Editing Slide whistle

{{Short description|Wind instrument with piston}}
[[File:Flauta d'èmbol - edit.jpg|thumb|100px|Slide whistle]]
[[File:Flûte à coulisse.PNG|100px|thumb]]
[[File:Lotusflöte Funktione.svg|thumb|Diagram of a slide whistle. Sections: 1: mouthpiece, 2: fipple, 3: resonant cavity, 4: slide, 5: pull rod, 6: pipe.]]

A '''slide whistle ''' (variously known as a '''swanee''' or '''swannee whistle''', '''lotus flute''',<ref>Karl Peinkofer and Fritz Tannigel, Handbook of Percussion Instruments, (Mainz, Germany: Schott, 1976), 78.</ref> '''piston flute''',  or '''jazz flute''') is a [[wind instrument]] consisting of a [[fipple]] like a [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorder]]'s and a tube with a [[piston]] in it. Thus it has an air reed like some [[woodwind]]s, but varies the pitch with a [[slide (wind instrument)|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 [[overblowing|overblows]] the third [[harmonic]]. "A whistle made out of a long tube with a slide at one end. An ascending and descending glissando is produced by moving the slide back and forth while blowing into the mouthpiece."<ref>Adato, Joseph and Judy, George (1984). ''The Percussionist's Dictionary: Translations, Descriptions, and Photographs of Percussion Instruments from Around the World'', p.32. Alfred Music. {{ISBN|9781457493829}}.</ref> "Tubular whistle with a plunger unit in its column, approximately 12 inches long. The pitch is changed by moving the slide plunger in and out, producing ascending and descending glisses."<ref>Beck, John H. (2013). ''Encyclopedia of Percussion'', p.83. Routledge. {{ISBN|9781317747680}}.</ref>

== History ==
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 version was invented 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.<ref name="Grove">Hugh Davies. "Swanee whistle." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/47634 (accessed October 10, 2009).</ref>

The modern slide whistle is familiar as a [[sound effect]] (as in [[animated cartoon]] sound tracks, when a [[glissando]] can suggest something rapidly ascending or falling, or when a player hits a "Bankrupt" on ''[[Wheel of Fortune (US game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]''), but it is also possible to play melodies on a 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 US, 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 (song)|Whispering]]" (1920).<ref>Berrett, Joshua (2004). ''Louis Armstrong & Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz'', p. 62. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-10384-0}}.</ref> 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,<ref>[http://michaelminn.net/armstrong/index.php?section1 Louis Armstrong's discography: Early years - 1901 1925]</ref> such as ''Sobbin' Blues'' (1923).<ref>(1990). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ig4wAQAAIAAJ&q=%22slide+whistle%22 Jazz Journal International]''. Billboard.</ref> 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. [[Gavin Gordon (composer)|Gavin Gordon]] uses a slide whistle in his ballet ''[[The Rake's Progress (ballet)|The Rake's Progress]]'' (1935).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzWjITRz3nQC&q=gavin+gordon+rake&pg=PA35 |title=Woodwind Instruments and Their History |author1=Anthony Baines |author2=Adrian Boult |page=35 |date=1967 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486268859 |access-date=2017-03-01}}</ref>

== Uses ==
{{wide image|Slide whistle side top and front.svg|1000px|{{center|Three views of a plastic slide whistle.  The front end view shows the mouthpiece in dark gray with the rectangular mouthpiece aperture in white.}}}}
The slide whistle is often thought of as a toy instrument, especially in the West, though it has been and still is 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]]''.<ref name="Grove" /> 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 (Ligeti)|Violin Concerto]] of [[György Ligeti]], as well as pieces by [[Cornelius Cardew]], [[Alberto Ginastera]], [[Hans Werner Henze]], [[Peter Maxwell Davies]], and [[Krzysztof Penderecki]] (''De Natura Sonoris II'', 1971<ref>Beck (2013), p. 29.</ref>). [[John Cage]]'s ''[[Music of Changes]]'' (1951) and ''Water Music'' (1952) both feature slide whistle and [[duck call]]s.<ref>Iddon, Martin (2013). ''John Cage and David Tudor: Correspondence on Interpretation and Performance'', p. 91. Cambridge University. {{ISBN|9781107310889}}.</ref> The slide whistle is also used in many of the works of [[P. D. Q. Bach]].

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 recordings.{{Citation needed|date=February 2019}}

[[Roger Waters]] played two notes on the slide whistle in the song ''Flaming'', from [[Pink Floyd]]'s debut album ''[[The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]]''.

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]]".
[[Fred Schneider]] of [[The B-52's]] 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.

On the popular [[BBC Radio 4]] comedy panel game show "[[I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue]]" the swanee whistle has been paired for comic effect with the [[kazoo]] in a musical round called "Swanee-Kazoo" which has been played for over forty years.

==See also==
*[[Tin whistle]]
*[[Whistle]]
*[[Whistling]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Flutes}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Continuous pitch instruments]]
[[Category:Internal fipple flutes]]
[[Category:Woodwind instruments]]
[[Category:Toy instruments and noisemakers]]