I do American Civil War reenacting and am looking to learn the penny whistle, but I need an authentic one for the time period. Does anyone have any ideas which type of whistles were more prevelant during the CW? Or were I can find a website, source to get an authentic on purchased or made?
Tell us something.: I moved, so I'm in a different city. Not in Texas anymore!!! Although if someone sees that I'm in NYC, maybe they'll know of local places that I can look for whistles.
I used to be with a CW reenactment unit (Duryea's Fifth Zouave Regiment), but didn't have a whistle with me. I was told that brass and wood should be ok; definitely no plastics and not aluminum. Probably the simpler the better. You should be able to do a search on CW reenactments that will at least give you contacts to confirm, as I'm not really sure.
Regards,
Philo
"This is this; this ain't something else. This is this." - Robert DeNiro, "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
Oh man... there was just a lovely one on EBay... pricy, mind you, but loverly
anniemcu
--- "You are what you do, not what you claim to believe." -Gene A. Statler
--- "Olé to you, none-the-less!" - Elizabeth Gilbert
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I've looked around the web several times for any information about the whistle in civil war music or in minstrel show music of the same era. I haven't been able to find much. The 2nd South Carolina String Band played in the movie Gods and Generals. I would write them and ask what they know about whistles in that era.
Another site shows a band from the movie. You can't see the whistles very well but they look shiny and likely metal. If so they are like Clarkes or that type of whistle. But who knows if that's authentic or not.
I have read a fair amount of material on the minstrel music of that era, particularly the banjo music, but I have never come across any reference to a whistle being played.
So far, and some of us are rather good amateur ACW historians, no one has ever been able to show a single picture or literature reference that supports OFFICIAL use of pennywhistles during the ACW. Brass bands, sure. Fifes and drums, of course. But no whistles.
That said, it is generally accepted that pennywhistles of the Clarke type probably existed in the US at that time. Logically, then, there's no reason to believe that a few of them didn't occasionally show up in camp. Music was much more universal then. Many soldiers who weren't officially musicians brought along fiddles, squeezeboxes, etc. so why not whistles.
Of course, the authenticity Nazis vary from one reenactment to the next. I don't imagine you'd have any problem if you took an unpainted Clarke to tootle in camp. The gold diamonds are out, I'd think.
If you want to use it in a more official role, i.e. to portray an official bandsman or musician, perhaps it'd be a better idea to learn to play the fife.
I just checked through Music in the Civil War by Stephen Currie and found neither reference to nor pic of a whistle. However, there was the fife and I was told by my fellow soldiers that although whistles were not notably used in marching bands or officially, there were generally some played around camp fires.
Philo
"This is this; this ain't something else. This is this." - Robert DeNiro, "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
My youngest brought me a whistle made in Colonial Williamsburg that was supposed to be historically true and Benjamin Franklin played one made in the US. It was essentially the Clarke origional design but in plain tin and with wooden plug and nails holding in the plug. I would assume that ones available during the U.S. Civil War would have changed very little in design.
fancypiper wrote:My youngest brought me a whistle made in Colonial Williamsburg that was supposed to be historically true and Benjamin Franklin played one made in the US. It was essentially the Clarke origional design but in plain tin and with wooden plug and nails holding in the plug. I would assume that ones available during the U.S. Civil War would have changed very little in design.
I do ACW reenacting too, and I like to play my unpainted tin Clarke original at events. It has "Clarke" and "1847" embossed in it. I figure that makes it authentic enough. I know some other reenactor/whistlers who use unmarked tin whistles with wooden fipples.
The nice thing is, a Clarke is less than 10 dollars, and it won't be difficult to replace if you happen to damage it.
madfifer9
When whistles are outlawed, only outlaws will have whistles!
I've never been to an Civil War re-enactment. What role do bands such as the 2nd South Carolina String Band play in these events. That kind of band wouldn't have been a marching band obviously. Did they have any official status at all during the civil war? In the movie Gods and Generals the string band put on a minstrel show for some southerners includint generals. I had always had the impression that the bands with banjos, fiddles and such were just soldiers who had somehow managed to sneak their instruments along.
Intriguingly Hohneresque-looking "tin penny whistle" there. What is it?
And note how, for all the emphasis on authenticity, the site owners couldn't quite bring themselves to use the politically incorrect term "Jew's harp"!
