Ocarina: What’s So Special About It?

Name: Instructor: Institution: Date: Ocarina: What’s so special about it? Introduction It is often said that an ocarina is a closed-pipe musical instrument. However, it is only fair to term it as a unique musical instrument due to its complicated but appealing nature. In Chinese and Mesoamerican culture, the ocarina is grouped together with an ancient family of musical instruments believed to exist 1200 years ago. However, after Giuseppe Donati invented the modern ocarina, the musical instrument started to exist in different structures. Nevertheless, regardless of the differences in structures, a typical ocarina has mouthpiece and four to twelve finger holes. With regards to ancient creation, it was mainly constructed using ceramic or clay. However, other materials such glass, wood, metal and bones have been used due to application of physics concepts in musical instruments. As a result, this paper examines the special nature of ocarinas with regards to the physics of music. Physics and Ocarina The mechanisms for making sounds in a flute and ocarina are similar. However, the difference lies in the role of the volume and length of the two instruments in establishing the height of the tone (wavelength). With respect to an ocarina, the ratio of the total area of the sound and tone holes to the whole volume of the ocarina establishes the tone. In contrast, it is the length from the mouth that influences the establishment of tones in flutes. Therefore, while, tone holes in flutes must be well positioned, tone holes on an ocarina can be positioned anywhere. As a result, an ocarina can be designed to fit the player’s fingers and hands. One of the special features of an ocarina is that its opening includes both the sound and tone holes. As a result, a lower tone is established when the sound hole is closed but all tone holes opened. On the other hand, the tone becomes higher as you open the holes one by one. Therefore, a higher tone is generated when all the tone holes are open, resulting to sufficient volume for the ocarina to resound using the resonating part and the sound hole. In addition, unlike other musical instruments, the difference between the highest and the lowest tone in an ocarina is roughly influenced by how the sound hole is made. Moreover, an ocarina generally does not utilize harmonic overtones. Nonetheless, this does not indicate that ocarinas cannot use harmonic overtones at all. Some piccolo ocarinas in Italy make a "g" sound, which is a whole tone higher than the "f" sound that is the highest tone of all ocarinas. Furthermore, the body of the ocarina is a hollow cavity that contains air that has pressure that is different from atmospheric pressure. This pressure is increased by the stream of air, which is split by the labium. If the pressure inside the cavity is greater than atmospheric pressure, it is vented through the voicing aperture pushing the stream of air under the labium creating the Bernoulli –effect. Consequently, the Bernoulli –effect decreases the pressure in the cavity compared to the atmospheric pressure. When this phenomenon takes place, the stream of air is pulled inside, above the labium, increasing the pressure in the cavity. Therefore pressure inside the body of the ocarina oscillates many t...