The games have been credited for increasing the popularity of ocarinas and the sale of them. The ocarina features prominently in both NES and Nintendo 64 games, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Earthbound Beginnings. It is also used in several multi-chamber ocarinas, especially in ones that are designed to play more than one note at a time. This is now known as the English fingering system, and is used extensively for pendant ocarinas.
CHIFF AND FIPPLE POLL FULL
In 1964, John Taylor, an English mathematician, developed a fingering system that allowed an ocarina to play a full chromatic octave using only four holes. The word ocarina derives from ucaréṅna, which in the Bolognese dialect of the Emiliano-Romagnolo language means "little goose." The earlier form was known in Europe as a gemshorn, which was made from animal horns of the chamois ( Dutch: gems). The modern European ocarina dates back to the 19th century, when Giuseppe Donati from Budrio, a town near Bologna, Italy, transformed the ocarina from a toy, which played only a few notes, into a more comprehensive instrument (known as the first "classical" ocarina). The Runik ocarina is a Neolithic flute-like wind instrument, and is the earliest prehistoric musical instrument ever recorded in Kosovo. One of the oldest ocarinas found in Europe is from Runik, Kosovo. The ocarina went on to become popular in European communities as a toy instrument. Both the Mayans and Aztecs produced versions of the ocarina, but it was the Aztecs who brought to Europe the song and dance that accompanied the ocarina. Different expeditions to Mesoamerica, including the one conducted by Cortés, resulted in the introduction of the ocarina to the courts of Europe. In Japan, the traditional ocarina is known as the tsuchibue (kanji: 土笛 literally "earthen flute"), whereas "ocarina" comes from the Italian for "little goose". The ocarina has similar features to the Xun (塤), another important Chinese instrument (but is different in that the ocarina uses an internal duct, whereas the Xun is blown across the outer edge). For the Chinese, the instrument played an important role in their long history of song and dance. Ocarina-type instruments have been of particular importance in Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures. The ocarina belongs to a very old family of instruments, believed to date back over 12,000 years. Giuseppe Donati, Italian inventor of the modern ocarina, with his work