Whistles to Flute in "Come From Away" the Musical
Update July 29/26: See the comments below for some super interesting input from Flute experts!
Dear Flutelovers,
I followed an interesting flutey topic online this week about the myriad wooden flutes and penny whistles required for the musical "Come From Away". It seems the required number of instruments are so overwhelming (see below for the list) that some flutists might even considering renting the set of penny whistles and wooden flutes required to play in this musical! (To purchase them would be thousands of dollars.)
Read the comments at Bret Pimental's blog if you're curious. And here's the traditional Irish flutist (who is now offering sets for rent to help out) who wrote the flute's "book" for the show, Ben Powers showing the needed whistle set:
Ben Powers shows his flute and whistle collection for playing the show: (video)
To play "Come From Away" the musical you would require: Irish flute in D, Irish flute in B-flat, Boxwood flute in D, pennywhistle in low A, pennywhistle in low C, pennywhistle in low C-sharp, pennywhistle in low D, pennywhistle in low E, pennywhistle in low F, pennywhistle in F-sharp, pennywhistle in G, pennywhistle in A, pennywhistle in B-flat, pennywhistle in C, pennywhistle in D, pennywhistle in E, pennywhistle in F, Uilleann pipes.
Gadzukes man!
And do go, if you're curious, and hear the show's entire recorded sound track here to get an idea of the flute's parts: (video on youtube)
Sadly, at the blog where this is discussed you see cries for help like this:
"I’m very confused by the whistle part and was wondering how far I could condense it. I’m 17 years old and this is just for a school musical so I don’t have access to basically all of the instruments except for a basic flute, recorder, and tin whistle in D. I can’t figure out if the whistles are transposition or not and the necessity of most of these whistles. I’m very much not an expert and I’m scared that I’m not going to be able to play it in time for the show five months away. Does anyone have any advice about what I can condense and what keys are accurate to the musical since I am also confused as to why the C whistles appear to be in a different key to my C flute? Help very much needed."
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Well guys?
How many flutey readers can guess what I'm thinking right now?
Would it be:
a) the original sound of the Irish whistles and flutes is so important to preserve, I do hope that there will be lots of sets of rentable instruments for all future high school productions of this musical and time enough for each person to learn all those instruments (and stretch their fingers too!)
or
b) sadly, although it would have been nice to utilize the original instruments, for the sake of those who cannot learn them in time for the show, it would probably be smart to transpose the book now. It could perhaps use just one penny whistle, soprano/alto recorder maybe and a C-flute, maybe piccolo? It could be a great educational bonus to also have clear charts of the Irish ornaments and how to execute them.
What do you think I'd choose?
After all I'm the sass-meister who re-wrote the rather stupidly difficult Prokofiev flute and piccolo parts for the fourth movement of the Classical Symphony so that you can learn to play it in a month, instead of taking ten or more years to master it. Oh you can call me rebel without a clue" but I like to get the job done without losing a kidney. :>)
So please feel free to comment at length on this one. I'd like to poll the flute community as to how to make this work for us all. Afterall, we've lived our lifetimes faced with pages of alternate fingerings required because composers who do not play the flute force us to do the impossible.
Why can't we request parts that don't give us crazy-making extra-added labour while the composers are still ALIVE???
Lots more points of view from people who've actually played the "Come From Away" flute part here at Bret's blog. Thanks to him for all that info. collected in one place. Just scroll down to read the comments below his original post at the link above.
Please comment on this fine fine topic if you have an opinion! Love to know what you think. Really.
Best, Jen
See comments below for original conversations from Flutey experts!
posted by jen at 11:11 PM
permalink
Comments (4)
Quoted with permission here are two flute experts discussing this show. The traditional player about to play it for the first time, Ellen, will update us all once she's played the entire show what is the best way to move forward on this one. Super fascinating. Read on.....
