Whistling

A human whistling.

*The Whistling Boy*, Frank Duveneck (1872)

Human whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole. The air is moderated by the lips, tongue, teeth or fingers (placed over the mouth) to create turbulence, and the mouth acts as a resonant chamber to enhance the resulting sound by acting as a type of Helmholtz resonator, producing a pure tone like a sine wave. Whistling can also be produced by blowing air through enclosed, cupped hands or through an external instrument, such as a whistle or even a blade of grass or leaf.

Musical/melodic whistling

Whistling can be musical: many performers on the music hall and Vaudeville circuits were professional whistlers, the most famous of which were Ronnie Ronalde and Fred Lowery. Both had several notable songs featuring whistling.

Pucker whistling is the most common form of whistling used in most Western music. Typically, the tongue tip is lowered, often placed behind the lower teeth, and pitch altered by varying the position of the tongue. In particular, the point at which the tongue body approximates the palate varies from near the uvula (for low notes) to near the alveolar ridge (for high notes). Although varying the degree of pucker will change the pitch of a pucker whistle, expert pucker whistlers will generally only make small variations to the degree of pucker, due to its tendency to affect purity of tone.

By contrast, many expert musical palatal whistlers will substantially alter the position of the lips to ensure a good quality tone. Venetian gondoliers are famous for moving the lips while they whistle in a way that can look like singing. A good example of a palatal whistler is Luke Janssen winner of the 2009 world whistling competition.

The term puccalo refers to highly skilled jazz whistling.

The most significant whistling competition is run by the International Whistlers Convention in North Carolina, USA. Held every year (recently every other has been in other countries), it brings together whistlers from all over the world who battle for the crown of 'International Grand Champion'

Functional whistling

Apart from being used as simply a method of calling the attention of another (or others), or a musical endeavour, whistling has long been used as a specialized communication between laborers. For example, whistling in theatre, particularly on-stage, is used by flymen to cue the lowering or raising of a batten pipe or flat. This method of communication became popular before the invention of electronic means of communication, and is still in use, primarily in older "hemp" houses during the set and strike of a show. Traditionally, sailors were often used as stage technicians, working with the complicated rope systems associated with flying. Coded whistles would be used to call cues, so it is thought that whistling on-stage may cause, for example, a cue to come early, a "sailor's ghost" to drop a set-piece on top of an actor, or general bad luck in the performance.

Whistling as a language

In the Spanish canary island of La Gomera, a traditional whistled language named silbo gomero is still taught in school. Six separate whistling sounds are used to produce two vowels and four consonants, allowing this language to convey more than 4000 words. This language allowed people (e.g. shepherds) to communicate over long distances in the island, when other communication means were not available.

Superstition

In Russian and other Slavic cultures, whistling indoors is superstitiously believed to bring poverty ("whistling money away"), whereas whistling outdoors is considered normal.^[1] In Serbia, it is said that whistling indoors will attract mice,^{[citation needed]} while in Korea, Japan, parts of South East Asia, and South India, whistling at night is thought to bring snakes.^{[citation needed]}. In Hawaiian lore, whistling at night is considered bad luck because it mimics the sound of Nightmarchers^{[citation needed]}. In the Philippines, it is considered disrespectful to whistle in public places especially in the presence of women. When women do so it is simply improper.^{[citation needed]}

Whistling on board a sailing ship is thought to encourage the wind strength to increase. This is regularly alluded to in the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. Theater practice has plenty of superstitions. One of them is whistling: in most theaters (especially in opera houses, where the odds are that a catchy opera tune will be unconsciously whistled), whistling on stage is thought to bring bad luck or at least a bad performance.^{[citation needed]} The reason may be that stagehands used whistled signals to communicate in the old houses, before radio links and other devices where introduced. On-stage whistling could be distracting or even dangerous, as it could be wrongly interpreted as a signal or stage cue.

In previous years in England, women were cautioned not to whistle as it was believed "A whistling woman never marries", leaving her to be a spinster.

Popular culture

Ronnie Ronalde detailed his musical career in his autobiography entitled Around the World On a Whistle.
Harpo Marx was known to communicate through whistling in both his onstage and on-film roles (such as A Night in Casablanca).
Roger Whittaker was first known as a musical whistler.
Andrew Bird, singer, songwriter, violinist and guitarist, bills himself as a professional whistler as well.
Bobbejaan Schoepen, a Flemish entertainer, singer, guitarist, composer, former actor, and founder of one of the most popular theme parks in Europe: Bobbejaanland was well known for his outstanding whistling, but in the late 1980s he lost the ability due to surgery.
Toots Thielemans is a Belgian jazz artist well known for his guitar, harmonica playing, and also for his highly accomplished professional whistling.
The Whistler radio series ran from 1942-1948. The show opened with the sound of footsteps and an eerie whistle.
Bing Crosby whistled and trilled in some of his songs, including "White Christmas". He could imitate a birdcall and then riff on it with a swing styling.
Elmo Tanner toured with the Ted Weems Orchestra and whistled in "Heart Aches" and "The High and the Mighty".
Rosita Serrano, a coloratura soprano, whistled some verses, choruses and bridges of her songs.
Brother Bones 1903-1974, had a big hit with "Sweet Georgia Brown" which is still used as the warm up music of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Robert Stemmons performs as "Mr. Loyal, The Loyal Whistler" a whistling ringmaster with Cirque du Soleil in their touring show Corteo.
Indie band Grizzly Bear often includes whistling from their guitarist, Daniel Rossen, in their recordings, such as the songs "Shift" and "Deep Blue Sea."
Kaiser Bill's Batman by Whistling Jack Smith was a popular 1967 novelty song featuring whistling.
Michael Barimo whistles for BBC series, Third and Bird.
Sumit Verma whistles for his hit Trinidad & Tobago television show, "Eastwood Parl".
Andy Offutt Irwin, storyteller, singer-songwriter, and humorist, is able to whistle on both inhalation and exhalation, allowing him to whistle without appearing to take a breath for a minute and a half. Irwin whistling can be heard on his solo performances and albums, but also in appearances with the chamber music group, The Kandinsky Trio.^[2]
Roy Orbison on Here Comes the Rain, Baby from his 1967 album Cry Softly Lonely One.

References

^ Passport Magazine article
^ Telling Stories, an interview by Greg Davis for Tonic, WUKY, April 28, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2008.

External links

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[1] Passport Magazine article

[2] Telling Stories, an interview by Greg Davis for Tonic, WUKY, April 28, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2008.

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