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Table of Contents
A Commission To Set Standards for the Ocarina
Starting in 2021 discussions between me and several other makers on the TON (The Ocarina Network) forums and the three main ocarina groups on Facebook (TON, Ocarina Makers, and Global Ocarina Community) have led me to want to form a commission to set standards for the ocarina. In the current state of affairs there is a great deal about the ocarina that is inconsistent. There are few standards that are maintained in the written sheet music, there is no standards naming convention that is held between makers and there is no well defined sense of how to classify and recommend different types of ocarinas. This goal of this commission is to create standards that many contributing members of the ocarina community agree to that can in hopes be more widely adopted and used to make it easier to understand, read sheet music for, and compose for the ocarina.
Identifying issues that the ocarina has
Recommendations for instrument choice
How are composers to know what range the instrument should be expected to have, how well an ocarina is expected to work
Naming conventions
Written sheet music for ocarina
Composition organization
Many other instrument communities have well defined libraries of compositions on the instrument. One such community is the recorder community with various recorder societies maintaining lists of original compositions for the instrument that can easily be found and searched by players of the instrument. This is to great advantage in the community because it allows for composers to be found by players and more works to be performed. Is someone owns an obscure type of recorder, say a gerklein recorder, they are easily able to find resources for original compositions and arrangements to play on the instrument. Such societies and libraries should also exist for the ocarina.
Proposed solutions for those issues
Setting standards for ocarina pitch naming conventions
Pitch range naming standards for 10-12 hole ocarinas
Pitch range naming standards for pendant and 4 hole ocarinas
Pitch range naming standards for double, triple and quadruple ocarinas
Setting standards for sheet music
Standardizing the tonic position
Ocarina as a transposing instrument
Markings used for extended technique
Agreeing on standards for ocarina education
make a library of method books and playing guides
Agree some some educational standards to get better ocarina players
Compositional guides for composers
The commission should seek out to make a compositional guide for a composers who are not yet familiar with the instrument. it is unreasonable to expect that composers will sort out the information from the ocarina community and we should instead make a guide that defines the instrument in terms that they will understand from the perspective of contemporary music.
Define what an ocarina should be expected to be able to do
No such thing as paying louder then fuerte on the ocarina (mf is pretty much the loudest it can play in tune as well)
Define what ocarinas to recommend
should we recommend 12 hole and doubles as the choice models for professional playing?
Discuss what kinds of ocarinas are common and uncommon
Which models can a composer reasonably expect a player to show up with?
Define what should be expected with player competence and skill
What kinds of music can be played on an ocarina?
