Article suitable for older students

The ocarina in Mesoamerica

4th Sep 2018

Mexican ocarinas used in Mexicolore school history workshops on the Maya and the Aztecs

In our history workshops in schools on the Maya and the Aztecs children have been merrily playing ocarinas (pictured, right) for many years. Plastic ocarinas are a popular resource in primary school music rooms in England. If you google ‘ocarina’ you could be forgiven for thinking that the instrument has its origins in 19th century Italy. In fact it has a much more ancient pedigree, stretching far to the east and west of Europe... (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

The word ‘ocarina’ is certainly Italian in origin: in the Bolognese dialect of the Emiliano-Romagnolo language it means ‘little goose’. The Italian Giuseppe Donati invented the modern ‘sweet potato’ style ocarina in his workshop near Bologna, transforming what had, in Europe, been little more than a toy into an eight-holed musical instrument.
What exactly IS an ocarina? First and foremost, it’s a wind instrument or aerophone. Secondly, it belongs to the flute family. Within that it’s a kind of ‘duct’ flute (‘Duct flutes... have the upper end blocked except for a small duct into which the player blows and which directs his breath to the sharp edge of an opening cut into the tube’ - Jean Jenkins). Finally, since duct flutes can be tubular or globular, the ocarina falls into the second category, sometimes called a ‘vessel flute’. As luck would have it, it’s more complicated than this: there are TWO types of vessel flutes, according to how the sound is generated - with or without a duct. Those without a duct are called ‘edge-blown’ or ‘rim-blown’. For example, the instruments in pictures 7, 13 and 15 are all edge-blown ocarinas.

Duct flutes, then, are flutes that have air ducts (see picture 2), channelling the air towards a sharp edge, as opposed to ‘end-flutes’, ‘notched flutes’, ‘transverse flutes’ and others that don’t. Interestingly, duct flutes are easier to blow and less wasteful of breath than the other types.
Unfortunately, as Karl Izikowitz pointed out early in the 20th century, ‘no other group of instruments... has caused so many difficulties for ethnographers as flutes’. Whilst he was referring specifically to the Americas, the same could be said about instrument research all over the world...

Evidence for ocarinas goes back several millennia, particularly in ancient China, where clay ocarinas from the Shang Dynasty pre-date 1100 BCE, and in pre-Classic Mesoamerica (some of Dennett and Kosyk’s Greater Nicoya examples date from 500 BCE). The trouble is, archaeologists may not be musicians and vice versa. In the Americas, where ‘every known type of flute construction in the world was also known by the [South American] Indians’ (Izikowitz), ‘the terms whistle, ocarina and sometimes flute have been carelessly and often synonymously used’ (Norman Hammond). Hammond points out that most of the whistle-figurines recorded in scholarly literature are actually ocarinas, having a small hole at the mouthpiece ‘and one or more stops in the walls of the chamber’. Scholars often classify vessel flutes without any fingerholes as ‘whistles’, and vessel
flutes WITH at least one fingerhole as ‘ocarinas’

What sort of evidence do we have? The Spanish invaders mixed and matched words like ‘whistle’ and ‘flute’ liberally, so whilst the chroniclers used phrases such as flautillas mui agudas (‘very shrill tiny flutes’ - Torquemada) we have very little to go on by way of detail or even iconography. The closest we ever get to a possible illustration of a Mexica (Aztec) ocarina is in the Florentine Codex (pic 4); however it ISN’T an ocarina! Mexican expert Guillermo Contreras identifies it as a ‘twin-diaphragm whistle’, or in modern terms a ‘death whistle’ or ‘noise generator’. We should point out at this stage that there is little evidence of ocarina playing at all among the Mexica - in Robert Stevenson’s inimitable words ‘the idea must be surrendered that either the Aztecs themselves or their close allies took fondly to the ocarina...’

