Guide to Artwhistling
LISTENING SAMPLES
artwhistling (mp3) |
J.M. Schlitz
in partial fulfilment
for the PhD in Music Scholarship
November 2006
updates:
2007 04 29 by popular demand, the "other" Queen of the Night aria (mp3)
2007 06 29 preface follows the examples below
further applications of the artwhistling approach (mp3):
| 1. ARTWHISTLING (PFEIFKUNST) by PERIOD | |
| Renaissance: | Michael Praetorius: Dances from Terpsichore |
| Middle Baroque: | |
| High Baroque: | Baldassare: from the Concerto No.1 in F for cornetto (zink) |
| Classicist: | |
| Romantic: | Heitor Villa-Lobos: from Bachianas brasileiras No.5 |
| 2. ARTWHISTLING (PFEIFKUNST) in OTHER ROLES | |
| with Organ | Albinoni: from the Sonata Op.11 No.6 |
| with Pizzicato | Bach: from the Concerto in F minor, BWV1056 |
| in Cadenza | Mozart: from the Oboe Concerto, K314 |
| in operatic repertoire | Mozart: from his opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) |
| 3. TECHNICAL DEMONSTRATIONS | |
| The Whistler's Middle C Myth | Descending scale, C3 to Middle C (c1) |
| Multiphonics: Sporgendo Mode |
Handel: from the Water Music Suite No.1 |
| Prestissimo | Marcello: from the Oboe Concerto in D minor |
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J.M. Schlitz, artwhistler
PREFACE
No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching, but at the same time steady, eye.
- Winston Churchill
HUMAN whistling has been used in everything from light entertainment to satanic ritual; but the question which began my research in the 1990s was why this medium, as old as humankind itself and inherent in all individuals, had seemingly escaped the attention of the art music world.
The early historical picture is complex*, but beginning with music hall (vaudeville, c.1900) up to the present day, the most visible forms of performed whistling have relied on crowd-pleasing tunes (whistled instead of sung), bird emulation, comedy, and public curiosity. Promoted as ‘the art of whistling’, what in fact amounts to ‘whistletainment’ has had some media and popular success, but made little impact on the wider perception that performed whistling of any kind, while sometimes good entertainment, is primarily a novelty phenonemon rather than ‘art’ in any real sense.
What has resulted is a curious situation in which, for the past 100+ years, the idea of performed whistling has remained dominated by one of two extremes. On the one hand, timid whistlephobia (summary dismissal of the medium) is the most common reaction in most music departments, while support for the idea is found chiefly in the form of whistletainment and whistlephilia (indiscriminate promotion of the medium). Not surprisingly, neither has exerted much influence on the other; the real problem being, of course, that neither whistlephobia nor whistlephilia allows for objective consideration of the medium. Armchair academia and light journalism that topicalise the idea, meanwhile, have done little except to accentuate the status quo. And so, with few exceptions, the practice of performed whistling has remained in the realm of novelty and light entertainment for the past three centuries, its artistic potential left untapped or ignored.
Accordingly, what this study proposes (cf. Contents) is that musicians at last begin to consider what this medium can do in terms of musical value. Need we associate whistling exclusively with bird sounds and singing-minus-words? Or can anyone, with practice, learn to whistle a Beethoven sonata? What could the mouthflute offer to the music world, if we were to explore its full technical possibilities? Is there potential for long-term audiences, or for a place in the formal music curriculum? Skepticism is of course warranted, indeed demanded; but so are such questions. If we could, for a moment, shift our attention away from performed whistling as it currently exists and turn instead to investigating its musical potential, then the real possibilities will become evident. What we will discover is that whistling is simply a medium like any other musical tool. Whistling is not an art, nor is it incapable of art.
This in mind, we have begun by listening. The above musical excerpts were recorded in various locales over several years — usually under less than ideal conditions — and later converted to MP3 format for purposes of this study. The purpose is not to impress whistling enthusiasts. Quality varies greatly and I make no claims of personal grandeur or labial kung-fu; nor is my aim to promote whistling itself (which to me seems rather pointless). The intent here is simply to demonstrate some lesser known possibilities which may interest musicians, as well as to illustrate a few of the techniques described in the following pages. - JMS
* I addressed the pre-modern circumstances in a 2002 study "Kunstpfeifen Traditions," which appears fully revised and expanded in the following chapters.
** Correction from the previous study for these German terms: Kunstpfeifen: any kind of performed whistling, musical or otherwise; in English "staged whistling." Pfeifkunst: performed whistling, both historical and modern, which is employed in the context of art music; in English "artwhistling." Source: 'Definition of Artwhistling', International Artwhistling Philharmonic Society online (accessed 1 October 2006), <http://www.artwhistling.org>.
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