The US Army Issued Ocarinas to Soldiers in World War II (flutetunes.com)
89 points by tomcam 2 days ago
mrob 13 minutes ago
Ocarinas have the great advantage over recorders that you can safely play them without hearing protection. I have personally measured the loud notes on both a soprano recorder and an alto recorder and the SPL meter measured over 100dB(A) at the ear (indoors, so this includes reverberation too, but most recorders are played indoors). Note that standard recorder fingering allows for almost no control over dynamics; each note has a single set volume that it must be played at to sound in tune. (Advanced technique allows slight control over dynamics with alternative fingerings.) For this reason I do not think recorders should be used in schools.
dofm 6 hours ago
Carter?
"Yes sir?"
What is it, Carter?
"An ocarina, sir"
Bring it up here!
It came with some sheet music that shows each note as a box with four dots in it that can be shown as either open or closed:
https://ocarinasongbook.com/fingering-charts/four-hole/
It sounds unusually sophisticated — perhaps even better after forty-plus years -- and it's actually a relatively new design. The ocarina is ancient but the four hole chromatic design dates from the 1960s, so it's newer than those Gretsch ocarinas in the article.
You can get them in all sorts of shapes and sizes -- Thomann sell hand-painted clay 4H ocarinas in the shapes of strawberries and clownfish.
I wish we'd been taught to play these in school instead of with those Aulos descant recorders that everyone in British schools, particularly teachers I imagine, grew to hate.
qbonnard an hour ago
I understand the intellectual satisfaction you're talking about. Now I'm wondering if we can push the minimalism to using these four holes with only two fingers. It seems doable from the diagram you link, using link fingers, and assuming half holes can be covered from the left side, and two holes can be covered with one finger at the same time. Would that work, or does the physicality of the instrument prevent that ?
dofm an hour ago
From memory — can't find the thing right now! — this would be a little difficult on the one I had because of its shape.
Also because — not sure how to explain it — but in my experience the holes on a four hole ocarina are also sort of finger grips, in a way. That is to say, you support the ocarina against your lips with at least one finger below it and two thumbs behind it, but part of your grip on the instrument is gently transferring from fingertip to fingertip as you play, a bit like a recorder or the pipe of bagpipes. The "open" low note has the loosest grip, and you might even subconsciously tilt your head back slightly to allow the weight of the ocarina to shift more to your thumbs.
It might be possible to design, effectively, a one-handed playable instrument that works the way you are talking about, but I think it would be quite uncomfortable.
nephihaha 2 hours ago
I did recorder in primary school. One of the things I dimly remember along with certain games and rhymes. (I think in Irish schools they do the tin whistle.)
I gather a lot of schools are adopting ukuleles now. Ukes have a bad name, unfairly I think. (Listen to Eddie Vedder's "Ukulele Songs" album, very underrated). The ukulele is more forgiving than the recorder in my opinion.
dofm 2 hours ago
Music shops sell a lot of ukuleles. Huge numbers at Christmas, it's a very popular gift.
It's a fabulous instrument, nuanced and subtle, and you can buy beautiful instruments these days for really not much money at all.
But AFAIK its popularity in school as a teaching instrument has as much to do with Spongebob as it does its capability :-)
jhbadger 7 hours ago
The US military thought a lot about how to entertain its soldiers because there was a lot of downtime during a war and most of them were draftees who didn't necessarily want to be there, Another thing they did was publish pocket paperback editions of books back when paperbacks were less common.
leoc 4 hours ago
There were also the 2,400 specially-designed upright pianos it bought from Steinway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Vertical .
jeffbee 3 hours ago
My favorite WW2 morale detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge
pasc1878 2 hours ago
The British did better
Put beer into drop tanks on Spitfires
https://planehistoria.com/flying-pubs-spitfires-flew-beer-to...
zulux an hour ago
throw93949449 7 hours ago
> most of them were draftees who didn't necessarily want to be there
It is called forced labour or slavery.
multjoy 6 hours ago
It wasn’t slavery as they were paid and could be expected to be discharged at the cessation of hostilities.
Conscription is as old as society itself.
crote 4 hours ago
danaris 5 hours ago
throe94944i 6 hours ago
freedomben 6 hours ago
dctoedt 6 hours ago
> It is called forced labour or slavery.
In war, people who tolerate military conscription and discipline will conquer those who're slaves to pigheaded "you're not the boss of ME!" individualism.
It'd be nice if humans would voluntarily abandon war someday. But a corollary of the First Commandment is to face facts.
crote 4 hours ago
cucumber3732842 5 hours ago
TomK32 5 hours ago
In peacetimes, yes, but if it's defensive war I don't see many arguments against a draft, it can't be generalized though.
mrob 21 minutes ago
crote 4 hours ago
throw734848 2 hours ago
stevage 4 hours ago
Interesting that they don't seem to have had much cultural impact. I've never heard of these, never seen them in war films. You don't hear songs wistfully using a wartime ocarina or referring to them.
zulux an hour ago
Does this explain why all the kids in the States got recorders after the war? It's still a thing in 4th grade for most kids in public school.
tomcam 3 hours ago
Same. I was just able to order an original kit on eBay for $40, so demand isn’t high.
brudgers a day ago
That explains the Joey's ocarina in the movie Stalag 17.
cholmdomsky 4 minutes ago
My first thought
jrop 3 hours ago
An old favorite. "How stupid can you get, animal?"
warmedcookie 5 hours ago
Good movie, time to rewatch
snorkel 6 hours ago
Back in the day in elementary school we were each issued a tonette