Category: Ocarina history


Nothing new…

4th May 2015

There’s nothing new under the sun. Take for example product placement. You may think that placing a BMW in a James Bond movie is a relatively recent idea for gaining sales and prestige. Think again.

On 12th July 1887, Alberto Mezzetti received a letter from WIndsor Castle thanking him for the musical composition that he had “kindly sent” to the Crown Princess and the Princesses Victoria, Sophie and Margaret of Prussia. Sending his musical work to Windsor Castle and receiving such a letter of approval was quite a promotional coup. Placing Ocarinas in a War Zone was something else… Read more

Boy Bands

28th April 2015

In 1964, when the Beatles boarded a plane for the USA, they did what many touring boy bands have done since, played one-night stands in different venues, introducing their music to thousands of fans.

100 years earlier, between 1863 and 1880, a very different boy band toured Europe and the USA. The ‘Mountaineers of the Apennines’ wowed audiences all the way from Rome to Vienna, and even to the Tsar’s Palace in St Petersburg. These seven young men from Budrio in Italy, dressed in Robin-Hood-style costumes, grabbed their music and Ocarinas and took to the stage playing folk music from home, and classical themes by popular ‘modern’ composers such as Giuseppe Verdi; all in seven-part harmony Read more