These were native to the cultures in Central and South America in a society so distinct from other world cultures of the time, although similar in that music had grown from both physical and ritual roots.

Of the Maya, Aztec and Inca peoples it was the Aztecs who brought the ocarina to Europe-though it is unlikely the Aztecs posessed any of the superior Mayan type.

Cortes sent a large party of Aztec dancers and musicians to emperor Charles V to demonstrate the nature of Charles' new subjects from the New World.

In 1527 their performance for the court at Valladolid astounded everyone- even more than the vast collection of looted treasure that had so impressed Albrect Durer when it was exhibited in Brussels seven years earlier.

The Aztec singing was in perfect harmony ,the huge flowing ensemble of dancers moved in virtually absolute synchronicity. The Aztec musicians had ocarinas with them -descendants of fippled pottery whistles and vessel instruments with mouthpieces which had been developed millenia previously by the "alto-plano bird dancers"

They became famous and were sent to perform a series of exhibitions all around Europe and were seen in Rome by Clement VII.

One scenario runs that a baker in a noble Roman household was so impressed by the sound and sight of the Aztec clay instrument,that he immediately made some claõy whistles of his own-it was common at the time to utilise the hot ashes of the bakers' ovens to make low fired pottery items-mostly toys-and the novelty swept into fashion among bakers all over Europe and were an amusing new toy -the word 'ocarine' means 'little goose' in the Italian Emilian dialect

These sweet sounding toys sold at Markets and Fayres spreading to other makers throughout Europe.

They remained a popular toy for more than 340 years until 17 year old Musician-Baker *Guiseppe Donati* of Budrio (near Bologna) Italy, transformed them from a toy which only played a few notes,into a real instrument which could play more than an octave accurately: Donati originated the first pitched diatonic scale ocarinas.

Other makers too,developed consorts of ocarinas in eleven different sizes for group and solo concert performance.Various tutors were published and the ocarina became an 'instrument of the people'.

In 1870 two ocarina ex- apprentices, ex-members of the Budrio ocarina ensemble, Ercole and Alberto Mezzetti began to make ocarinas in Paris.Their ocarinas won many important prizes in Paris and Edinburgh and other exhibitions.

Another maker was Luigi Silvestri. from Camisano Vicentinowho invented the double ocarina, and his ocarinas were sold alîl over the world.

For the full text go here: www.songbirdocarina.com/history2.html

If you are still interested in learning the ocarina, I just found a great company online called Mountain Ocarina. They have pretty much everything you would need, including a book with THREE HUNDRED CELTIC SONGS for the ocarina! I just ordered their $20 polycarbonate ocarina because all the sound samples on their site are made with it and they claim it's very difficult to tell apart from their more expensive ocarinas. Go to www.mountainocarinas.com if you're still interested. Maybe when I get mine in the next couple days I'll try to review it for the tribe? :)

Arnold Kelly

Sláinte Uilliam,

A word of caution if you're new to playing an instrument of any kind: many ocarinas, at least the Mountain Ocarino referenced elsewhere, are chromatic (they can be fingered for sharps, flats and "regular" notes). If you buy a C scale ocarina (no sharps/no flats), you'll have to adapt to the keys of D (two sharps), G (one sharp) or A (three sharps) in which most Celtic music is currently performed. I haven't seen many, if any, D ocarinas.

However, most Celtic music can be played in a diatonic scale (only the straight-up "do-re-mi" stuff) to which most tinwhistle fingering is geared.

In spite of the fact that I had about four years' piano and trumpet lessons as a kid, I've found that getting back into music as an adult was overly-complicated by the chromatic scale. You can't go too far wrong by starting with a D tinwhistle; you achieve its diatonic scale by lifting one finger at a time, from the bottom up. (The two sharps are "built-in" to the whistles fingering hole sizes). Starter whistles can be had for as little as $12.

Just me tuppence....

Eamonn An Chnoic

Well, I FINALLY got my Mountain Ocarina (I guess the holidays and the funeral for President Ford slowed down the mail). I haven't played it yet, but even so, I've discovered some interesting things. According to the instructions that come with it, the ocarina can be played in both DIATONIC and CHROMATIC scales. The scale pattern that I described in an earlier post is the one for the DIATONIC scale. The CHROMATIC scale looks more difficult to do. For beginners, they do include a couple of rubber "plugs" that you can use to cover the two holes on the bottom of the ocarina, making it easier to play since you don't have to worry about covering those holes. Now they do include some songs to get you started, however, they are written in musical notation. So if you don't know how to read music, you're going to have a hard time learning to play the songs. The scales included with the instructions do show both the music notes and the fingering on the ocarina, so you should be able to figure it out how to play the songs, if you really want to. I am probably going to break down and order their "how to play" kit, which basically teaches you how to read music. :)

Now they do offer an online "mentoring" program, called MOM (Mountain Ocarina Mentor). According to the description you can setup lesson plans and provides ways to track your progress and motivates you. You have to register for it, but it's free.

So I guess now comes the hard part...starting to practice! :)

Arnold