Post by Walden on Jul 17, 2011 16:38:17 GMT -5
The Ocarina
For All Times
by Walden, 2009
Introduction
In this paper we shall explore together the role of the ocarina in human life. We will examine its uses, its benefits, and its impact on the world. We will examine the various forms of globe flute, both historical and present-day, as they relate to humanity, as well as their potential for the future.
Prehistory
Prehistory means the era in a society before historians took up the task of writing down the historical record. It does not mean that no historic evidence exists, and there may even be oral tradition from the era that has been preserved. In the case of the earliest members of the ocarina family, we rely on archaeology for the bulk of our information.
The ancestor of the ocarina, in its simplest form, is a vessel which is open on one end, and can be sounded by blowing across the top of it. Most of us, as children, have enjoyed learning to blow across the top of a bottle or a bullet shell in order to make a musical note. It is one of those discoveries which has been made time and again, through the ages. In Greek mythology we have the famous case of the nymph Syrinx who, resisting the advances of Pan, turns herself into a stand of reeds. In his anger, Pan chops the reeds into pieces, then stricken with remorse, he begins to kiss the pieces of reed, and makes the discovery that his breath on the end of them makes a sound. He binds these together with wax to make another form of closed-ended flute, the Pan pipes. This is not an ocarina, but it is based on the same principle.
In Africa they made their vessels from gourds, and they began putting additional holes in the gourds to make an instrument that could play multiple notes. These instruments were much like ocarinas, but lacked the fipple mouthpiece. Likewise, the ancient Chinese made a form of this same instrument named the xun or hsun, which was also known in other East Asian countries by similar names. The xun, unlike its African counterpart, was made of clay and fired, thus bearing close resemblance, in construction method, to the modern ocarina.
In Africa these instruments were used in village music-making. They added melody and color to the other traditional African instruments, giving expression to joy and sadness, depending on what the player wished to express. Likewise in China they were used in music. An early Twentieth Century writer said this of its place in Chinese music, "It was of absolute necessity that earth, the common mother of all things, should occupy a respectable place in music, and the 'hsuan' was invented." Indeed, the xun gained a place in the imperial orchestra of China.
Aside from music-making, a primary use of vessel flutes has always been the imitation of the songs of birds. Indeed, the most common form of clay whistles, the world over, was always in the shape of birds. It is in this form that we find the most strikingly modern of the ancient ocarina-type instruments, those of ancient Mexico, Central, and South America.
The precolumbian American clay whistles were ocarinas in a sense that the African gourd flute and the Asin xun were not. They had a fipple mouthpiece. There were many varieties in the Americas. Some were shaped like birds or animals, others were in human form, while still others were more abstract in design. Some had single chambers, others had double chambers. Some had one or two fingerholes, others had several. There were skull-shaped vessel flutes used in funeral rituals.
Not only were these early ocarinas used in rituals, they could be used by hunters for calling birds, and they could also be used to send signals over long distances.
The Medieval Period
Medieval Europe was not without its vessel flutes. Just like the Americas, Europe had clay whistles which could be used for sounding birdcalls. There are examples from all parts of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the British Isles, all the way up to the Nordic countries and Russia. These are the predecessors to the ocarina of Donati.
Not only did the Europeans discover that whistles could be used to summon birds, they developed them into a true vessel flute by the end of the Middle Ages. Known as the gemshorn, in German, it could be made from the horn of a chamois or an ox. Likewise it could be made from clay. These had four fingerholes and a thumbhole, which the creative player could get to sound an octave. Though they generally died out by the end of the 16th Century, they had become popular enough that an organ stop by the name gemshorn still exists.
The Modern Era
Up to now we have seen how the forerunners of the modern ocarina were used by various people groups down through history, so now we will turn our attention to the 19th Century development of the ocarina, which began in the area of Budrio, Italy.
