For me, I got interested from movies and TV. I remember seeing the Star Trek:TNG episode with the duet in the Jeffries Tube. I was only 12 or so. Then I heard the Titanic soundtrack which, I think, was impossible to avoid.
And then one of my friends introduced me to the Cheiftans. But I never figured out what the instrument was that made such a beautiful sound.
Finally, The Lord of the Rings got me hooked into figuring it out, which led me to Chiff and Fipple, the buying of the first whistle, and, well, I think you can figure the rest out.
The star trek episodes (there’s a lot of info on those here) were probably an influence for me. They put me on recorder in elementary school and that was nice but all I could ever do was play along melodies in ‘real’ songs, and it was never very satisfactory. I went to the Sterling Renaissance Fest in Sterling NY summer of 99, and talked to a whistler in the then-group Double Indemnity. He recommended I get some susatos, like him. Did so, disliked them, stopped playing for two years. Got involved with native american flutes during that time. Something happened to re-intrigue me with whistles last summer but I can’t remember what the trigger was. I went online to look for whistles that sounded better than my dusty susatos, found C&F, got a Dixon, posted 1000-some odd times and am having a C&F 1-yr anniversary party on Friday. Free cake at my place!
On 2002-08-13 13:32, Brenna Joy wrote:
What makes people decide to play the whistle?
I liked the Star Trek episode and also was crazy for the sound of the whistle in “Concerning Hobbits” from LOTR. But what got me really interested in playing one myself was the whistle playing on Star Kindler; A Celtic Conversation Across Time by Michael Card.
On 2002-08-13 13:32, Brenna Joy wrote:
What makes people decide to play the whistle?
I took up the whistle with the intention of improving my interval sense, thereby making me a better fiddle player. Since then, though, I’ve found that the whistle poses its own set of challenges and is pretty cool all by itself.
Switched off between fiddle and whistle in a slow session this weekend, and I think the whistle made a better impression.
I don’t really know what inspired me to take up the whistle. I guess I thought it would be a nice easy instrument for Irish music since I already had some woodwind experience. Of course, it isn’t that easy. But I did get inspired last weekend at the Celtic festival in Goderich Ontario. Loretto Reid and Keith Easdale did a whistle side stage performance. Keith is a piper with a Scottish band and Loretto a weird and wonderful whistle player with a totally unique style. She often plays quite fast with lots of slurs, bent notes, etc. Keith’s style was a complete contrast. Much more piperish. He also had some good things to say about whistling and trad music and he was funny too. I wish you all could have been there. Anyway, I’ve had my whistles out and working for the last couple of days.
My inspiration to play the whistle came about 30 years before I actually decided to learn to play it. In 1974, while living in Switzerland, I read a book called “The Glass Bead Game” by Hermann Hesse. I believe it was his last work. In it, he describes a complex monastical society which has as its heart the mystical awareness that can be attained by playing the Blass Bead Game, a complex mathematical and musical discipline. The main character, after rising to be the head of the order, decides to leave the whole thing behind to find peace in a simple life. The only posession he takes with him is a wooden whistle which he uses to make the most beautiful music he has ever made. (Pardon requested for my errors. I haven’t read the book in 30 years) The image of that whistle germinated in me for decades and is now coming to fruition…I hope.
My biggest inspiration to play whistle was the movie “Waking Ned Devine”. The funeral procession scene has someone playing a very beautiful, haunting melody that still leaves me enthralled.
More recently, I’ve heard recordings of Paddy Keenan…I don’t know if he is the one playing that whistle, but I think he is. Whether he is or not, I would still make an attempt to bow at his feet if I met him("We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!).
No ‘inspiration’ here. . .no listening to CDs or tapes or movies. . .just desperation.
We went to Ireland for vacation, chosen because 1) they (mostly) speak English, 2) airfare wasn’t bad 3) the history. We also enjoyed the music in a very tangential way, and happened upon our first session there, where we REALLY got pulled into the music.
Upon returning to the States, we happened to have dinner at a restaurant in town the next week, and heard music coming from the bar area. We agreed that the fiddler sounded extraordinarily good. I started frequenting that bar on Wednesday nights, and someone said if I brought an instrument no one would mind if I sat in a played with them.
I brought my recorder, and was welcomed graciously, even though I could only attempt to join on three or four tunes. The whistler teased me mercilessly about the recorder, and I brought a Gen or Soodlum or something by the third or fourth night. I didn’t much like what it sounded like (what I sounded like), but one of the older guys took the whistle and played something wicked good and very fast. I think that was the first time I ever heard a whistle played well.
\
Tyghress
…And I go on, pursuing through the hours,
Another tiger, the one not found in verse.
Jorge Luis Borges
[ This Message was edited by: tyghress on 2002-08-13 17:10 ]
On 2002-08-13 16:38, blackhawk wrote:
and who is that guy?
I wondered if anyone would ask.
Spider Stacy (Peter Richard Stacy) of the original Pogues line-up.
While he may not be one of the best whistle players, he was the first I ever saw.
I didn’t know what the heck he was playing until I did a little research, and now I’m obsessed with the darn things just like all the rest of us!
For a long time, the only Irish and Scottish music I could get my hands on were the compilations that sounded like they were organized by Irish and Scottish tourist bureaus targeting Americans seeking their roots. But since that was all I could find, I bought them all. I listened to lots of battlefield music.
I saw a live performance of an American Irish band called Serrated Edge. They played an electrified version of trad, a bit rocked out with electric bass. I thought to myself, I bet I would like acoustic authentic trad better, but I filed that thought away because I was playing electric bass myself at that time.
I took up Irish flute, keyless, about seven years ago, quit bass to do that because I was tired of the bass clef. I wanted to play melody and IMHO Irish music has the prettiest melodies in the world. I got some Celtic Breeze cds to learn from–they were missing their jewel cases because I bought them used. I noticed that what sounded like whistle instead of flute was doing things that sounded to me much more free spirited than the flutes sounded. But I already had a flute. It split irreparably during one extreme weather change, and I was liberated to take up whistle.
When I first came to C&F, I stocked up on Mary Bergin and I continue to follow the recommendations of C&Fers.
Brother Steve’s website inspired me to make a lifetime commitment to playing whistle.
Hi Kim:
huuuuhhhh? Several shots of single malt and an awful 10hour work day away from whistle have rendered me insensate. Whaaaadid I say???
Oh, btw, another inspiration for whislting came from the cut Moll Dubh on an Altan record. An F whistle I think playing intro and counter melodies to their wonderful female singer.