We don’t have much for the ancient Maya either. There’s a scene in Room 1 of the famous Bonampak murals depicting a ceremonial Maya band circling clockwise round the player of a large stationary vertical drum (pax). At the back of the procession is a single musician who appears to be multitasking, shaking a rattle, holding a hand drum, and blowing a small wind instrument most scholars believe is an ocarina (pic 5).

What we DO have is a surprisingly large number of original vessel flutes found by archaeologists in sites not only throughout Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, but also beyond, through Central and way down into South America (pic 6) - adding weight to the conclusion that ‘the sheer wealth of instruments gives the impression of the enormous importance of music-making in the lives of these people’ (Peter Crossley-Holland). The vast majority are ceramic (the occasional bone ocarina has been found). Although pottery is not commonly a material associated with music - for a start, it shatters even more easily than glass - it DOES survive, when fired, far longer than say wood or gourd when buried in the earth.

Characteristic of agricultural societies worldwide, the use of clay has important implications: most of these instruments were moulded carefully and symbolically (think integration, oneness...) out of a single piece of material, being either ‘zoomorphic’ (representing living creatures), ‘anthropomorphic’ (representing the human form) (pic 7), or mixed (anthropo-zoomorphic), depicting gods and other spiritual creatures. From the musical standpoint, clay warms slowly, requiring the player literally to warm up the instrument: ‘Flutes tend to sound their best after a good warming by the player’s breath and hands’ (Crossley-Holland).

By far the most common type of ocarina from ancient Mesoamerica was the 4-hole bird-shaped variety (pix 1 and 8), measuring roughly 4-7 cms., called huilacapitztli in the Aztec language Nahuatl. The ubiquity of these (they were so common) led 19th- and 20th-century scholars to make a number of false assumptions: that these were -
• just toys made for children to play with
• limited to a simple pentatonic (5-note) scale
• symbolic just of the four sacred quarters of the world...

Since then, however, scholars - including serious musicians - have discovered that Mesoamerican ocarinas:-
• came in a huge variety of shapes (Rodens, Both and Sánchez catalogue over 150, and that’s just one particular type, ‘poly-globular flutes’ with two or more connected globular chambers - instruments unique to Mesoamerica; picture 7 shows a good example)
• have up to six finger holes (see picture 16) (or ‘stops’ as Izikowitz called them), and can measure up to 20 cm or 7 inches in length
• could produce a wide range of notes/pitches: even a 4-hole model could generate up to 16 or even 18 pitches (Stevenson, Martí)
• were played for serous purposes, particularly in rituals, and often accompanied songs and chants. With their gentle musical qualities, it’s unlikely ocarinas would have featured in mass performances/ceremonies, and more likely they would have been played, for example, by court musicians, perhaps accompanying songs praising the ruler’s exploits and victories.

Frog-shaped ocarinas would almost certainly have been played by groups of musicians mimicking the croaking sound of frogs heralding rain, effectively ‘calling’ the gods for rain; just as rattlesnake-shaped rainsticks were shaken to the same end (rattlesnakes are always much more active in the rainy season) - what Kurath and Martí call ‘imitative music’. Mesoamerican peoples were very closely in touch with nature, and expressed that relationship through their senses and in the arts. Choice of materials was important: a clay resonator produces the most authentic sound for mimicking a frog’s croaking voice...

By blowing into a frog-shaped ocarina, the musician performed a ritual act on several levels: he (it was usually a he) blew breath - ie life itself - into the instrument and frog, he drew out its voice (the Mexica spoke of musicians being ‘singers’ of their instruments; the Maya considered even percussion instruments to be animated by wind/breath), and also he invoked the association with rain that the frog represented. Ocarinas have also been found in the shape of armadillos, dogs, birds, felines, serpents, peccaries (pic 11), turtles, owls, tapirs, monkeys, bats, scorpions, lizards, and, rarely, turkeys and fish... In the vast majority of cases, the animal depicted faces AWAY from the musician when the instrument is played. The ocarina shown in picture 11 is a rare example where the animal image is oriented TOWARDS the musician.

