| File:2016-01 Ocarina front.jpg A mono-chamber 12-holes ocarina. | |
| Other names | Sweet potato |
|---|---|
| Classification | Wind, Woodwind, Aerophone |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 421.221.42 (Vessel flute with duct and fingerholes) |
| Related instruments | |
| Xun, Huaca, Slide whistle, Tin whistle, Molinukai | |
The ocarina (/ɒkəˈriːnə/ or /oʊkəˈriːnə/) is an ancient wind musical instrument—a type of vessel flute.[1] Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from clay or ceramic, but other materials are also used—such as plastic, wood, glass, metal, or bone. An example of an ocarina made of an animal horn is the medieval German gemshorn.
History[]
Giuseppe Donati, Italian inventor of the modern ocarina, with his work
The ocarina belongs to a very old family of instruments, believed to date back over 12,000 years.[2] Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. For the Chinese, the instrument played an important role in their long history of song and dance. The ocarina has similar features to the Xun (塤), another important Chinese instrument (but is different in that Ocarina uses an internal duct, whereas Xun is blown across the outer edge).[3] In Japan, the traditional ocarina is known as the tsuchibue (kanji: 土笛; literally "earthen flute"). Different expeditions to Mesoamerica, including the one conducted by Cortés, resulted in the introduction of the ocarina to the courts of Europe. Both the Mayans and Aztecs produced versions of the ocarina, but it was the Aztecs who brought Europe the song and dance that accompanied the ocarina. The ocarina went on to become popular in European communities as a toy instrument.[1]
Ocarina, author reported, c. 1900, Museu de la Música de Barcelona
One of the oldest ocarinas found in Europe is from Runik, Kosovo. The ocarina is a Neolithic flute-like wind instrument and was named Runik Ocarina, the earliest prehistoric musical instrument ever recorded in Kosovo.[4] The modern European ocarina dates back to the 19th century, when Giuseppe Donati from Budrio, a town near Bologna, Italy transformed the ocarina from a toy, which only played a few notes, into a more comprehensive instrument (known as the first "classical" ocarinas). The word ocarina in the Bolognese dialect of the Emiliano-Romagnolo language means "little goose." The earlier form was known in Europe as a gemshorn, which was made from animal horns of the chamois (Dutch: gems).
György Ligeti called for four ocarinas (to be performed by woodwind players doubling their own instruments) in his Violin Concerto.
In 1998, the ocarina was prominently featured in the Nintendo 64 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,[5] causing a marked increase in interest and a dramatic rise in sales of the instrument outside of Japan.[6] It was not the first time an ocarina was featured in The Legend of Zelda series, with the first appearance being as the "Magic Flute" in 1991's The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past.[1]
The instrument also appears in a few other video games, including Evolution Worlds, Star Ocean: First Departure, the Scribblenauts series,[7] and, more recently, Angry Birds Evolution.[8][9]
Types[]
There are many different styles of ocarinas varying in shape and the number of holes:
- Transverse (Sweet potato) – This is the most well-known style of ocarina.[citation needed] It has a rounded shape and is held with two hands horizontally. Depending on the number of holes, the player opens one more hole than the previous note to ascend in pitch. The two most common styles of transverse ocarinas are « Budrio » 10-hole ocarinas (invented by Giuseppe Donati in Italy) and 12-hole ocarinas (invented by Aketagawa in Japan). There are also many different aesthetic styles of tranverse ocarinas, such as Dragontooth, Baby Dragontooth, and Baby Sweet Potato. Ocarinas made in Europe and Asia also typically have different visual styles. European ocarinas typically are made from unglazed clay, and their bodies are often cylindrical or conical with two pointed ends. Asian ocarinas tend to have a more organic shape that is flatter and smoother with rounded ends . There are also more likely to be glazed.
- Pendants
- English Pendant – These ocarinas are usually very small and portable, and use an English fingering system (4–6 holes). This system was invented in 1963 by Jack Taylor [1]and is commonly used for music education in UK schools. It is designed so that different combinations of fingerings allow this ocarina to have almost the same chromatic range as most transverse ocarinas.
- Peruvian Pendant – Dating from the time of the Incas, used as instruments for festivals, rituals and ceremonies. They are often seen with designs of animals. They usually have 8–9 holes. Now many ocarinas of this type are produced as souvenirs. These usually have straps allowing them to be worn like necklaces and are painted with detailed geometric patterns.
- Inline – These ocarinas are often called a "fusion" of the pendant and transverse ocarinas. They are generally small and compact which makes them highly portable and they use linear fingering that are similar to the transverse ocarina’s. Their defining feature is that the voicing is angled so that the instrument can be held like a recorder or tin whistle.
