What part of the pennywhistle is the fipple?

Sara · Post by **Sara** » Fri Sep 28, 2001 6:51 pm

I've heard people on here talking about the fipple and I have no idea what part of the whistle that is. Could anyone tell me?
Cheerio,
§ara

MLK · Post by **MLK** » Fri Sep 28, 2001 7:53 pm

The fipple is the end you blow into. That's the simple answer. I'm sure others could wax eloquent!

Have fun,
Meg

Feadan · Post by **Feadan** » Sat Sep 29, 2001 7:59 am

On 2001-09-28 21:53, MLK wrote:
The fipple is the end you blow into. That's the simple answer. I'm sure others could wax eloquent!

Have fun,
Meg

Okay, I'll bite. Meg's answer is a little too simple. Here is an answer with more words to add to your vocabulary of whistle anatomy

.The fipple is part of the end you blow into. Not all whistles really have a true fipple as the headjoint is all one piece of plastic (Generation, Oak, etc.). Not wanting to raise anyones’ hackles, but if you look at a wooden recorder, there is a wooden insert smack in the middle of the bore that creates the floor of the windway. That piece is the fipple. The only low end whistles that I can think of that have a fipple as a separate piece are Susato, Clarke, Shaw, & Cooperman. Most of the high end whistles that I have seen do have a true fipple. The one exception that comes to mind is the Howard Low D. I hope this was more helpful than confusing.

Cheers,
David

WyoBadger · Post by **WyoBadger** » Sat Sep 29, 2001 1:15 pm

Sara--
That's easy. It's the part that produces the chiff.

Tom

StevePower · Post by **StevePower** » Sat Sep 29, 2001 4:56 pm

On 2001-09-29 09:59, Feadan wrote:
if you look at a wooden recorder, there is a wooden insert smack in the middle of the bore that creates the floor of the windway. That piece is the fipple.

Is it not true of whistles too? Clarke and Shaw (to name but 2, neither of which are otherwise wooden, by the way) have the wooden insert that you mention.

Also, is the wooden block, itself, the fipple or is it the windway that is created by its presence? (I think I know this one, just making academic argument).

By extrapolation: one must assume that if it is the wooden block, that plastic (and metal) mouthpieces must incorporate a 'fipple' (- it must have a purpose required by the other types of whistles, mustn't it?), but which - by design - are less easily identifiable.

I hope I'm close to something akin to intelligent argument here!

Steve

MLK · Post by **MLK** » Sat Sep 29, 2001 6:06 pm

Sara,
Are you confused yet?

Meg

Sara · Post by **Sara** » Sat Sep 29, 2001 6:13 pm

Yes, I'm very confused! LOL.

Sara

Post by **Dale** » Tue Oct 02, 2001 6:20 am

Technically, the fipple IS the wooden plug in a Clarke or Shaw, or whatever equivalent structure exists in other whistles. Accordingly, it's a bit harder to actually identify the fipple as a distinct part in Generation whistles and the like. Although I don't want to be Orwellian in distorting language, I do wish that we could arbitrarily decide that the fipple is the sound generation system of a whistle--that is the combination of the duct airway, the window, the blade.

Hmmmm.

Fipple Flutes (by Dale Wisely)

ducted windway
blade that splits
the stream of breath

(hmmm, I'll have to work on that)

Dale

Feadan · Post by **Feadan** » Tue Oct 02, 2001 6:54 am

Is it not true of whistles too? Clarke and Shaw (to name but 2, neither of which are otherwise wooden, by the way) have the wooden insert that you mention.

Didn't I say that?

Also, is the wooden block, itself, the fipple or is it the windway that is created by its presence? (I think I know this one, just making academic argument).

AFAIK, it is the block. If you have different information I am all ears.

On 2001-10-02 08:20, DaleWisely wrote:
Technically, the fipple IS the wooden plug in a Clarke or Shaw... <snip> I do wish that we could arbitrarily decide that the fipple is the sound generation system of a whistle--that is the combination of the duct airway, the window, the blade.

Well...I suppose we could arbitrarily decide that. But then we would be wrong in what we call a fipple wouldn't we?

It makes far more sense to me to keep the existing common vocabulary/definitions.

Cheers,
David

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Tue Oct 02, 2001 6:19 pm

According to:
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1998), a fipple is: "a stopper, as in a wind instrument of music"

WordNet 1.6 (Princeton University) calls it:
"a wooden plug forming a flue pipe"

Music Theory Online:
(http://www.be-blood.demon.co.uk/Glossary.htm)
'Both the Century Dictionary (1898), a rich mine of etymology, and the Oxford English dictionary state that the origin is obscure, but the Oxford asserts that fipple is probably related to Icelandic _flipi_ "the lip of a horse." The word fipple in Engl. dialect refers to "the under lip" and "to fipple" means to look dejected by protruding the under lip. The use of the term for the recorder's block seems to come from an analogy with the flute, where the under lip provides the same narrowing of the windway as the block does in the recorder, i.e. it is the underside of the wind passage.'
and (from an OED quote on the site)
"The plug at the mouth of a wind-instrument, by which its volume was contracted."

This seems to be pretty authoritative, though to be fair, I did find plenty of "non-official" (i.e. just some random webpages with no authoritative credentials) sites that referred to the entire mouthpiece as a fipple. As language changes over time, I'm sure that if enough folks call the entire mouthpiece the fipple long enough, that's exactly what it'll be.

Greg

[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2001-10-02 20:21 ]

Post by **Dale** » Tue Oct 02, 2001 6:24 pm

Greg, that's an impressive piece of research. Thanks. Could you find out what the word "ubiquitous" really means for me?

Thanks,

Dale

LeeMarsh · Post by **LeeMarsh** » Tue Oct 02, 2001 7:21 pm

On 2001-10-02 20:24, DaleWisely wrote:
... Could you find out what the word "ubiquitous" really means for me?

Isn't that what the 5 foot anthropologist kept hearing during her studies with the pygmys?

(Same for a Mr Wisely in the whistldom - U big with us) ;o)

AnnaDMartinez · Post by **AnnaDMartinez** » Wed Oct 03, 2001 8:59 am

On 2001-10-02 20:24, DaleWisely wrote:
Greg, that's an impressive piece of research. Thanks. Could you find out what the word "ubiquitous" really means for me?

Thanks,

Dale

Common, everyday, mundane, quotidian...at least that's they way I've been using it! <ducking and running>

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Wed Oct 03, 2001 9:11 am

So what's chiff, then?

Thomas-Hastay · Post by **Thomas-Hastay** » Wed Oct 03, 2001 11:29 am

"Chiff" is what you get from a "Fipple"(he he)