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The “Celtic” Whistle:

Origins and

Developments

Nothing defines “Celtic” folk music better than the

six-hole whistle. It has a distinctive sound that

defines the music genre today, and with recent

improvements in the design of the instrument it is

fast becoming a “serious” musical instrument for

both folk and orchestration music of many different

types.

It’s current popularity and use in a wide variety of

folk music types has not always been the case, and

in fact, the six-hole whistle almost disappeared

completely in the mid-20^thCentury.

Shaun Young,

That KelticDead Guy

So why and how did this change occur? Being an old, six-hole whistle player, I use

several types of whistles in composing the KelticDead Music selections, and

knowing a little bit about the origins of open tone-hole whistles and flutes provides

a good view in how this transformation occurred.

For centuries the six-hole flute or whistle was often defined as being too unstable in

making notes that could be consistent with other instruments. It had a pastoral view

about it, in that it was frequently seen as a “Shepards' pipe” or a “kaval” that could

be played independently by shepherds to calm their flocks, and nothing more.

In addition, the two-octave range of the six-hole, musical whistle has long been

considered lacking in orchestration settings. This is largely due to the fact that the

six-hole whistle or flute was designed to play a “natural” scale based upon a

musical study by Pythagoras of Samos who established the “A” note to be

somewhere around 432 Hertz (or cycles per second).

This “natural” scale for whistles and recorders made them less competitive in

orchestration settings, especially when the ISO Standard for music in the early 20^th

Century changed to make a musical scale to be where the “A” note was set at 440

cycles per second. This is one of the key reasons why the craft of making six-hole

whistles and flutes nearly died out in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

There simply were not enough craftsmen to re-tool the instruments into the new

standard. Fortunately, new whistle makers took up the challenge in the 50s and 60s

and re-tooled the whistles to meet the 440 scale requirements. This effort made the

six-hole whistles of today competitive and in high demand for folk music throughout

the world.

KelticDead Music