Way cool new whistle!

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:30 am

Our own Dan Bingamon just sent me the most interesting whistle I've played in quite a while. It's an Ahava Rabah brass whistle in D, and you can see them on his site ( http://jubileeinstruments.messianic-web ... ethnic.htm ) . Mine is one of the brass ones .Ahava Rabah refers to the scale which this whistle plays. It's not a normal diatonis DO-RE-MI scale. Instead, it uses a mode used for many Jewish/Klezmer tunes as well as much Arabic music and music from other cultures as well (see Dan's site for info on that too).
I call it the Hava Nagila whistle 'cause I can play that familar tune with no half holing needed. This scale makes the size and spacing of the holes look pretty strange, but it's easy to play. It's also a lot of fun for simply noodling around on-- everything comes out sounding rather exotic. The tone is fairly quiet and a bit reedy which really sounds nice on this sort of music. At $40 for a whole other type of musical experience, you can't go wrong. Hey, I gotta go see if some traditional Passover tunes work on this whistle...

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:56 am

Hmmmmmm, I'm sure I could find simple beginning tunes for klezmer music. I mean, I can whistle "Hava Nagila".
*slaps self vigorously a number of times*
I guess I'd better keep working on what I'm working on until I see some sign of progress. The sound clips made it very tempting.

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 2:29 pm

Very interesting.
I imagine that that whistle would be great for modal improvisation - lots of 'Jazz' musicians have used 'Eastern' and 'Ethnic' scales since the 1950's onwards.
I have one of Daniel's whistles in high 'E' that I purchased via E-bay a year or so back- my only 'E' whistle,and whilst it's a bit 'handmade', it plays great.
Of course,the striking thing about Daniel's work is that he is prepared to experiment, and, indeed innovate- see his ultra low whistles for example.

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:02 pm

Congratulations, Paul....and Dan for that matter.

You've finally broken my reserve not to look at another whistle for purchase.

Oy vey is mir. . . here we go again. . .WhOA

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Sat Apr 23, 2005 7:41 pm

Please don't let your next post be an announcement that you're taking up the clarinet, Paul!

Have fun with your Havah Nagilah whistle!

Robin

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:31 am

Paul,

Try "Lev Tahor", that's an appropriate passover tune.

You can also check out
http://www.manchesterklezmer.org/pages/repertoire.html for a huge collection of Klezmer tunes.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:47 am

Paul, are you sure that's an Ahava Rabba whistle you're using for Hava Nagilah? I don't have them near me to check but I could swear I play that on a different modal whistle of Daniel's. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't played that one in a while.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Daniel's modal whistles are a dream for modal playing—Klezmer and numerous other styles. I already played in these modes on guitar and sax (the jazz background) so it was great to get whistles that deliver.

Now I have a very thick book of Klezmer tunes transcribed from the original recordings. I'll post the title when I can find it.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:56 am

Found the book. It's The Ultimate Klezmer, arranged and edited by Joshua Horowitz. It draws on music from throughout Eastern Europe and includes many of the standard tunes that would have been played at weddings in the first couple of decades of the 20th century, and since of course. Tara publications put it out. Great value if you can find it. Lots of well-known tunes here.

Here's a review with photo and details:

http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/ru ... imate.html

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:59 am

I got to get that book.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:34 am

Wombat wrote:Paul, are you sure that's an Ahava Rabba whistle you're using for Hava Nagilah? I don't have them near me to check but I could swear I play that on a different modal whistle of Daniel's. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't played that one in a while.

My apologies Paul. It works perfectly on the Ahava Rabba whistle without half-holing. That said it was easy to play on another modal whistle which I can't now find on Daniel's page you refered us to above. I don't know what the scale is called.

The scale of this other whistle was D, E, F, G#, A, B, C#, D. To play Hava Nagilah start on E (rather than D) and half-hole the C nats. I have one of Daniel's older Ahava Rabba whistles and Hava Nagilah is perhaps easier to play on the other whistle which would explain how noodling led me to it.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:40 am

I read the review of the book that Wombat posted. I have concluded that klezmer music is Hebrew wedding music. Is that correct? I knew it might be played at weddings, but I didn't realize the actual definition of the word. Please correct me if I mistunderstood something.

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:16 am

Klezmer is used at Jewish Weddings but it is not limited to just weddings. Klezmer is Jewish Folk Music, also dance music, you could say it's Eastern Europes answer to Irtrad.

It has unique ornamentations such as the kretkht (moan), chirping, trills and mordents. The songs follow scales such as minor key, mixolydian, ahava raba, misheberakh and others. There are beats or meters to the songs that are classed as Horas, Doynas, Bulgars, khosid'ls, terkish and others.

Some of these are shared in other cultures, Roma (gypsies) use a similar scale to Ahava Rabba that the last note is sharp by a half tone.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:31 am

Cynth wrote:I read the review of the book that Wombat posted. I have concluded that klezmer music is Hebrew wedding music. Is that correct? I knew it might be played at weddings, but I didn't realize the actual definition of the word. Please correct me if I mistunderstood something.

'Klezmer' is derived from Hebrew and means 'instrument of song.' I think it would be fair to say that it is the secular music of Jews quite generally although it's socially accepted function within the community was to play at weddings. It draws on religious traditions and from the local popular musics of the places where both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews found themselves. In some communities klezmorim enjoyed a rather dubious reputation, an attitude not uncommon towards popular musicians in the gentile world.

I grew up in a fairly Jewish part of Melbourne and had Jewish relatives as well as many Jewish friends. In those days, the '60s, I can't think of a single friend who would have admitted publically to liking klezmer although we probably all did secretly—it was deeply uncool to admit to liking it back then. (Much the same went for ITM and Scottish so I had lots of guilty musical secrets back then.) Fortunately, there's a very strong revival going on now and some amazing new bands. I especially like the Klezmatics, David Krakouer, Naftule's Dream and the Crakow Klezmer Band. Most of this stuff is fusion music rather than pure klezmer.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:32 pm

If you get a chance to hear a good live Klezmer band, do it! This is very exciting music with a very rythmic beat. There are quite a few slower, plaintive tunes too. Some of the music from Fiddler On The Roof is very loosely inspired by Klez.