In 1853, sixteen year-old Giuseppe Donati was an amateur musician, and by day he was employed at a brick-making kiln. He decided to combine both his skills, clay-firing and music, and produce his own musical instrument. After a failed experiment at making a clay trumpet, he hit upon the idea of expanding the clay whistle into a full-range instrument, and the Budrio ocarina was born!
The first big impact that this had on mankind is that it gave a new line to clay-workers. Previously they made dishes, bricks, and decorative items, but now they began making musical instruments, as well. Within a few years time, kilns in the major cities of Europe and America were producing full ranges of ocarinas. This led to another innovation: the ocarina ensemble.
Touring groups from Italy and neighboring countries spread the popularity of the ocarina throughout the western world. Italy and Austria became major centers of ocarina production, while skilled craftsmen in France, England, the United States, and other countries also produced fine ocarinas for the burgeoning market.
In the United States, in the late 19th Century, the ocarina found use as a marching band instrument, in the same way that the fife was used. As the 19th Century passed into the 20th, the ocarina found its place among the jugbands and hillbilly bands which were a mainstay of popular music at the time. It was very much an instrument of the people. All social classes enjoyed it, from the high opera arrangements of the Italian ensembles, to the martial marches of the American ocarina and drum corps, to the Central European peasant folk musicians.
The ocarina had its heyday in the years leading up to the Second World War. It was during this era that it spread to Japan, where improvements were made on it that extended its range. This made its musical capabilities even greater, though its real boost in popularity in that country came in the 1980's.
It was also during this period that the first plastic ocarinas came to the market. At first these were of a decent quality, and they proved popular among American troops during World War II, and were produced in a range of sizes, for ensemble playing.
After the war, ocarinas found use as a classroom instrument for elementary music education, though not achieving the popularity of recorder-type instruments for this purpose. It was during this period that the quality of plastic ocarinas began to decline. This, along with the widespread popularity of recorded music and radio, led to a severe decline in ocarina-playing, and amateur music-making in general.
In 1963, during a visit to the British Museum, John Taylor noticed that a precolumbian American ocarina had differing sized holes. It occurred to him that different fingering combinations could produce a scale, so he worked out the mathematics, and developed a way to make a pendant ocarina with an octave, using four holes.
In the same era, ceramics classes burgeoned in popularity, and English ceramic artists began producing pendant ocarinas and selling them at craft fairs, and other public marketplaces. By the 1970's the method of making pendant ocarinas had spread to North America, as well, and by the 1990's they had become the most popular form of ocarina in the English-speaking world. Their impact was due to their ease of transport, as well as their double duty as decorative pieces.
In East Asia the classical form of ocarina burgeoned in popularity due to the virtuoso Sojiro, who burst into the public spotlight with his documentary performance on The Great Yellow River. Many people took up the ocarina, under his influence, and a great renaissance of ocarina-making took place. This popularity eventually influenced the western world through Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which began the popular phenomenon of musical instrument-based video games.
The Future
The resurgence of popularity of the ocarina has ensured a bright future for the instrument. With its new-found popularity, it has led makers to develop new forms of double, triple, and more versions, which have expanded its range to that of other orchestral instruments. The ocarina no longer has the limitation of less than an octave and a half, which formerly limited its usefulness.
In England, the pendant ocarina is now being produced for use in elementary school curriculum, and a new generation is coming up with knowledge of, and respect, for the ocarina. Likewise, in Asia the ocarina is being used for the same purposes.
In Italy the ocarina is being used with great success to play the Baroque repertoire, and is serving as a catalyst for modern composers, such as Giorgio Pacchioni, to write new material in the Baroque style. A new two year conservatory program has even been approved by the Italian government in “wind instruments in terracotta,” paving the way for the establishment of classical education in the ocarina for years to come.
In the United States, the ocarina has made inroads in popular music that promise to increase the ocarinas popularity many times over. Nancy Rumbel has especially been successful on the harmony ocarina, even winning the Grammy Award, in the New Age category.
The ocarina has impacted lives for the better, from the very beginning, and is continuing to do so. It is up to us to make the instrument continue its positive role into the next generation!
