In recent years few people can have avoided being impressed by the beautiful and haunting sound of The Low Whistle. Perhaps made more popular through such tracks as The Titanic Theme or the explosion of The River dance phenomenon at the Eurovision Song Contest. To some folkies from more specialist fields this instrument was no stranger to them at all. But how did it evolve?

The Low Whistle is derived from the most primitive wind instruments known to mankind, with archaeologists of every continent confirming that people have been blowing through wooden or bamboo pipes since the dawn of civilisation. The bamboo pipe still plays a fundamental part in South American music, with pipes of different lengths tied together and blown across the open top. This instrument known as “Pan Pipes” has a similar sound to the low whistle. The bamboo pipe, a close cousin to the low whistle, was popularised in Europe in the late 1960’s with groups such as Los Incas, who lent their sound to El Condor Pasa. The whistle as we know it today has an ancestry as varied as the ornate Baroque Recorder and the high pitched French Instrument used for training captive singing birds.