Captain Picard's Ressikan whistle

[Nanohedron]

Heck, you asked, Nano.

Yes, I did. That's one heck of a parade of events, there. But here's hoping that this will be the last for you for a good long time to come.

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.

It would sell, I'm sure. But being no whistle-maker, I have to ask about that pesky window's rounded termini: wouldn't they pose real technical issues on a working fipple? One wants to be true to the original as much as possible, after all.

I don't like the tassel.

Well, neither do I; it's twee, and to my mind it's also woefully cliché: flutes, more than any other instrument, seem to invite the tacking-on of pretty doodads in the popular mind. And why? Who knows. But if you're to make a working Ressikan flute replica, you won't make a killing in the Trekkie market without it.

It's going to have to have a reasonable facsimile of the original box, too, to do it up right and sweeten the deal.

[PB+J]

here's a video about the "Ressikan Flute" which shows the actual prop and explains how it was made: it was machined out of aluminum and does not play. Apparently the tune was dubbed in later, played on a Clarke


https://youtu.be/55Y1_Do2wNI

[MichelleRH]

I am a pretty geeky trekkie and this episode "Inner Light" is actually what inspired me to take up Irish whistle. I played the flute already but struggle with the arm and head position being really uncomfortable.

[MichelleRH]

Also apparently the original composition in the episode is in D so probably is a D whistle.
Here is a site with many versions of the sheet music: https://happyhumans.com/inner-light-she ... eneration/

[Nanohedron]

... so probably is a D whistle.

It sounded like one to me.

[Alaskamike]

This episode also led me to the tin whistle! I thought it would be a good way to exercise my mind and help prevent the onslaught of arthritis in my fingers, and if Captain Picard could do it, so could I. The version that I learned to play way is from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hre8YWEA4y4

[Nanohedron]

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

I give you: The Tonette.



Not exactly whistles, but it's the only instance I can remember of tonehole lips outside of the Ressikan thingum. TBH, I couldn't even really see them in the photo and wondered what you were talking about, until I watched PB+J's link.

Overton, Clarke and Tonette: the Ressikan Flute's really a kludged-together thing, isn't it. But the designer was apparently drawing on actual sources for inspiration, a tactic that I have to respect. They'd probably heard ahead of time about C&F and how merciless we are.

[pancelticpiper]

here's a video about the "Ressikan Flute" which shows the actual prop and explains how it was made: it was machined out of aluminum and does not play. Apparently the tune was dubbed in later, played on a Clarke

https://youtu.be/55Y1_Do2wNI

Thanks for that!

I does seem to be the same prop, or at least very similar, to the one seen in the screen-shots I posted.

Interesting the narrow rims around the fingerholes. I wonder why they did that.

They must have used photos of an Overton-style whistle as the basis for the head, because it exactly imitates the shape, including the subtle inward slope on the front of the head just below the window. It would be impossible to duplicate such a complex and specific shape by coincidence.

BTW I've seen "authenticated" props auctioned of this whistle that have fat silver donuts stuck on top of the fingerholes. As we can see the original prop only has quite narrow rims there.

Apparently the tune was dubbed in later, played on a Clarke.

Yes all the music and other sounds you hear in films (footsteps, doors closing, glasses clinking, background conversation, crowd noise, traffic noise, everything) is dubbed in later. A movie set is an eerily silent place. The only sound they want to record is the dialogue of the principal actors.

In many scenes that's dubbed in too! Thus not a single sound you hear in the final version was recorded on set.

I do wonder if it was Chris Bleth who did the soundtrack. More than likely.

About which sort of whistle was used, how these things go is that the tune would be written in such-and-such a key (in this case D Major) and at the recording session the musician might play as many different flutes and whistles as he's brought to the session, that work in that key, for the composer. The composer will decide which sound he likes. So you might get a film that takes place in Ireland but the composer liked the Chinese flute you brought! I guess the composer liked the Clarke.

Chris shows up with duffel-bags full of flutes and whistles, hundreds of the things. Makes sense, he's a flute guy.

But the opposite can happen, where the "reed guy" (who is playing Sax, clarinet, and Boehm flute on the score) finds out when he arrives at the session that the composer wants a whistle for something, and then it's a case of whatever the musician happens to have. Most "reed guys" have several beat-up Generation whistles in various keys in their gig bag. They might only have one D whistle.

Anyhow I don't see Chris listed for this episode https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1259350/

though there are things I know he did, because I worked on them too, that aren't listed there. He would know who did that show.

[Byll]

Before the days of Covid, I was arranging a medley for our band, that wandered back and forth between the INNER LIGHT theme and SKYE BOAT SONG. We thought it might be interesting for audiences to hear the similarities and differences between the two beautiful melodies. I look forward to the time that rehearsing, festivals, concerts, etc., can again be a focus of our musical world.