I got this delightful little instrument at a local flea market yesterday:
It has a range of just over an octave, and it's fully chromatic - I could play a tone row on it!
Mind you, its sound is rather high and shrill, so I can't really play much without driving my neighbour nuts.
But it set me to wondering about the ocarina in classical music. It turns out there is quite a bit on YouTube, e.g. a Vivaldi concerto played on ocarina:
If you ask me, the ocarina actually sounds sweeter and not as piercingly shrill as the sopranino recorders on which they usually play this.
And here's a movement from a concerto for ocarina:
I particularly like this concerto (mind you, it's a MIDI file, but I'd love to hear a "real" performance; they tell me there is one planned for later this year):
The ocarina doesn't seem to be standardized in any way, so I suppose it is difficult to write music for it. But perhaps we'll soon see them become as common as recorders.
It has a range of just over an octave, and it's fully chromatic - I could play a tone row on it!
Mind you, its sound is rather high and shrill, so I can't really play much without driving my neighbour nuts.
But it set me to wondering about the ocarina in classical music. It turns out there is quite a bit on YouTube, e.g. a Vivaldi concerto played on ocarina:
If you ask me, the ocarina actually sounds sweeter and not as piercingly shrill as the sopranino recorders on which they usually play this.
And here's a movement from a concerto for ocarina:
I particularly like this concerto (mind you, it's a MIDI file, but I'd love to hear a "real" performance; they tell me there is one planned for later this year):
The ocarina doesn't seem to be standardized in any way, so I suppose it is difficult to write music for it. But perhaps we'll soon see them become as common as recorders.