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The ocarina, sometimes called the sweet potato, is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. It is one of the oldest musical instruments on Earth. 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.

History

The ocarina is a very old family of instruments, believed to date back some 12,000 years. Ocarina-type instuments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures (where they are often shaped as animals, generally birds).

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.* 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.

Classification

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.

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 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.

The resonator in the ocarina creates a sine-shaped sound wave and is thus incapable of creating harmonic overtones. This means that the technique of overblowing to get a range of higher pitched notes is not possible with the ocarina, so the range of pitches available is limited.

Different notes are produced by fingering the holes, 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.

Multi-chambered ocarinas

Since the 19th century, many makers have produced double ocarinas able to play polyphonic pieces.

Keyed ocarinas

Keyed ocarinas 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.

Appearance in works

  • 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.

  • In the TV show "Doug", Skeeter makes an ocarina out of a stale cafeteria roll for use in a school talent show.

Video games

Ocarinas experienced a slight surge in popularity in the last years of the 20th century due to the release of Ocarina of Time in 1998. One of the more popular games for the Nintendo 64, it involved the hero Link using a magical ocarina to travel through time.

Ocarinas also appeared in:

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. (see http://www.ocarina.it). 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.

The Modern Ocarina

One of the most popular ocarina manufacturers in the United Kingdom is the Ocarina Workshop (The workshop produces circular ocarinas made from plastic and ceramics, and which use the four and six hole fingering system developed by John Taylor. They also produce two-chambered ocarinas the same number of notes as their standard ocarina, doubled. There are also a variety of ranges available, from "Mini D" to "Mega-bass G". Other very popular Ocarina Makers include CLAYZENESS Whistleworks(*)," target="_blank" >and Sixth Street Pottery ([http://www.sixthstreetpottery.com).

Ocarina Tab

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.

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.

A recent instrument, a derivative of the ocarina called a huaca, was invented by Sharon Rowell. The huaca has three separate chambers and can therefore create a polyphonic sound.

See also

External links

Woodwind instruments

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Ocarina".

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