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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.
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Bernard Overton a legendary and much
revered maker, recalls that his close friend the
great whistle player Finbar Furey, played the original
recording of The Lonesome Boatman, perhaps the ultimate
whistle showpiece, on a bamboo pipe. Bernard was
so impressed by the sound of Finbar’s instrument
that he was inspired to construct a more substantial
whistle for him when his original A flat bamboo
pipe gave up the ghost. This was the inevitable
consequence of several years’ constant use
from the late 1960s till early 1970s (rumour has
it that Finbar sat on the pipe at a party!).
Bernard Overton’s first instrument for Finbar
Furey was a metal whistle, pitched in the key of
G, which at approximately 440mm was larger than
any other whistle available at that time. Finbar
was so taken by this new instrument that he asked
Bernard to make him another in D. At nearly 580mm
in length, it was even bigger. The tenor D instrument
became the prototype for the world famous Overton
Low Whistle. Overton’s - hand made from extruded
aluminium, are now available in more than twenty
different keys and sizes, available in Soprano,
Mezzo Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone and (daunting)
Bass Baritone formats.
There are many now many manufacturers of Low Whistles
worldwide. Few people will deny the contribution
Bernard Overton has made to development of The Low
Whistle. |
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