The ocarina (陶笛) may be known as a "pottery flute" in Chinese. However, it doesn't look anything like a classical flute. Rather, it is shaped like the body of a small goose. In fact, "ocarina" is Italian for "gosling", a name given to it more than 100 years ago by Italian Giuseppe Donati, who created the ocarina's shape and added tone holes.
These tone holes are on the front of the instrument. There is also a sound hole on the back. The ocarina is small enough to be held in two hands with the fingers used to cover and uncover the holes, while blowing through a mouthpiece. The lowest tone is generated when all the tones holes are covered and the sound hole is uncovered. The tone becomes higher as the tone holes are uncovered one by one.
Altough the origins of the ocarina are somewhat unclear, it appears to be related to a number of similarly-shaped instruments that developed separately in most of the world's great civilizations. For example, in China an egg-shaped instrument has six tone holes and dates back some 7,000 years
These tone holes are on the front of the instrument. There is also a sound hole on the back. The ocarina is small enough to be held in two hands with the fingers used to cover and uncover the holes, while blowing through a mouthpiece. The lowest tone is generated when all the tones holes are covered and the sound hole is uncovered. The tone becomes higher as the tone holes are uncovered one by one.
Altough the origins of the ocarina are somewhat unclear, it appears to be related to a number of similarly-shaped instruments that developed separately in most of the world's great civilizations. For example, in China an egg-shaped instrument has six tone holes and dates back some 7,000 years
0 comments:
Post a Comment