Picture 12 shows another rare example. Dennett and Kosyk explain how it works: ‘The mouthpiece is part of the armadillo’s snout. The airduct is directed towards a rectangular aperture on the animal’s throat between the vessel chamber and mouthpiece. The resonating chamber is almost perfectly spherical; only alternating in shape with the extension of the armadillo’s tail and head which are not solid and are part of the inner chamber as well. There is a single hole that goes through the tail that may have been used for suspension.’

If the Aztecs only played ocarinas on a small scale, FAR more evidence exists of ocarina playing in the Gulf of Mexico region, among the Classic Maya, and down into what is today Central America (as far as modern-day Costa Rica). We know from the Central American region that ocarinas were - and still are today - part of the ‘toolkits’ of shamans, used to communicate with the dead and supernatural. We can only assume the Mexica used them in similar contexts. Examples have been found that combine human with animal features - indicating the depiction of nahuales or spirit guides. Healy has noted that male ‘figurine ocarinas’ from Belize usually emit lower pitches than female ones. Dajer, in his richly illustrated study of pre-Columbian instruments from Michoacán, catalogues sets of three ocarinas with different pitches: deep, medium and shrill.

When played together today, they exhibit a ‘considerable tonal range’ and produce ‘unusual and rich harmonies’, and Dajer wonders if the ancients followed this practice. A pair of matching ocarinas that dramatically illustrates the two ends of this mini spectrum is shown in picture 14.
Crossley-Holland suggests possible cultural differences for these pitches: ‘It may well be that deep sounds were especially sought-after in West Mexican antiquity’. We should point out that the concept of ‘pitch’ was not as important in ancient Mesoamerica as rhythm and timbre; after all, it was almost impossible to make two ceramic instruments that matched each other exactly in pitch.

Just as figurines depict both individual musicians and ensembles, it seems likely that ocarinas were played both solo in every-day life (such as accompanying a chant to a deity within the family home, or a shaman carrying out a healing, or to mimic bird or animal calls while hunting) and - more commonly - in groups as part of fertility, rain and other rituals, or possibly in funeral processions, and - beyond - to call upon the dead, often to help the living. The ocarina’s role in helping priest, shaman and nahual (animal companion spirit) to cross over between these worlds, whilst noted many years ago for South America by Izikowitz, has yet to be fully explored and documented in Mesoamerica. Dajer suggests, from seeing depictions of hallucinogenic plants on some ocarinas (pic 15), that the instruments may well have been used in hallucinatory rituals and ceremonies.

All sound is communication. Wind instruments have always been employed to send messages, both in war and in peace. Some scholars believe ocarinas and whistles were used in part for the mundane purpose of communicating back and forth between (distant) households (Nielsen & Helmke, Both & Giles). (This would presumably have involved smaller instruments, since lower-pitch sound waves don’t reach as far as higher-pitch ones). Others suggest one-way message-sending, such as calling family or community members to prayer. Communication with spirits is a two-way process. An ocarina might be played in one context to call a person’s animal spirit or nahual but in another to scare away an unwanted bad spirit.

In the case of rain rituals, instruments might have been played not only to invoke rain, but also to thank the appropriate deities AFTER the rain has come. As Miller succinctly put it ‘Wind begets rain, and rain begets maize...’ Following research on 1325 clay aerophones held by the Museo de Antropología e Historia, San Pedro Sula (Honduras), Campos suggests ocarinas may have been played ‘in chorus’ (pic 17), reproducing the celebratory murmur of frogs and other creatures to be heard every evening after a heavy storm in the Sula valley. The Sula collection, incidentally, contains several ceramic ‘stamp-ocarinas’, indicating a dual - decorative/musical - function.

