OCARINA: Italian Musical instrument

The ocarina is a wind musical instrument in the family of vessel flutes. Versions of the musical instrument do exist, but the main version of the musical instrument is an enclosed space with 4 to 12 finger holes and a mouthpiece, which projects from the body of the instrument. The musical instrument is traditionally manufactured from a clay or ceramics, but some other materials can also be used in the production, like wood, glass, bone and metal.

The ocarina belongs to the ancient family of musical instrument, said to have been traced back to 12,000 years. Ocarina-type musical instrument have been of specific essence in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. For the Chinese, the musical instrument performed a crucial role in their long history of dance and music. The musical instrument has analogous features to the xun, another Chinese musical instrument. In japan, the traditional version of the ocarina is called tsuchibue. Different journeys to Mesoamerica, including the excursion organized by Cortes led to the introduction of the musical instrument to the court of Europe. Both the Aztecs and the Mayans had manufactured versions of this musical instrument, but the song and dance of the musical instrument was brought to Europe by the Aztecs. The musical instrument went to become a prominent musical instrument in European communities as a toy musical instrument.

The earliest use of the ocarina in Europe has been traced back to the 19^th century in Budrio, a town that is found near Bologna in Italy, where Giuseppe Donati transformed the musical instrument from toy that play few notes into a more understandable musical instrument. The name of the instrument ‘ocarina’ in the Bolognese language of Italy means ‘little goose’. The earliest form of the musical instrument in Europe was called gemshorn that was manufactured from the horns of animals of the chamois.

In 1998, the musical instrument was seen in the Nintendo 64 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, interesting a marked maximum interest and a dramatic rise in its sales. The musical instrument later was seen in other games in the The Legend of Zelda series.

The airstream of the instrument is directed on the labium by a fipple that is a narrowing rectangular slot in the instrument’s mouthpiece, instead of relying on the lip of the player as in transverse flute. Like any other flute, the airstream of the ocarina alternates fast between the inner and the outer face of the labium as the pressure in the chamber of the musical instrument oscillates. At first, the sound is a noise, but the frequencies that are identical with the main frequency of the resonating chamber of the instrument, and also the overtones to a slim extent, are selectively amplified. Unlike the vessel flute, the ocarina has an unusual quality of not depending on the length of the pipe to manufacture a specific tone. Rather, the tone of the instrument is relying on the ratio of the entire surface area of opened holes to the entire cubic volume enclosed on the ocarina. This means that the sound of the musical instrument is manufactured by resonance of the entire cavity and the placement of the holes on the musical instrument in very important in the production of sound instrument musical instrument. The size of the instrument is the most important factor that determines the quality of sound that will be manufactured on the musical instrument.

The resonance in the musical instrument can produce overtones, though because of the general egg-shape, the overtones are several octaves above the keynote scale. In analogous Helmholts resonator musical instrument that has the shape of a narrow cone, some partial overtones are available. The pattern of overblowing to gain a range of higher pitched notes is very possible with the musical instrument, but not commonly used because the produced note is clean enough, so the range of pitches available on the instrument is limited to a 12^th. Some producers of the musical instrument increase the range of the instrument by designing double-chambered or triple-chambered version of the musical instrument tuned an octave or a 10^th apart, although some double versions are not produced to increase the range, but to perform in harmony with the chambers of the instrument.

These double and triple versions of the musical instrument can also perform chords. Different note are manufactured by closing the holes, and by closing and opening more or less of the entire holes area. The tone is then manufactured via the sound embouchure.

There are several styles of the musical instrument differing in shape and the number of holes that are on them.

The transverse version of the musical instrument is the best known style of the musical instrument. This style has a rounded shape, and can be held with the both hands horizontally. Depending on the number of holes that are on the instrument, the player of the instrument just needs to open one or more holes than the previous to increase the pitch.

The pendants style is of two types; the English pendant style of the musical instrument is often very small and portable and it uses an English fingering system. the Peruvian pendant style dates from the time of the Incas, this style of the musical instrument was used as an instrument for festivals, ceremonies and ritual.

The inline style of the musical instrument is normally called fusion of the pendant and the transverse. This style of the instrument is known for being compact and small, yet there are more holes on this style than the pendant style. This permits the player of the musical instrument to increase the pitch of the instrument with the linear finger style instead of the finger combinations.

Multi chambered style of the ocarina also known as double and triple ocarinas. These versions of the musical instrument are found within the three broad categories of the musical instrument. These versions of the musical instrument overcome the demerit of ocarinas of having limited range notes.

The versions of the musical instrument with keys have been manufactured by many producers of the instrument, mostly experimentally, starting in the later part of the 19^th century. Keys and slide can be added to the instrument with the intention of expanding the range or with the intention of enabling the fingers of the hand to reach the holes that are widely spaced.