Multi-chambered ocarinas– These ocarinas have multiple airways, voicings, and resonating chambers that are are fused together. There are two major types of these ocarinas. These are harmony-chamber ocarinas, and classical multi-chambered ocarinas. Harmony chamber ocarinas are made specifically so that one player can create harmonies by themselves. These ocarinas have a very limited amount of notes per chamber, and, unlike classical ocarinas, they are typically tuned in pentatonic scales and can include drone chambers. These can be a variation of inline or pendant ocarinas, but they tend to be sculptural. The other type of multi-chamber ocarina, the multi-chamber classical ocarina, was designed to overcome the ocarina's limited range of notes. A typical transverse is limited to a range of an octave and a half. A transverse double-chamber ocarina typically plays two octaves plus a major second, and a transverse triple ocarina plays with a range about two octaves plus a fifth. These ocarinas rarely extend over four chambers and also come in two types: the « Asian » fingering system, which mainly focuses on range extension, and the « Pacchioni » system, which extends the range while providing extra fingering options for the comfort and ease of the player. Multi-chambered ocarinas can be a challenge for beginners, but these truly allow ocarinists to play music as complex and challenging as any other musician’s.
Several makers have produced ocarinas with keys, mostly experimentally, beginning in the late 19th century. Keys and slides either expand the instrument's range, help fingers reach holes that are widely spaced, or play notes not in the native key of the instrument.[10]
Gallery[]
Musical performance[]
Tone production/acoustics[]
See Vessel flute#Acoustics
How an ocarina works:
- Air enters through the windway
- Air strikes the labium, which splits the air.
- Air pulses in and out of the ocarina due to fluctuating air pressure, as the vessel resonates a specific pitch (see Helmholtz resonator)
- Covering holes lowers the pitch by increasing air pressure, slowing air movement; uncovering holes raises the pitch by decreasing air pressure, allowing faster air movement
- Blowing more softly lowers the pitch; blowing harder raises it. Breath force can change the pitch by three semitones.[11] This is why ocarinas generally have no tuning mechanism or dynamic range, and why it is hard to learn to play one in tune.
The airstream is directed on the labium by a fipple or internal duct, which is a narrowing rectangular slot in the mouthpiece, rather than relying on the player's lips as in a transverse flute. Like other flutes, the airstream alternates quickly between the inner and outer face of the labium as the pressure in the ocarina chamber oscillates.
At first the sound is a broad-spectrum "noise" (i.e. "chiff"), but those frequencies that are identical with the fundamental frequency of the resonating chamber (which depends on the fingering), are selectively amplified. A Helmholtz resonating chamber is unusually selective in amplifying a single frequency. Most resonators also amplify more overtones.[12] As a result, ocarinas and other vessel flutes have a distinctive overtoneless sound.
Unlike many flutes, ocarinas do not rely on pipe length to produce a particular pitch. Instead the pitch is dependent on the ratio of the total surface area of opened holes to the total cubic volume enclosed by the instrument.[13] This means that, unlike a flute or recorder, sound is created by resonance of the entire cavity and the placement of the holes on an ocarina is largely irrelevant – their size is the most important factor.
The resonator in the ocarina can create overtones, but because of the common "egg" shape, these overtones are many octaves above the keynote scale.[14] 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 possible with the ocarina but not widely used because the resulting note is not "clean" enough, so the range of pitches available is limited to a 12th.
Some ocarina makers increase the range by designing double- or triple-chambered ocarinas (sometimes simply referred to as double or triple ocarinas) tuned an octave or a tenth apart although some double ocarinas are not made to increase the range, but to play in harmony with the other chambers.[citation needed]. These double and triple ocarinas can also play chords.
Musical notation and tablature[]
Ocarina music is written in three main ways. The most apparent is the use of sheet music. There are archives of sheet music either specifically written for ocarinas, or adapted from piano sheet music. Since some ocarinas are fully chromatic and can be played in professional musical situations, including classical and folk, sheet music is an ideal notation for ocarinas.
Second is the use of numerical tablature, which expresses the musical notes as numbers. Some makers have developed their own system of numerical tablature for their ocarinas, while others follow a more universal system where numbers correspond to different notes on the scale. This method is typically used by beginners who have not learned to read sheet music.