The decorative potential of some zoomorphic ocarinas is raised by Nielsen & Helmke: a set of five hand-modelled small Maya avian (bird-shaped) ocarinas from Belize has been found in the form of a necklace; the instruments are of incremental sizes, suggesting that ‘the wearer of the necklace could easily switch between the various suspended instruments to play melodies more elaborate than those produced by a single ocarina. While only the one necklace has been identified at Pook’s Hill [Belize], it is conceivable that such necklaces were widespread, given the number of similar small effigy ocarinas with suspension holes. If such necklaces were indeed commonplace, musical activity with these instruments could have been highly social with multiple wearers of necklaces producing music together’.
Ocarinas may have decorated not just the human body, but also the physical environment: as the authors point out, in addition to suspension holes, ‘most ocarinas also exhibit small supports or nubbin feet so that these can stand as small statuettes or effigies’ (pic 18).

Maybe it’s fitting to end this introduction to Mesoamerican ocarinas on the theme of aesthetics. Several scholars have commented on the exquisite look and feel of some of these diminutive instruments - most notably Samuel Martí, who gave his highest vote to the ‘enchanting whistle-figurines’ from the Central Mexican region of Tlatilco. We hope you will agree that some of the musical artefacts shown on this page are genuinely beautiful, and would proudly grace any museum or art gallery’s display cases. Yet the artists knew they were imbuing them with a living spirit - a ‘breath-soul’ in Taube’s words - which would be animated and brought to life, in real and spiritual domains, through skilled musical performance...

Ode to the armadillo (Aztec limerick no. 4):-
Scribes who were oft called tlacuilos
Would occasionally draw armadillos
For their name ‘tortoise-rabbits’
Conjured underworld habits
Like Mole in The Wind in the Willows.

Pre-Hispanic swinging whistles...See some of the ocarinas in the Crossley-Holland collection, Bangor University How to play the Ocarina, an instrument from ancient Mexico - video lesson by Martín Espino Ocarina history (world)

Comments (2)

Christopher Garcia

13th Mar 2023

OCARINA and FLUTE makers and tunings
It should be noted that modern day makers of clay flute and caly ocarina ”replicas” in the United States tune the instruments to a pentatonic scale, e.g., the black notes on a piano. That information is actually posted on their websites.
Modern makers in the U.S. are aware that the ocarinas and flutes are not tuned to the pentatonic scale but they tell me that they “blend better” and “they are easier for laymen to play them” but the public should be aware this is not what the instruments actually “sounded” like.
There are many places where you can purchase instruments online and they might look good but some of them don’t make a sound. If you want to purchase an instrument online make sure that the seller plays the instruments for you and sends you a clip to make sure that you are getting what you are paying for..
If you don’t care what it sounds like and only care what they look like ..........

You can look at the flute tunings documented in
MUSIC OF MEXICO: A HISTORICAL SURVEY
or
MUSIC IN AZTEC AND INCA TERRITORY
by Robert Murrell Stevenson

you will find that the flutes in the anthropological museum in Mexico
ARE NOT tuned to the black notes on the piano.
Every time we are invited back to Mexico to perform and lecture
(Mexico City, Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Los Pozos)we visit
modern day flute and drum makers and none of them tune the instruments to the black notes on the piano.
Most of the makers in Mexico are in rural settings and the instruments are made in their homes with a kiln in their backyard. These are skilled artisans and each instrument is as unique as the drum maker and the person who will be purchasing them.
We visited a drum maker who had several different drums ... huehuetls, tlapan huehuetls teponaztlis etc. Each drum was unique in size, tone and resonance and each drum had a different carving etc.,
When asked why each drum was so different and not “standardized” the drum maker told us that each person is unique and different and each of us will have a different experience and a different resonance with each drum.
So instead of making each drum the same way, they design each drum, flute and ocarina
as unique as the person who might be playing the instrument.

THANK YOU Ian for the great work you continue to do
ALL OUR BEST TO YOU AND YOURS