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The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flutes." The label "fipple flute" is frequently applied to members of the subgroup but there is no general agreement about the structural detail of the sound-producing mechanism that constitutes the fipple, itself. The accompanying illustration of the mouthpiece of a recorder shows a wooden block (A) with a channel carved into the body of the instrument (B), together forming a duct that directs a ribbon of air across an opening toward a sharp edge (C). The edge splits the air in a manner that alternately directs it into and outside of the tube, setting the contained column of air into periodic vibration. This flow-controlled "air reed" is a definitive characteristic of all flutes, which therefore all have an edge or equivalent air-splitting device. As is clear from the Hornbostel-Sachs heading, there are several ways in which a duct can be formed. These include the player's lips controlling the stream of air as it is directed to the edge, without mechanical assistance. Common examples of this are the end-blown ney and the side-blown concert flute. The first attested use of the term fipple is in a comparison between the recorder and the transverse flute by Francis Bacon, published in 1626. Recorders...were it not for the fipple, that straitneth the air...would yeeld no sound. ... Some kinds of winde-instruments, are blowne at a small hole in the side, which straitneth the breath at the first entrance, the rather in respect of their traverse, and stop above the hole, which performeth the fipples part, as is seene in flutes and fifes, which will not give a sound by a blast at the end, as recorders &c., doe. By this description, the fipple is a plug that nearly closes one end of the pipe, open only for the duct that "straightens” the channel of air blown axially into the instrument.

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Related publications (3)

Related concepts (8)

Wind instrument

A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece, while yet others require the player to blow into a hole at an edge, which splits the air column and creates the sound.

Tin whistle

The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with Irish traditional music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are the flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, or Irish whistle (also feadóg stáin or feadóg).

Embouchure

Embouchure (ˈɒmbuˌʃʊər) or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is of French origin and is related to the root , 'mouth'. Proper embouchure allows instrumentalists to play their instrument at its full range with a full, clear tone and without strain or damage to their muscles.

Experimental investigation of fast ion dynamics in TORPEX toroidal plasmas

Boris Roulet

The goal of the present diploma work is to experimentally investigate the fast ion physics in TORPEX plasmas, in which interchange modes with flute characteristics and intermittent transport events, i.e. blobs, are observed to dominate the plasma dynamics. ...

2010

Investigation of sheath effects on interchange modes in TORPEX plasmas

Jérôme Guterl

The TORoidal Plasma EXperiment (TORPEX) at CRPP generates and confines plasmas in a magnetic configuration with open helical magnetic field lines, in which similarly to the SOL of magnetic fusion devices, grad B and magnetic field curvature are at play. In ...

2009

Reed vibration in lingual organ pipes without the resonators

Vibrations of plucked and blown reeds of lingual organ pipes without the resonators have been investigated. Three rather surprising phenomena are observed: the frequency of the reed plucked by hand is shifted upwards for large-amplitude plucking, the blown ...

2003