the ride. The Ressikan Flute was there on display. I wondered the same thing when I saw it.

I'm not sure how it plays, but I am sure that it is hollow, and it does have all its holes in all the right places.
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rich
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Post by rich »

Holes in the wrong place? Hrmph! Cultural relativists, all of you. I bet you've never even <i>heard</i> Ressikan music, let alone learned to appreciate it!
<ul>-Rich</ul>

( :wink: )
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rich
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Post by rich »

Because I'm bored, I figured out rough estimates of the dimensions. My guesses are below, too, although I'd love input from someone that remembers the math.
<ul>
<li><b>Length:</b> 10.5" (from sale description)
<li><b>Sounding length:</b> 9.5" blade to bell (thus an Eb whistle)
<li><b>Diameter immediately below fipple:</b> 0.625"
<li><b>Diameter at bell:</b> 0.375" (a 5:3 ratio -- identical to a Sweetone!)
<li><b>Holes</b> (blade-to-centre distance, fraction of bell sounding length, and radius, numbered from bottom; diameter was hard to measure, but I found what I suspected):
<ul>
<li><b>1:</b> 8", 0.84, 0.125"
<li><b>2:</b> 7.25", 0.76, 0.145"
<li><b>3:</b> 6.5", 0.68, 0.145" (note that hole 2 and hole 3 are not markedly different, and compare with your whistles)
<li><b>4:</b> 5.875", 0.62, 0.125"
<li><b>5:</b> 5", 0.53, 0.145"
<li><b>6:</b> 4.325", 0.45, 0.125"
</ul>
</ul>
I'm leaning towards the conclusion that the body itself is modeled after a Clarke, but not designed for playing; that the 2nd and 3rd hole are very similar in size, and that the holes are all further down the whistle than one would expect, suggest that it wouldn't play in tune. I would hypothesize that the holes are as they are because it was easier to use a single bit than six different ones to make a prop.

Does this make me an honorary Trekker?
<ul>-Rich</ul>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rich on 2001-07-22 02:54 ]</font>
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ErikT
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Post by ErikT »

You guys are all a bunch of 12 tone eaual temperament devotees. It's an alien flute. Maybe it plays in a microtonal alien temperament. You know that aliens are more advanced than we are.

Erik :wink:
DrGiggles
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Post by DrGiggles »

You guys are all a bunch of 12 tone eaual temperament devotees. It's an alien flute. Maybe it plays in a microtonal alien temperament. You know that aliens are more advanced than we are.
I would agree, except Picard played a distincty diatonic piece of music.

Personally, I think teaching everyone music-theory based on the well-tempered clavier is a big faux pas. Do you know how many times I've had to argue that a Bb is not the same as an A#? Fretless string players unite! Teach the world! :smile:
Tillek
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Post by Tillek »

Apparentley if you play the flute, you get 30 years of life experience from the dying race of the Ressikans. Or at least that's what the exhibit said. $2000 dollars for a rare alien artifact that makes you wiser... Think of it, 30 years more experience in whistling! We'd be unstopable! The world would be ours for the picking... or blowing... whistling... whatever.
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Dale
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Post by Dale »

About three years ago in Chiff & Fipple I ran a letter from a subscriber who had visited a Star Trek convention. (Yes, he admitted to it) and had seen this whistleprop up close. At the time he concluded, undoubtedly correctly, that it was unplayable due to the hole configuration. It IS amazing, isn't it, that they saw fit to build a prop rather than go down to the local music store and buy a whistle.

Dale
aremnius
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Post by aremnius »

On 2001-07-22 14:16, DrGiggles wrote:
Personally, I think teaching everyone music-theory based on the well-tempered clavier is a big faux pas. Do you know how many times I've had to argue that a Bb is not the same as an A#? Fretless string players unite! Teach the world! :smile:
Nor would they be the same on a pennywhistle in D, I might add.

Sarah
NicksterNM
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Post by NicksterNM »

What I wonder is if we know the tune Pecard was or was not playing on this possibly unplayable flute?

And a Patrick Stewart aside, there is almost no authentic sea music in the remake of Moby Dick with Stewart as Ahab. I know because I got it by mistake while looking for the original that has some great A. Loyyd (sp?) shantying.
NicksterNM
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Post by NicksterNM »

Do we know the tune Pecard was playing?
Or is some traditional tune yet to be written?
Nick
NicksterNM
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Post by NicksterNM »

Do we know the tune Pecard was playing?
Or is some traditional tune yet to be written?
Nick
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Post by fiddling_tenor »

On 2001-07-13 15:25, TonyHiggins wrote:
I notice in the photo that the holes are equally spaced and sized. I don't imagine it would be in tune. A nice job for a prop, though. The other props look pretty cool, too, like the phaser. I'd rather get one of those.
A phaser would come in handy for zapping bodhran players who get too carried away! :smile:
"Put": the act of placing something in a specific spot.
"Putt": the vain attempt to do the same thing.
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