Today I wish to write to you about an amazing instrument. It has been getting an ever larger popularity during the last years. While its growth in popularity is only recent, it is in fact something so ancient it defies all imagination.
No matter if you're a musical person or not, I'm sure you know of many classical instruments, such as recorders, drums, trumpets and many others. But have you ever heard of the ocarina before?
Ocarinas are a sort of flute consisting of a chamber and holes for your fingers. Interestingly, it's able to produce many more notes than it has holes, and can have whatever shape ocarina makers like it to have. Shape and the finger hole locations make almost no difference. That enables the ocarina to be made in all kinds of different styles and be kind of a piece of art in itself.
Even better, you can make it out of virtually anything - clay, bone, ceramic, stone, plastic, glass, metal and so on. This provides ocarina makers such an artistic freedom that I frequently think of it as the canvas amongst instruments. Ocarinas come in all feasible forms, sizes and colorations, while other wind instruments like recorders need a specific material and a particular form to function.
However, you would like to learn how old it is, don't you?
Flutes similar to the ocarina have been in use for over 12,000 years. In fact, the most ancient vessel flutes were discovered in central Africa and are as old as 30,000 years, making it by far the oldest instrument of mankind.
I find this absolutely extraordinary! Ocarinas and their ancestors have been with mankind through our existence. Over time, they were altered in style and meaning, yet their sound endured. Any normal instrument in an orchestra is an infant in contrast to the ocarina.
Many civilizations have invented clay or stone flutes separately from one another. For instance, the Chinese make the xun. It's more than seven thousand years old and is still being used today! Then there is the medieval German gemshorn, which was made from one horn of a chamois. And, of course, don't forget the Aztecs, who used their flutes in their music and rituals. When the Aztecs were conquered, their flutes found their way to continental Europe and finally Italy, where someone redesigned them into what we know as the ocarina.
The US got the ocarina early in the twentieth century, where it was popular among American soldiers. A lot of them took ocarinas with them to WW1 and played them to keep up their confidence. In World War Two, the US army in fact gave these instruments to its soldiers all over Europe, which tells you how meaningful these flutes were at the time.
Not long after the war, public attention of ocarinas went down and it was never widely known in the western culture. Nonetheless, the ocarina was used in a few popular pieces of music, like for the main theme of a Clint Eastwood western.
In Asia, ocarinas have always been a lot more common. Practically every Asian is aware of the instrument like you know the piano. Because of this, it often finds a role in motion pictures, music or games. And it's because of this that ocarinas are getting more and more renowned in the west. Mainly thanks to Japanese games, the ocarina has found its way into pop culture and straight into the hearts of young people.
Specifically, the Zelda games by Nintendo include the ocarina as a legendary artifact and instrument. When this happened back in 1998, the ocarina had a boom in public awareness that has not declined.
But it is much more than a simple flute or collector's item from a video game. In reality, it is actually a concert level instrument that can be played in in groups. It sounds unlike all other flutes, because it can not produce overtones. This feature lends it a melodious, sweet sound, clean and concentrated on that one note it plays in each instant. This dreamlike quality of ocarina music is exactly as special as its shape and history.
No matter if you're a musical person or not, I'm sure you know of many classical instruments, such as recorders, drums, trumpets and many others. But have you ever heard of the ocarina before?
Ocarinas are a sort of flute consisting of a chamber and holes for your fingers. Interestingly, it's able to produce many more notes than it has holes, and can have whatever shape ocarina makers like it to have. Shape and the finger hole locations make almost no difference. That enables the ocarina to be made in all kinds of different styles and be kind of a piece of art in itself.
Even better, you can make it out of virtually anything - clay, bone, ceramic, stone, plastic, glass, metal and so on. This provides ocarina makers such an artistic freedom that I frequently think of it as the canvas amongst instruments. Ocarinas come in all feasible forms, sizes and colorations, while other wind instruments like recorders need a specific material and a particular form to function.
However, you would like to learn how old it is, don't you?
Flutes similar to the ocarina have been in use for over 12,000 years. In fact, the most ancient vessel flutes were discovered in central Africa and are as old as 30,000 years, making it by far the oldest instrument of mankind.
I find this absolutely extraordinary! Ocarinas and their ancestors have been with mankind through our existence. Over time, they were altered in style and meaning, yet their sound endured. Any normal instrument in an orchestra is an infant in contrast to the ocarina.
Many civilizations have invented clay or stone flutes separately from one another. For instance, the Chinese make the xun. It's more than seven thousand years old and is still being used today! Then there is the medieval German gemshorn, which was made from one horn of a chamois. And, of course, don't forget the Aztecs, who used their flutes in their music and rituals. When the Aztecs were conquered, their flutes found their way to continental Europe and finally Italy, where someone redesigned them into what we know as the ocarina.
The US got the ocarina early in the twentieth century, where it was popular among American soldiers. A lot of them took ocarinas with them to WW1 and played them to keep up their confidence. In World War Two, the US army in fact gave these instruments to its soldiers all over Europe, which tells you how meaningful these flutes were at the time.
Not long after the war, public attention of ocarinas went down and it was never widely known in the western culture. Nonetheless, the ocarina was used in a few popular pieces of music, like for the main theme of a Clint Eastwood western.
In Asia, ocarinas have always been a lot more common. Practically every Asian is aware of the instrument like you know the piano. Because of this, it often finds a role in motion pictures, music or games. And it's because of this that ocarinas are getting more and more renowned in the west. Mainly thanks to Japanese games, the ocarina has found its way into pop culture and straight into the hearts of young people.
Specifically, the Zelda games by Nintendo include the ocarina as a legendary artifact and instrument. When this happened back in 1998, the ocarina had a boom in public awareness that has not declined.
But it is much more than a simple flute or collector's item from a video game. In reality, it is actually a concert level instrument that can be played in in groups. It sounds unlike all other flutes, because it can not produce overtones. This feature lends it a melodious, sweet sound, clean and concentrated on that one note it plays in each instant. This dreamlike quality of ocarina music is exactly as special as its shape and history.
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