Slide whistle
Encyclopedia
A slide whistle is a wind instrument
consisting of a fipple
like a recorder
's and a tube with a piston
in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide
. The construction is rather like a bicycle pump
. Because the air column is cylindrical and open at one end and closed at the other, it overblows
the third harmonic
.
Piston flutes, in folk versions usually made of cane or bamboo, existed in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific as well as Europe before the modern, manufactured version was invented, apparently in England in the nineteenth century. The latter, which may be more precisely referred to as the slide or Swanee whistle, is commonly made of plastic or metal.
The modern slide whistle is perhaps most familiar in its use as a sound effect
(as in the sound tracks of animated cartoon
s, when a glissando
can suggest something rapidly ascending or falling, or when a player hits a "Bankrupt" on Wheel of Fortune), but it is also possible to play melodies on the slide whistle.
The swanee whistle dates back at least to the 1840s, when it was manufactured by the Distin family and featured in their concerts in England. Early slide whistles were also made by the English J Stevens & Son
and H A Ward
. By the 1920s the slide whistle was common in the U.S.A., and was occasionally used in popular music
and jazz
as a special effect. For example it was used on Paul Whiteman
's early hit recording of Whispering (1920). Even Louis Armstrong
switched over from his more usual cornet
to the slide whistle for a chorus on a couple of recordings with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. At that time, slide saxophone
s, with reeds rather than a fipple, were also built. The whistle was also widely used in Jug band
music of the 1920s such as Whistler's Jug Band.
In the 1930s through the 1950s it was played with great dexterity by Paul 'Hezzie' Trietsch, one of the founding members of the Hoosier Hot Shots
. They made many successful recordings and Hezzie's virtuosity was legendary.
A more recent appearance of the slide whistle can be heard in the 1979 song "Get Up" by Vernon Burch
. The slide whistle segment of this song was later sampled by Deee-Lite
in their 1990 hit Groove Is in the Heart
. The Las Vegas based band Holes and Hearts also used the slide whistle on their song Dancing Monkey.
Fred Schneider
of The B-52s plays a plastic toy slide whistle in live performances of the song "Party Out of Bounds" as a prop for the song's drunken partygoer theme, in place of the trumpet
thus used in the studio for the Wild Planet
song.
In 2011 the slide whistle has enjoyed somewhat of a revival, with top session players such as Seadna McPhail guesting on a host of top selling pop albums.
The slide whistle is probably thought of today primarily as a kind of "toy" instrument, especially in the West, although it has been and continues to be used in various forms of "serious" music. Its first appearance in notated European classical music may have been when Maurice Ravel
called for one in his opera
, L'enfant et les sortilèges
. More modern uses in classical music include Paul Hindemith
's Kammermusik No. 1, op. 24 no. 1 (1922), Luciano Berio
's Passaggio, which uses five, and the Violin Concerto
of György Ligeti
, as well as pieces by Cornelius Cardew
, Alberto Ginastera
, Hans Werner Henze
, Peter Maxwell Davies
, and Krzysztof Penderecki
. The slide whistle is also used in many of the works of P. D. Q. Bach
.
To fans of 1970s BBC
children's television
, the instrument will always be associated with the voices of the Clangers
. The instrument also features prominently in the game of "Swanee-Kazoo
" in the long-running British radio panel game
, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
.
In the earliest episodes of The Simpsons
, the character of Sideshow Bob
only communicates through the use of a slide whistle. He abandons the whistle when he frames Krusty the Clown for armed robbery and takes over as host of Krusty's television show. From this point, Sideshow Bob is voiced by actor Kelsey Grammer
.
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
consisting of a fipple
Fipple
A fipple is a constricted mouthpiece common to many end-blown woodwind instruments, such as the tin whistle and the recorder. These instruments are known variously as fipple flutes, duct flutes, or tubular-ducted flutes.-How it works:...
like a recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
's and a tube with a piston
Piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide
Slide (wind instrument)
A slide is a part of a wind instrument consisting of two pieces of tubing fitted one closely inside the other, and used to vary the overall length of the tube, and therefore the pitch of the instrument...
. The construction is rather like a bicycle pump
Bicycle pump
A bicycle pump is a type of positive-displacement pump specifically designed for inflating bicycle tires. It has a connection or adapter for use with one or both of the two most common types of valves used on bicycles, Schrader or Presta...
. Because the air column is cylindrical and open at one end and closed at the other, it overblows
Overblowing
Overblowing A technique used while playing a wind instrument which, primarily through manipulation of the supplied air , causes the sounded pitch to jump to a higher one...
the third harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
.
Piston flutes, in folk versions usually made of cane or bamboo, existed in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific as well as Europe before the modern, manufactured version was invented, apparently in England in the nineteenth century. The latter, which may be more precisely referred to as the slide or Swanee whistle, is commonly made of plastic or metal.
