The term “ocarina” refers to two different types of vessel flutes. The term “vessel” is used to denote the absence of an elongated tube in the instrument. Giuseppe Luigi Donati invented one type of ocarina in the early 1850s, which is a hollow instrument with an extended mouthpiece. However, the term “ocarina” is also used to refer to any type of vessel flute from around the world, including those that are played breathing through a hole rather than a mouthpiece.
China, Latin America, Africa, and Papua New Guinea have all discovered early vessel flutes. These instruments are thought to be forerunners to the ocarina. They were made of stone, clay, wood, bone, gourds, and animal shells, among other materials. Shapes that resembled animals, people, and birds were popular in Latin America.
In Europe, bird-shaped clay whistles became popular as children’s toys, and Donati was inspired this instrument. Vessel flutes from all over the world have different tunings and numbers of holes, but Donati tuned it to a complete Western-style scale with up to 10 holes for the fingers and thumb. The Donati ocarina is described as a “egg-shaped,” “submarine,” and “sweet potato” ocarina. Some of them have a very sharp tip to them.
Some of Donati’s ocarinas can be found in art museums around the world, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. However, in Budrio, where Donati lived and worked, there is the Budrio Ocarina Museum, which houses examples of both Donati’s and other famous makers’ ocarinas. A collection of ocarina-making equipment is also on display at the museum.
The ocarina continues to have a wide range of sounds today. It can have one or more chambers, be made of plastic, porcelain, clay, or metal, and have four to twelve holes, some of which are similar in size and others which are different. Half hole (partially, rather than completely covering a hole to intentionally vary the pitch) and cross-fingering or forked fingering are two techniques used on the ocarina. The ocarina is classified pitch in the same way that recorders are, with sopranino, soprano, tenor, bass, and so on.
Other ocarina innovations were created a number of other makers. An Englishman named John Taylor devised a four-hole (plus thumb hole) design in which the holes are not all the same size. This model became very popular and was dubbed the “English ocarina” some. A second thumb hole was added to Taylor’s model David Hannauer, an American.
The ocarina has even made appearances in contemporary musical recordings. Aside from ocarina ensemble performances, the ocarina has been featured in popular songs such as the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” and movie soundtracks such as the Road to… series starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.