- 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
Come From Away
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Added based on information received from Talitha Broughton.
Talitha indicates that the parts are “transposed for the specific keys i.e. being shown in concert pitch for D Whistles/Flute and transposed for the others. There is some inconsistency in instrument labelling – the Low F Whistle also appears as Mid, and the D Flute also appears as Irish Flute or just Flute. Many of the whistles are only used once and some can fit on other keys of whistle if needed (e.g. the Mid G fits on Low D, and one section actually has a written low C# note which would fall off the end of a G Whistle). Both High and Low D Whistles feature often, otherwise the low whistles are used the most.”
The book also calls for “Mic’d Whistle in pocket;” Talitha says this is a whistle in D, and doesn’t necessarily have to be a separate instrument from the other D whistle in the book, but might be if logistics require. This is for a brief moment in which the whistle player is to stand up in the orchestra pit.
Having played the book for a production in Australia, I managed to slim down some of the requirements.
The Bb whistle occurs once at the end of Screech In, and is far too high to be comfortable. I put it on high F instead, which means the high F is now used more than once.
Epilogue has parts for G and F# whistles, but those parts make much more sense on low D and low C#- it’s music you’ve played before in the show but they’ve given you different fingerings for these passages.
The pipes are extremely minimal, I replaced them with a Bawu, but they’d fit on low D whistle.
There are also parts written for “Boxwood Flute”, I assume the original player had a keyed flute and a keyless flute, and the Boxwood passage was intended for keyless flute as there are no accidentals. Most of the flute parts require a C natural and F natural key.