The modern slide whistle is perhaps most familiar in its use as a sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
(as in the sound tracks of animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
s, when a glissando
Glissando
In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...
can suggest something rapidly ascending or falling, or when a player hits a "Bankrupt" on Wheel of Fortune), but it is also possible to play melodies on the slide whistle.
The swanee whistle dates back at least to the 1840s, when it was manufactured by the Distin family and featured in their concerts in England. Early slide whistles were also made by the English J Stevens & Son
J Stevens & Son
J. Stevens & Son Was A British Company located since 1820s in London & Glasgow, Brass Founders Manufacturing Military & Railway supplies & engineers.In 1871 The company name changed to J...
and H A Ward
H A Ward
Henry Arthur Ward was a Birmingham whistle maker who made whistles of high quality, all rare and hard to find. He made whistles from 1889 to 1908.- History & addresses :...
. By the 1920s the slide whistle was common in the U.S.A., and was occasionally used in popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
as a special effect. For example it was used on Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
's early hit recording of Whispering (1920). Even Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
switched over from his more usual cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
to the slide whistle for a chorus on a couple of recordings with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. At that time, slide saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
s, with reeds rather than a fipple, were also built. The whistle was also widely used in Jug band
Jug band
A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
music of the 1920s such as Whistler's Jug Band.
In the 1930s through the 1950s it was played with great dexterity by Paul 'Hezzie' Trietsch, one of the founding members of the Hoosier Hot Shots
Hoosier Hot Shots
The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of madcap musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid 1930s into the 1970s. The group initially consisted of players from the U. S. State of Indiana...
. They made many successful recordings and Hezzie's virtuosity was legendary.
A more recent appearance of the slide whistle can be heard in the 1979 song "Get Up" by Vernon Burch
Vernon Burch
Vernon Darrell Burch is an American R&B/soul singer and guitarist.-Biography:In 1975 Burch signed to United Artists, where he released his debut album, I'll Be Your Sunshine. Later he moved to Columbia Records and then Chocolate City Records, which was distributed by Casablanca Records and Filmworks...
. The slide whistle segment of this song was later sampled by Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite was an American house and club/dance group, formed in New York City, United States. The group's best-known single was "Groove Is in the Heart", from their 1990 debut album, World Clique. However, Deee-Lite achieved longer lasting success on the U.S...
in their 1990 hit Groove Is in the Heart
Groove Is in the Heart
"Groove Is in the Heart" is a song by dance music band Deee-Lite from their debut album, World Clique. Released as a single in late 1990, it was a hit in many countries, including in Australia where it was a number-one hit.-Background:...
. The Las Vegas based band Holes and Hearts also used the slide whistle on their song Dancing Monkey.
Fred Schneider
Fred Schneider
Frederick William "Fred" Schneider III is an American rock singer, best known as the frontman of the rock band The B-52's, of which he is a founding member. Schneider is well-known for his sprechgesang which he developed from reciting poetry over guitars.-Early life:Schneider was born in Newark,...
of The B-52s plays a plastic toy slide whistle in live performances of the song "Party Out of Bounds" as a prop for the song's drunken partygoer theme, in place of the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
thus used in the studio for the Wild Planet
Wild Planet
Wild Planet is the second studio album by The B-52's, released in 1980. It contains the band's first experiments using electronic drum machines....
song.
In 2011 the slide whistle has enjoyed somewhat of a revival, with top session players such as Seadna McPhail guesting on a host of top selling pop albums.
The slide whistle is probably thought of today primarily as a kind of "toy" instrument, especially in the West, although it has been and continues to be used in various forms of "serious" music. Its first appearance in notated European classical music may have been when Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
called for one in his opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole...
. More modern uses in classical music include Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's Kammermusik No. 1, op. 24 no. 1 (1922), Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
's Passaggio, which uses five, and the Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Ligeti)
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by György Ligeti is a violin concerto written for and dedicated to the violinist Saschko Gawriloff. A performance of the work lasts about 28 minutes.-History:...
of György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
, as well as pieces by Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
, Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
, Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, and Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
. The slide whistle is also used in many of the works of P. D. Q. Bach
P. D. Q. Bach
P. D. Q. Bach is a fictitious composer invented by musical satirist "Professor" Peter Schickele. In a gag that Schickele has developed over a five-decade-long career, he performs "discovered" works of this forgotten member of the Bach family...
.
To fans of 1970s BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
children's television
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
, the instrument will always be associated with the voices of the Clangers
Clangers
Clangers is a popular British stop-motion animated children's television series of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet . They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon...
. The instrument also features prominently in the game of "Swanee-Kazoo
Kazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
" in the long-running British radio panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
.
In the earliest episodes of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, the character of Sideshow Bob
Sideshow Bob
Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, better known as Sideshow Bob, is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Kelsey Grammer and first appeared briefly in the episode "The Telltale Head". Bob is a self-proclaimed genius who is a graduate of Yale, a member of...
only communicates through the use of a slide whistle. He abandons the whistle when he frames Krusty the Clown for armed robbery and takes over as host of Krusty's television show. From this point, Sideshow Bob is voiced by actor Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
.