A third method uses a pictorial tablature similar to the ocarina's finger hole pattern, with blackened holes that represent holes to cover. The tablature represents the holes on the top of the ocarina, and, where necessary, the holes on the underside. This enables easy playing, particularly for beginners. The two most popular tabulatures are:
- The English Pendant system (invented in 1964 by British mathematician John Taylor)
- The 12 hole sweet potato system
Depending on the artist, some may write a number or figure over the picture to depict how many beats to hold the note.[15]
Similar instruments[]
Other vessel flutes include the Chinese xun and African globe flutes. 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 because it is is blown across an opening like the Western concert flute, rather than having a recorder-like mouthpiece (a fipple or beak)like the ocarina. Similar instruments exist in Korea (the hun) and Japan (the tsuchibue).[16]
A related family of instruments is the closed-pipe family, which includes the panpipes and other instruments that produce their tone by vibrating a column of air within a stopped cylinder.[citation needed]
The old fashioned jugband jug also has similar properties.
The traditional German gemshorn works nearly the same way as an ocarina. The only difference is the material it is made from: the horn of a chamois, goat, or other suitable animal.[16]
Sindhi borrindos, a form of vessel flute produced in different sizes to give different tones. The borrindo is made out of soft alluvial clay, plentiful in the central Indus Valley.
The borrindo is a simple hollow clay ball with three to four fingering holes, one hole slightly larger than the other three, which are smaller and of equal size to one another.Template:Vague The holes are arranged in an isosceles triangular form. The borrindo is made out of soft alluvial clay available in plenty everywhere in the central Indus Valley. Being of the simplest design, it is made even by children. Some adults make fine borrindos of larger size, put pottery designs on them, and bake them. These baked borrindos, with pottery designs, are the later evolved forms of this musical instrument, which appears to have previously been used in its simple unbaked form for a long time.[citation needed] The sound notes are produced by blowing somewhat horizontally into the larger hole. Finger tips are placed on smaller holes to regulate the notes. Its ease of play makes it popular among children and the youth.
See also[]
- Nancy Rumbel
- Hand flute
- Vessel flute
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "History of the Ocarina". ocarinaforest.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
{{cite web}}: ; deadurl - ↑ "The Chinese Xun". ocarinaforest.com. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Runik Ocarina".
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Own the Ocarina of Time". IGN. 2008-11-04. Retrieved 7 December 2009.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ King, Sharon R. (1999-02-15). "Compressed Data; Can You Play 'Feelings' On the Ocarina?". New York Times. Retrieved 7 December 2009.
{{cite web}}: ; publisher - ↑ "GiantBomb Entry for "Ocarina (object)"". GiantBomb.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ Chimera Entertainment. 'Angry Birds Evolution'. (Rovio). iOS, Android. Level/area: Yellow Desert. (June 15, 2017) "Mighty Eagle: "Major Pecker's hiding place lies on the other side of that inconveniently locked Ancient Door, but one toot from the Oasis Ocarina and it'll swing right open. Somehow.""
- ↑ Chimera Entertainment. 'Angry Birds Evolution'. (Rovio). iOS, Android. Level/area: Yellow Desert – Ancient Door. (June 15, 2017) "Bird Leader: "We have the Ocarina, but we need to play a good tune to unlock the Ancient Birds...Anyone got a musical...uh, beak?""
- ↑ "The Ocarina Almanac", Ledger Note, Retrieved 2015-06-4.
- ↑ https://pureocarinas.com/playing-techniques/learning-to-play/playing-in-tune-and-managing-the-breath-curve
- ↑ Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. Arthur H. Benade pp.473–476
- ↑ "Ocarina Physics". ocarinaforest.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-14. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
{{cite web}}: ; deadurl - ↑ Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. Arthur H. Benade pp.473–476
- ↑ "Ocarina Fingering Charts". www.hindocarina.com. Retrieved 2007-04-21.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ 16.0 16.1 http://www.seocarinas.com/OcarinaHistory.html
Further reading[]
- Adversi, Aldo. L'ocarina di Budrio: Pubblicato in occasione del 1 centenario ed a cura del comitato per le manifestazioni budriesi. Bologna: Bongiovanni, 1963.
- Cedroni, Claudio. Il Settimino di ocarine: Storia di una tradizione italiana. Bologna: Edizioni Sonic Press, 2011. (in Italian and English)
- Hall, Barry. From Mud to Music: Making and Enjoying Ceramic Musical Instruments. Westerville, OH: American Ceramic Society, 2006. ISBN 1-57498-139-0; ISBN 1-57498-222-2.
- Molinari Pradelli, Alessandro (ed.). Il suono dell'argilla: l'ocarina di Budrio 150 anni dopo. Budrio, 2003.[full citation needed]
External links[]
Template:Flutes