Ocarinas United

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and I'm also still new to playing ocarina (I just received my 12 tone tenor last night) but I'm also a flute lover In my hunt for beautiful instruments I have not yet found anything much resembling the double flute Jen is playing in the movie "The Dark Crystal" (muppets)

here's a picture



I'm not searching for it because of the look but simply because of the sound (I realize it's a puppet with a prop and it's not actually an instrument )
The sound is as if it's two flutes attached to 1 mouth piece which results in basicly having two instruments that can be played at once. In the movie the melodies Jen plays are duets in a way. And I really like that. One flute for the soprano and one either alt or Tenor. It sounds so nice (those of you who've seen the movie know what I'm talking about, right?)

Anyhoo. Does anyone have any idea if such an instrument actually exists?
I looked at the wishbone from songbird ocarinas but the sound sample sounded like a single tone, basicly just like a regular flute/ocarina despite it having sorta "2 ends". I also found native american "twin flutes" however you don't seem to be able to play a melody on the 2nd flute, it's just a base tone.

I'm not even sure such a double flute would be realistic to make, I have no idea, but logically in my mind, it should be possible.

I hope all that wasn't too confusing xD

So has anyone heard or seen anything like Jen's flute somewhere?

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Edit:

A friend of mine found me this:

Twin Chamber Vessel Flutes

Does anyone have one of those? Sounds very interesting.

"My twin chamber instruments have two different size chamber. Each side plays a full chromatic octave and the chambers can be tuned either fourths or fifths apart. The two mouth pieces are side by side so they can be played individually or together to obtain the harmonies. They are particularly suited to playing early music . The instruments is therefore capable of playing 12 diatonic notes and semitones, so a total of 20 individual notes. The idea is not new - I've played a 1000 year old Mexican ocarina shaped like a figure, separate mouthpiece in each foot! "

Can anyone advise me on this one?
(I'd just go and order one but they need to make them first so it's something that needs consideration plus it costs moneys D: )

The closest thing I've seen to that is the wishbone one sold by songbirdocarina.com (but there is a thread somewhere here stating they aren't shipping new orders until beginning of may) but it only looks that way it doesn't acutally play as 2 seperate instruments like what you discribe.

Gelfling wrote:I'm not searching for it because of the look but simply because of the sound

It doesn't look like the double flute at all, but perhaps the Hind Double Ocarina would be what you're looking for. You can play two seperate lines with each 'half' of the ocarina at the same time.

Some videos illustrating this: 1, 2, 3

echo wrote:It doesn't look like the double flute at all, but perhaps the Hind Double Ocarina would be what you're looking for. You can play two seperate lines with each 'half' of the ocarina at the same time.

Ahhhhh, that's it!!!! Ah thank you!!! Wow. Yes that's exactly the sound from the songs in the movie. I was at that website but in my hastiness I skipped over the double chamber one. I didn't see it. Thanks

Darn... and there goes another 100 bucks xD

LOL, I was recently watching that movie, and I all of a sudden wanted to get out my ocarina anf play along.

Yeah, I'm kinda dorky. Whatever.

IchibodCrane wrote:LOL, I was recently watching that movie, and I all of a sudden wanted to get out my ocarina anf play along.

Yeah, I'm kinda dorky. Whatever.

Great signature block!

So - some time has passed since that discussion on duet / harmony ocarinas (what is the best way to refer to these things, anyway? cuz double usually implies an ocarina increasing its range, not necessarily meant to be played in harmony with itself, no?).

Anyone heard of any other "harmony" ocarinas being made now? I see that Hind now is making two "double vessel" ocarinas - both an inline and a transverse/sweet potato style.

http://hindocarina.com/ocarinas/index.p ... etail&p=84 - inline double

http://hindocarina.com/ocarinas/index.p ... tail&p=148 - transverse

Are there any others out there?

Hind's double ocarinas sound more like a wonderful calliope to me.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nxwFdug4EHQ

while Songbird's Wishbone cheerful design isn't exactly gelfling either.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=BMSo2MNFuzk.

Anybody got a video of the duet pendants from Ocarina Workshop?
The ones made by Langley.

aeolix wrote:So - some time has passed since that discussion on duet / harmony ocarinas (what is the best way to refer to these things, anyway? cuz double usually implies an ocarina increasing its range, not necessarily meant to be played in harmony with itself, no?).

Anyone heard of any other "harmony" ocarinas being made now? I see that Hind now is making two "double vessel" ocarinas - both an inline and a transverse/sweet potato style.

http://hindocarina.com/ocarinas/index.p ... etail&p=84 - inline double

http://hindocarina.com/ocarinas/index.p ... tail&p=148 - transverse

Are there any others out there?

http://www.doubleocarina.com/

Oooh! Oooh! I found these!!!!!

http://www.wood-n-bone.co.nz/musical_instruments.html

Double flutes!!

DeepRed wrote:Oooh! Oooh! I found these!!!!!

http://www.wood-n-bone.co.nz/musical_instruments.html

Double flutes!!

Great find! Those are gorgeous!

Looks like most of the doubles have one "droner" tube, which essentially plays the same note all the time, then a regular flute/ocarina attached to it.

That wooden double pipe at the bottom though has fingerholes on both sides, so you can play polyphonic music.

But OMG the price - 1500 $NZ is like $1200 US. Ouch.

DeepRed wrote:Oooh! Oooh! I found these!!!!!

http://www.wood-n-bone.co.nz/musical_instruments.html

Double flutes!!

those are really cool

Yep! It really shouldn't be too hard to make your own from clay or wood though...
But yeah, they're pretty sweet...love the bone one!

Surprised nobody mention the Aulos...

What are they>?