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Ellen R. wrote:
Re: Traditional penny whistles and Irish flutes in "Come From Away"
Hi all,
I’m about to play a month-long run of this show. There are lots of productions coming up because of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Please note that this book asks for 14 different whistles, a keyed simple system Irish flute (extensive part) and uilleann pipes. It also requires familiarity and fluency in Celtic music.
There is no classical flute (Boehm system) or piccolo called for.
Can you play the notes on these instruments? Yes, but you lose the style and mood completely. Kind of like playing Stars and Stripes on violin instead of piccolo. Also, it would be a massive transposition project.
If you do not already own any of these instruments it will run you thousands of dollars to acquire them, although I believe there are people who rent the sets out.
Some contractors aren’t aware that the skill set required to play this music is generally not in the tool box of most classical players.
My point being, if you are asked to play this show, please be aware of what you are getting yourself into.
I work professionally in both classical and Irish music so I feel I can speak to this situation. Many trad players would have trouble with this show if they are not fluent note readers. This book walks a fine line.
I know for many of these productions there just isn’t the ideal player in the area so needs must. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully done this show on classical flute.
Thanks for listening. I’m dismounting from the trad player high-horse now…
Best
Ellen Redman
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Quoted with permission: Michelle is a professor in Newfoundland, from where this musical's Irish flute style comes.
Michelle C. writes:
Hi Ellen and Everyone,
Ellen, thank you so much for sharing this perspective! I found it very insightful, and I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment, speaking as...wait for it...the (classical) flute professor at the university in St. John's, Newfoundland. 🙂
Your observation that the book walks a fine line is spot on. I've lived here 30 years, I play a little whistle, and I would sweat bullets if I was asked to play this book because I KNOW I do not have the stylistic chops (yet) to do it justice. Playing it on Boehm flute? I wouldn't want to. I've had a lesson or two with one of our most respected tradition bearers here in the province (trad flutist) and was humbled by how tough I found it to replicate the feel/ornamentation of traditional Newfoundland music on my flute to his ear's satisfaction, even after having lived proximate to this musical tradition for more than half my adult life. (And he's a super nice guy so it wasn't that he was being ridiculously demanding or anything!)
I also appreciated your acknowledgement of "needs must". If I were the only option to hire I would appreciate this grace from listeners! (It is a bucket list life goal of mine to actually become a competent trad flutist, but I'm definitely not there yet.)
Have a great run!
Best,
Michelle
Dr. Michelle Cheramy
Professor and Graduate Officer, MMus programs
School of Music
Memorial University St. John's, NL, Canada.
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I wrote to both writers to ask permission to publish their points of view.
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Hi Ellen, is it possible to quote you on my blog? Jen
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Hi Jen
Of course you can! I’m so happy you're interested too!
Funny enough, I had a high school student contact me earlier this summer, before I was even contacted about doing this show, asking for advice as her school is doing it in the spring.
It’s hard to know what to say. You really can’t ask a high-schooler to invest hundreds of dollars on whistles, yet it loses so much if you just turn it into a transposition on flute. I think, after I’ve played a few shows (we start rehearsal next week) I might have a good idea what needs to be played on whistle(s) and what can be done on flute in a high school production.
That being said, I do feel strongly that professional productions should stay as true to the spirit of the score and hire the appropriate player.
I’m happy to share my findings regarding a student version of the book. Let me know if you are interested and I'll share my findings after the show.
(in a month or two)
Cheers,
Ellen Redman
Maybe this has already been recommenced on Bret’s blog, but my recommendation would be to use warbl (https://warbl.xyz/) for everything that one wouldn’t have access to. Obviously we want it to sound as genuine as possible, but it’s not realistic for most people (especially high school productions) to purchase all those instruments. The warbl has a pretty good sounding tin whistle sound and even has a uilleann pipes setting. It’s definitely convincing enough for everyone in the audience who’s not a serious musician (most people), and certainly better than playing the tin whistle parts on C flute or other substitute instruments.