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- | =====A Commission To Set Standards for the Ocarina===== | + | =====Forming |
Starting in 2021 I have had discussions between me and several other makers on the TON (The Ocarina Network) forums, three different ocarina groups on Facebook (TON, Ocarina Makers, and Global Ocarina Community) which 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. | Starting in 2021 I have had discussions between me and several other makers on the TON (The Ocarina Network) forums, three different ocarina groups on Facebook (TON, Ocarina Makers, and Global Ocarina Community) which 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 | + | The goal of this paper is to start a discussion about setting standards for the ocarina. I will make an argument here that it is in the best interest of ocarina |
+ | |||
+ | I will also present the idea that we should form an ocarina society, one that will assist by being able to publish and distribute reliable information about the ocarina. This society will be able to also advance ocarina education and campaign to rehabilitate the image of the ocarina, to one that is taken more seriously in the music world. | ||
Below is a non-exhaustive list of issues with the ocarina I have identified. | Below is a non-exhaustive list of issues with the ocarina I have identified. | ||
- | |||
- | ===Recommendations for instrument choice=== | ||
- | There are many questions we should be asking about setting up recommendations for such things as the following- | ||
- | How are composers to know what range the instrument should be expected to have? \\ | ||
- | How well should an ocarina be expected to work? | ||
- | Should certain ocarinas be recommended over others? | ||
- | ===Naming | + | ====Standardize Ocarina |
- | Currently there is little standardization for what the naming convention for an ocarina is. When a composition calls for a tenor ocarina what could they mean? What about a soprano? | + | Currently there is little standardization for what the naming convention for an ocarina is. When a composition calls for a tenor ocarina what could they mean? What about a soprano |
+ | |||
+ | ====Set Recommendations for Instrument Choice==== | ||
+ | Much like the issue of finding clear and concise naming for different types of ocarina we should also start to make specific recommendations for the kinds that are used. As it stands composers do not know what range the ocarina is expected to have. They do not know how well an ocarina should be expected to work, how loud they typically play, if any specific maker is any good, and whether or not any specific ocarina is easy or difficult to find. This leaves us with a difficult question- Should certain types of ocarinas be recommended over others? Should certain makers be recommended over others? Or perhaps instead of recommending we can have a black list, the types of ocarinas you should not use unless you want to have a bad time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is safe to say that many composers are demanding, and the majority of instruments that someone can compose for have a larger pitch range it can play, a larger dynamic range, and that have much less restrictions than the ocarina. We should be making recommendations for composers to put the best form of the ocarina forward so that they can have the easiest time composing | ||
- | ===Written | + | ====Standardizing |
- | Currently there is not enough standardization for what ocarina sheet music should look like. \\ | + | Currently there is not enough standardization for what ocarina sheet music should look like. |
- | Where do we define should be the position of the tonic? Below the staff or in the staff? \\ | + | |
- | Should we consider the ocarina to be a transposing instrument? What are the drawbacks to it being read at pitch vs transposed? \\ | + | |
- | ===Composition organization=== | + | Where do we define |
- | 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 | + | Should we consider the ocarina |
+ | Should ocarina parts just have notes on the page and the player decides which ocarina | ||
+ | What are the drawbacks to it being read at pitch vs transposed? | ||
+ | Should bass ocarina parts be written in bass clef? | ||
- | ====Proposed solutions for those issues==== | + | These are all questions that a composer may ask when writing for the ocarina and I think these questions make it clear that we need to provide recommendations for what ocarina sheet music should look like. The vocabulary, pitch range, tuning, and style of ocarinas |
- | Here is a rough outline of proposed solutions | + | |
- | ===Setting | + | ===Setting |
+ | If you open Musescore, Sibelius, or any other digital composition software you may notice that the ocarina, if listed at all under woodwinds, is wonky. The sound profile is rarely accurate sounding to the instrument, they may list the alto as a soprano, and the software will think the instrument' | ||
+ | This would be a huge improvement for the future of composing for the ocarina, because the software would do a huge amount of the work for composers and will allow the ocarina to be a far more intuitive instrument to compose for. If we are able to answer questions composers may have about the ocarina through the interfaces that they encounter it will make the instrument feel more intuitive and feel more resolved and valid to compose for. | ||
- | ==Pitch range naming standards for 10 hole system ocarinas== | + | ===Create and Release Good Digital Samples === |
- | This includes 10 hole, 11, 12 and 13 hole ocarinas. I consider all of these instruments | + | We should make a sample library for the ocarina that does justice to the instrument. We can make various formats to use different VST technologies. |
- | Should these instruments be organized by tonic?\\ | + | |
- | Is a class system divided two to an octave like other instrument families | + | |
- | ==Pitch range naming standards | + | ===Markings Used for Extended Technique=== |
