Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hey, everybody, I just found a new type of whistle that I have never seen or heard of yet. It's on Erik the Flutemaker's site and he may be the inventor of this interesting object. It's two whistles (Susatos, I believe, though he calls them the "Dublin whistle") bound together with some of the holes covered and you play both at once, creating notes in harmony with each other. He's got sound clips--check it out.

I just thought all you WHOA sufferers would be interested in this, as I was. A new development in whistle technology!

http://www.eriktheflutemaker.com

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Cees on 2002-01-14 22:26 ]</font>

Having seen these up close, I can definitely declare these Susatos. He calls 'em Dublin whistles, because that's what Susato calls their one-piece whistles (Kildare's the name of their two-piece models). They're essentially unchanged, except for the binding material and the addition of a leather(?) strip blocking some of the holes on the drone/harmony bore.

That said, several months ago, when Thomas-Hastay (and others) would post pictures/information about various instruments, I believe I remember a dual-bodied whistle being mentioned more than once. There's a similar thing played by the puppet lead character in the movie The Dark Crystal (if that doesn't date me, I dunno what does).

A quick search on the internet (google.com, "double flute") produced several double-flute designs, tho many of them used the 2nd body as a drone:
native american http://www.oregonflutestore.com/flutes.html

doneli, which are traditional eastern Indian drone double flutes (and which I could find no picture)

one from the Philippines: http://www.uvm.edu/~fleming/permcoll/in ... Flute.html

The site here shows an ancient egyptian double flute (and alludes to a similar greek instrument, the aulos)
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Parc/497 ... rgan/o.htm

The aulos mentioned above can be found here:
http://www.keltoi.de/fedans/fedahome.htm

In any case, I think we can rule out Erik as the inventor of the double flute idea.

There's also a double ocarina. I think the two halves are tuned a fifth apart, and, since the ocarina gets a whole scale with four holes (five including the thumb), either half can play a full melody.

Double wind instruments are not that uncommon. Yusef Lateef, jazz multi instrumentalist, has been known to play something called an argol, which is a two-shaft double reed instrument from (I think) the Middle East.

Charlie

I humbly doff my hat (that is, I would if I was wearing one) and bow to the superior knowledge of this vast collective.

Well, I learned a lot from your posts.
I guess I still have a lot to learn!!
Anyway, it's an interesting idea, the double flute, though it might be a bit complicated to play.

Happy whistling

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: cees on 2002-01-15 10:54 ]</font>

This kind of arrangement is also not unknown in the bagpipe world.

Wasn't it Leo Rowsome that recorded a tune or two on an LP called "The Drones and the Chanters" using a set of uillean pipes with a double chanter. I think this consisted of two chanter bores drilled into the same piece of wood. They played in unison, meaning the player's fingers had to cover both sets of holes at once. No picnic, I would imagine. Mind you, hearing the recording of two chanters playing together in not-quite perfect unison, you might ask yourself why anyone would bother.

A French bagpipe called the "musette de cour" was played in rarefied musical circles during the baroque period. I can't remember exactly how it works, but I think there is a shorter harmony chanter alongside the main one.

Dosnt Tully make a silver double whistle ?

I also make a Biwhistle which was pictured here several months ago.
<img src="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... histle.jpg">



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Daniel_Bingamon on 2002-01-17 22:47 ]</font>