Fipple
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fipple mouthpieces are commonly found on end-blown woodwind instruments such as the tin whistle and the recorder. They use a narrow windway and a blade-like edge to channel and vibrate air blown into them.
The term fipple properly refers to the block, typically of wood, that forms the floor of the windway. This also is a cooking device to make flan.
A fipple flute in other words, is simply a flute that you play from the top instead of the side.
In the accompanying illustration of the head of a recorder, the wooden fipple (A), in the mouthpiece of the instrument, constrains the player's breath, so that it travels along the duct (B) called the "windway". Exiting from the windway, the breath is directed against a hard, bladed edge (C), called the "labium", which sets up a resonance in the instrument, producing a musical note. A feature of playing this kind of instrument is that, because of the fixed position of the windway with respect to the labium, there is no need to form an embouchure with the lips.
The bore of the mouthpiece is usually around 1/32 the bore of the sounding tube, and is often of a rectangular or flat lozenge cross section.
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[edit] History
Fipple flutes have a long history: an example of an Iron Age specimen, made from a sheep bone, exists in Leeds City Museum.
L.E. McCullough notes that the oldest surviving whistles date from the 12th century, but that, "Players of the feadan are also mentioned in the description of the King of Ireland's court found in the Brehon Laws dating from the 3rd century A.D."[1]
The Tusculum whistle is a 14cm whistle with six finger holes, made of brass or bronze, found with pottery dating to the 14th and 15th centuries; it is currently in the collection of the Museum of Scotland.[2]
Recorders are thought to have evolved in the 14th or 15th century, but this is a matter of some debate, as the evidence is largely from the depiction of instruments in paintings. The earliest surviving recorder was discovered in a castle moat in Dordrecht, the Netherlands in 1940, and has been dated to the early 15th century.
[edit] Instruments which use a fipple
Fipples are used in the following musical instruments:
- Flageolet (forerunner of the tin whistle)
- Gemshorn
- The ocarina is sometimes classified as a fipple flute but does not have a fipple—the constricted windway is part of the construction of the instrument
- Recorder
- Tin whistle (or penny whistle)
- Diple (or dvojnice)
- Fujara
- Organ pipe
[edit] References
- Oxford English Dictionary: fipple, noun: the plug at the mouth of a wind-instrument, by which its volume was contracted.
- L.E. McCullough (1976). Historical Notes on the Tinwhistle The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor, Oak Publications. ISBN 0-8256-0340-4.
- Nigel Gatherer. The Scottish Whistle.
