Ocarina
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The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. It is one of the oldest musical instruments on Earth[citation needed]. It usually is made up of an oval-shaped enclosed space and four to thirteen finger holes, though there are some variations on the standard design. A mouth tube projects from it. It is often ceramic, but many other materials may also be used, including plastic, wood, glass, and metal.
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[edit] History
The ocarina is a very old family of instruments, believed to date back some 12,000 years[1]. Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures (where they are often shaped as animals, generally birds. There is controversy that the clay ocarina was introduced to the courts of Europe by mesoamerican indians brought back by the Cortés expeditions as well as the expeditions of Marco Polo and his Father.
Its common use in the Western countries dates to the 19th century, when the modern form of the ocarina was invented by Italian Giuseppe Donati. The name is derived from Italian (ocarina "little goose"). An earlier form was known in Europe, made from animal horn, and known as a gemshorn.
Attractively painted porcelain ocarinas have been produced, such as the Meissen ocarinas.[2] The Meissen factory in Germany did not make the ocarina, but licensed local German ocarina-makers to use the Meissen blue and white onion pattern as the exterior design.
[edit] Classification
1. Air enters through windway
2. Air strikes edge, causing a sound
3. Air vibrates throughout inside of an ocarina
4. Covering and uncovering holes lowers and raises the pitch
The ocarina is a vessel flute. Unlike the perforated wind instruments, such as the orchestral flute and the recorder, the sound is created by resonance of the entire cavity. This has different acoustical physics from a pipe. Technically, the cavity acts as a Helmholtz resonator (see below).
Other vessel flutes include the Chinese xun and African globe flutes. These examples differ from ocarinas in that they do not have a fipple mouthpiece (or beak).
A related family of instruments is the closed-pipe family, which includes the panpipes and other instruments which produce their tone by vibrating a column of air within a stopped cylinder.
- Ocarina Room - Principles, Mp3, & Making
[edit] Musical performance
The ocarina, like other vessel flutes, has the unusual quality of not relying on the pipe length to produce a particular tone. Instead the tone is dependent on ratio of the total surface area of opened holes to the total cubic volume enclosed by the instrument. This means that, unlike a flute or recorder, the placement of the holes on an ocarina is largely irrelevant—their size is the most important factor. Instruments that have toneholes close to the voiceing/embouchure should be avoided though, because this weakens tonal production.
The resonator in the ocarina can create overtones, but because of the common "egg" shape, these overtones are many octaves above the keynote scale (ref: Arthur H.Benade, "Horns,Strings and Harmony"). In similar Helmholtz Resonator instruments with a narrow cone shape, like the Gemshorn or Tonette, some partial overtones are available. The technique of overblowing to get a range of higher pitched notes is not possible with the ocarina because of its vessel shape, so the range of pitches available is limited to a 12th. Some Ocarina makers increase the range by designing double- or triple-chambered ocarinas tuned 1 octave apart.
Different notes are produced by covering the holes, and by opening and closing more or less of the total hole area. The tone is then produced through the sound hole. The tone can also be varied by changing the strength with which one blows through the instrument (pitch bending).
[edit] Types of ocarina
[edit] Multi-chambered ocarinas
Since the 19th century, many makers have produced double ocarinas able to play polyphonic pieces.
[edit] Ocarinas with keys
Ocarinas with keys have been produced by several makers, mostly experimentally, beginning in the late 19th century. Keys may be added in hopes of expanding the instrument's range, or to enable the fingers to reach holes that are widely spaced.
[edit] The modern ocarina
The ocarina makes use of a special form of tablature which represents the holes on the top of the ocarina, and, where necessary, the holes on the underside. This enables easy playing, particularly for beginners. It is similar to the tablature used for recorder and other woodwind instruments.
[edit] Ocarina in Budrio
Budrio, a town near Bologna, Italy, is the home of the first classical ocarinas. It keeps up its tradition in the form of the Fabio Menaglio ocarina workshops which produces a full range of professional instruments. Also Budrio has the best known classical ocarina group, known as the "Gruppo Ocarinistico Budriese" who record and perform (since 1865). Examples of their music and the story of the Group are available on the website above.
[edit] Appearance in works
- In the late 1930s a group of older boys began building wooden ocarinas. They formed a popular ocarina ensemble called the Potato Bugs, performing on Broadway, radio, and later television, into the 1950s. Irving Berlin wrote a popular song, inspired by them, entitled Dance to the Music of the Ocarina for the musical Call Me Madam. [3]
- The Sweet Potato Pipers, a 1930s-1940s ocarina group that toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, featured the ocarina, prominently on screen, in Hollywood musicals such as Girl Crazy (1943).
- A memorable part in the Bernardo Bertolucci movie 1900, set in the Emilia region of northern Italy during the early 20th century, features a scene in which a group of farmers in a forest play a tune in harmony on ocarinas of various sizes.
- An ocarina part also features prominently in the theme from the 1966 spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The ocarina, along with the Jew's harp and the electric guitar, was used widely in the soundtracks of 1960s European-made westerns, to develop a distinctive style.
- The instrumental break in The Troggs's 1966 hit song "Wild Thing" contains a lively ocarina solo played by group leader Reg Presley and an ocarina is heard in the Simon and Garfunkle song "Feeling Groovie/The 59th Street Bridge song".
[edit] Ocarinas in popular culture
- Reinventor of the Ocarina is one of the many titles of Hugo Rune in Robert Rankin's Brentford Trilogy.
- The classic Troggs song "Wild Thing" features an ocarina solo.
- Ocarinas experienced a slight surge in popularity in the last years of the 20th century[citation needed] due to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998. One of the most popular games for the Nintendo 64, it involved the hero Link using a magical ocarina to change day to night and night to day, teleport all over the land of Hyrule, travel through time, summon his horse, and other magical tasks. The ocarina has also appeared in several other The Legend of Zelda games, such as "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" and played quite a major part in the "sequel" game also on the Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
[edit] Ocarina Music
Written music for the ocarina usually consists of a system of holes, tabulature [[4]],similar to the ocarina's finger hole pattern with blackened holes representing which holes should be covered. Depending on the artist, some may write a number or figure over the picture to depict how many beats to hold the note.
[edit] Similar instruments
The xun (simplified Chinese: 埙; traditional: 塤; pinyin: xūn) is a Chinese vessel flute made of clay or ceramic. It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments. Shaped like an egg, it differs from the ocarina in being side-blown, like the Western concert flute, rather than having a recorder-like mouthpiece. Similar instruments exist in Korea (the hun) and Japan (the tsuchibue).
The old fashioned jugband jug has similar properties.
[edit] See also
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[edit] External links
- The Chuckerbutty Ocarina Quartet - British ocarina quartet, with sound samples.
- Ocarina Room - Information on making and playing, and mp3.
- Free Ocarina Sample Library
- Ocarina Festivals - Mp3 of several groups.
- Oc-Land - Fingering charts and information on ocarinas.