For All Times
by Walden, 2009
Introduction
In this paper we shall explore together the role of the ocarina in human life. We will examine its uses, its benefits, and its impact on the world. We will examine the various forms of globe flute, both historical and present-day, as they relate to humanity, as well as their potential for the future.
Prehistory
Prehistory means the era in a society before historians took up the task of writing down the historical record. It does not mean that no historic evidence exists, and there may even be oral tradition from the era that has been preserved. In the case of the earliest members of the ocarina family, we rely on archaeology for the bulk of our information.
The ancestor of the ocarina, in its simplest form, is a vessel which is open on one end, and can be sounded by blowing across the top of it. Most of us, as children, have enjoyed learning to blow across the top of a bottle or a bullet shell in order to make a musical note. It is one of those discoveries which has been made time and again, through the ages. In Greek mythology we have the famous case of the nymph Syrinx who, resisting the advances of Pan, turns herself into a stand of reeds. In his anger, Pan chops the reeds into pieces, then stricken with remorse, he begins to kiss the pieces of reed, and makes the discovery that his breath on the end of them makes a sound. He binds these together with wax to make another form of closed-ended flute, the Pan pipes. This is not an ocarina, but it is based on the same principle.
In Africa they made their vessels from gourds, and they began putting additional holes in the gourds to make an instrument that could play multiple notes. These instruments were much like ocarinas, but lacked the fipple mouthpiece. Likewise, the ancient Chinese made a form of this same instrument named the xun or hsun, which was also known in other East Asian countries by similar names. The xun, unlike its African counterpart, was made of clay and fired, thus bearing close resemblance, in construction method, to the modern ocarina.
In Africa these instruments were used in village music-making. They added melody and color to the other traditional African instruments, giving expression to joy and sadness, depending on what the player wished to express. Likewise in China they were used in music. An early Twentieth Century writer said this of its place in Chinese music, "It was of absolute necessity that earth, the common mother of all things, should occupy a respectable place in music, and the 'hsuan' was invented." Indeed, the xun gained a place in the imperial orchestra of China.
Aside from music-making, a primary use of vessel flutes has always been the imitation of the songs of birds. Indeed, the most common form of clay whistles, the world over, was always in the shape of birds. It is in this form that we find the most strikingly modern of the ancient ocarina-type instruments, those of ancient Mexico, Central, and South America.
The precolumbian American clay whistles were ocarinas in a sense that the African gourd flute and the Asin xun were not. They had a fipple mouthpiece. There were many varieties in the Americas. Some were shaped like birds or animals, others were in human form, while still others were more abstract in design. Some had single chambers, others had double chambers. Some had one or two fingerholes, others had several. There were skull-shaped vessel flutes used in funeral rituals.
Not only were these early ocarinas used in rituals, they could be used by hunters for calling birds, and they could also be used to send signals over long distances.
The Medieval Period
Medieval Europe was not without its vessel flutes. Just like the Americas, Europe had clay whistles which could be used for sounding birdcalls. There are examples from all parts of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the British Isles, all the way up to the Nordic countries and Russia. These are the predecessors to the ocarina of Donati.
Not only did the Europeans discover that whistles could be used to summon birds, they developed them into a true vessel flute by the end of the Middle Ages. Known as the gemshorn, in German, it could be made from the horn of a chamois or an ox. Likewise it could be made from clay. These had four fingerholes and a thumbhole, which the creative player could get to sound an octave. Though they generally died out by the end of the 16th Century, they had become popular enough that an organ stop by the name gemshorn still exists.
The Modern Era
Up to now we have seen how the forerunners of the modern ocarina were used by various people groups down through history, so now we will turn our attention to the 19th Century development of the ocarina, which began in the area of Budrio, Italy.
In 1853, sixteen year-old Giuseppe Donati was an amateur musician, and by day he was employed at a brick-making kiln. He decided to combine both his skills, clay-firing and music, and produce his own musical instrument. After a failed experiment at making a clay trumpet, he hit upon the idea of expanding the clay whistle into a full-range instrument, and the Budrio ocarina was born!