- | Ideally | + | The ocarina is capable of an incredible diversity of extended techniques from seamless portamento, flutter-tonguing, |
- | ==Pitch range naming standards | + | ====Set Standards |
- | Should these instruments also be sorted | + | There is no one more equipped to present recommendations on how to play the ocarina than from ocarina players themselves. There have been several examples of ocarina players releasing books on how to play the ocarina, but all of these have been the recommendation of a single individual. There is great potential to forge much more comprehensive standards if we work together to create them. These standards can be far more universal and have a huge effect on the kinds of ocarinas that are promoted, bought, and played by beginners. These standards can be applied to individual study but there should also be standards set for educational environments. The ocarina has grown in popularity as an educational instrument, and is increasingly one used in educational settings. We have a choice to recommend against this and have no further effect on these educational systems that are already in motion |
- | Should | + | |
- | ===Setting | + | This situation is very similar to the development of the recorder as an educational instrument. The recorder has had a benefit that we have lacked, in that recorder societies have set standards for how to learn the recorder and benchmarks for the progression of that education. These standards were written by the experts of the recorder community and adopted by the education systems that used the recorder. They have also long been the publishers of recorder books and were able to set up a canon of written works that young players can be juried on to show their musical progression. These are all elements that the ocarina community should also seek out. |
- | ==Standardizing the tonic position== | + | ===Design Grade Level Coursework=== |
- | Where do we define | + | We should |
- | ==Ocarina as a transposing instrument== | + | ===Create |
- | Should we recommend | + | One of the main ways that students are evaluated |
- | ==Markings used for extended technique== | + | =====Forming an Ocarina Society ===== |
- | Should we make a set of sheet music markings for unique techniques only the ocarina can do?\\ | + | |
- | What about microtonal techniques? | + | |
- | ===Agreeing | + | Many of the issues discussed above could be solved by forming an ocarina society. Additionally there are some great organizational benefits to this as well. An ocarina society would serve as a centralized place to keep ocarina information as well as a way to send out organized newsletters and updates |
- | ==make a library of method books and playing guides== | + | ===Starting |
+ | Currently there is no location available to publish ocarina related research, book reviews, criticism, announcements of performances and compositions, | ||
- | ==Agree some some educational standards | + | Additionally forming a journal can allow us to publish |
- | ===Compositional guides for composers=== | + | ===Create a Library of Ocarina Compositions=== |
- | The commission should seek out to make a compositional guide for a composers who are not yet familiar | + | Many other instrument communities have well defined libraries of compositions on the instrument. One such community is the recorder community |
- | ==Define what an ocarina should be expected | + | ===Create a Library of Method Books and Playing Guides=== |
- | No such thing as paying louder then fuerte | + | To go along with the creation of education standards for the ocarina, we should |
- | ==Define what ocarinas to recommend== | + | ===Create a Library of Ocarina Making Techniques and Information === |
- | should we recommend 12 hole and doubles | + | There is tons of information online for how to make an ocarina. Unfortunately some of that information is also dated, important details are kept secret, |
+ | Create a Place to Keep Ocarina History | ||
+ | We are seeing the moment that a US ocarina museum is about to be a reality and one where we are finally making sense of the past of the ocarina. Sadly this is also the same moment in time where historic parts of the community are becoming less accessible and where the majority of discussion on the instrument is being relegated to online spaces that are not owned within the community. We can take this opportunity to keep this history within the ocarina community and build a space where the important parts of our history are kept public and easily accessible. This will ensure that we can maintain a truthful history and continue it into the future. | ||
- | ==Discuss what kinds of ocarinas are common and uncommon== | + | ===Create a Campaign to Promote the Ocarina=== |
- | Which models can a composer reasonably expect a player | + | We as a community should start to promote the ocarina as a serious instrument and work at removing the image that the ocarina is a musical instrument that only plays arrangements and video game music and instead promote it as an instrument that people hear original compositions on, and that can be played in a wide variety of musical settings. |
- | ==Define what should be expected | + | We currently have a big problem |
- | What kinds of music can be played on an ocarina? | + | |
- | ===Organizing Compositions for the Ocarina=== | ||
- | ==Should we form an ocarina society?== | ||
- | Think of this like forming a centralized ocarina authority and forming a website where the composition guides, recommendations, | ||
- | ==Making a list of all original compositions for ocarina == | ||
- | Ideally this would be a spreadsheet or table with the instruments called for as different cells that can be sorted for convenience. There can also be a set of links to works and to authors. | ||
- | ==Making a list of all arrangements for ocarina== | + | =====NOTES===== |
- | This is a much more complicated task as there vast majority of music for the ocarina | + | {{tag> |