The first big impact that this had on mankind is that it gave a new line to clay-workers. Previously they made dishes, bricks, and decorative items, but now they began making musical instruments, as well. Within a few years time, kilns in the major cities of Europe and America were producing full ranges of ocarinas. This led to another innovation: the ocarina ensemble.
Touring groups from Italy and neighboring countries spread the popularity of the ocarina throughout the western world. Italy and Austria became major centers of ocarina production, while skilled craftsmen in France, England, the United States, and other countries also produced fine ocarinas for the burgeoning market.
In the United States, in the late 19th Century, the ocarina found use as a marching band instrument, in the same way that the fife was used. As the 19th Century passed into the 20th, the ocarina found its place among the jugbands and hillbilly bands which were a mainstay of popular music at the time. It was very much an instrument of the people. All social classes enjoyed it, from the high opera arrangements of the Italian ensembles, to the martial marches of the American ocarina and drum corps, to the Central European peasant folk musicians.
The ocarina had its heyday in the years leading up to the Second World War. It was during this era that it spread to Japan, where improvements were made on it that extended its range. This made its musical capabilities even greater, though its real boost in popularity in that country came in the 1980's.
It was also during this period that the first plastic ocarinas came to the market. At first these were of a decent quality, and they proved popular among American troops during World War II, and were produced in a range of sizes, for ensemble playing.
After the war, ocarinas found use as a classroom instrument for elementary music education, though not achieving the popularity of recorder-type instruments for this purpose. It was during this period that the quality of plastic ocarinas began to decline. This, along with the widespread popularity of recorded music and radio, led to a severe decline in ocarina-playing, and amateur music-making in general.
In 1963, during a visit to the British Museum, John Taylor noticed that a precolumbian American ocarina had differing sized holes. It occurred to him that different fingering combinations could produce a scale, so he worked out the mathematics, and developed a way to make a pendant ocarina with an octave, using four holes.
In the same era, ceramics classes burgeoned in popularity, and English ceramic artists began producing pendant ocarinas and selling them at craft fairs, and other public marketplaces. By the 1970's the method of making pendant ocarinas had spread to North America, as well, and by the 1990's they had become the most popular form of ocarina in the English-speaking world. Their impact was due to their ease of transport, as well as their double duty as decorative pieces.
In East Asia the classical form of ocarina burgeoned in popularity due to the virtuoso Sojiro, who burst into the public spotlight with his documentary performance on The Great Yellow River. Many people took up the ocarina, under his influence, and a great renaissance of ocarina-making took place. This popularity eventually influenced the western world through Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which began the popular phenomenon of musical instrument-based video games.
The Future
The resurgence of popularity of the ocarina has ensured a bright future for the instrument. With its new-found popularity, it has led makers to develop new forms of double, triple, and more versions, which have expanded its range to that of other orchestral instruments. The ocarina no longer has the limitation of less than an octave and a half, which formerly limited its usefulness.
In England, the pendant ocarina is now being produced for use in elementary school curriculum, and a new generation is coming up with knowledge of, and respect, for the ocarina. Likewise, in Asia the ocarina is being used for the same purposes.
In Italy the ocarina is being used with great success to play the Baroque repertoire, and is serving as a catalyst for modern composers, such as Giorgio Pacchioni, to write new material in the Baroque style. A new two year conservatory program has even been approved by the Italian government in “wind instruments in terracotta,” paving the way for the establishment of classical education in the ocarina for years to come.
In the United States, the ocarina has made inroads in popular music that promise to increase the ocarinas popularity many times over. Nancy Rumbel has especially been successful on the harmony ocarina, even winning the Grammy Award, in the New Age category.
The ocarina has impacted lives for the better, from the very beginning, and is continuing to do so. It is up to us to make the instrument continue its positive role into the next generation!
