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My Flute Goes To War

by Howard Fosdick

During the Second World War, America was united as it never has been since. Everyone had family and friends in the armed forces. Rationing of everyday items like sugar, coffee, fuel, and rubber was wholeheartedly (if often grudgingly) accepted as necessary to the war effort. Scrap drives continually collected metal, paper, rubber, and rags. Blackouts made driving risky at night.

Embued with this spirit, the US government was determined to do everything it could for “the troops.” Right down to and including their entertainment.

We're all familiar with the USO, but did you know that the government also shipped thousands of flutes to the soldiers?

Selecting the Instrument

To help “our boys” entertain themselves, the Army needed a small, portable instrument. One that was durable and that could tolerate getting wet. It had to be inexpensive to produce. And above all, it had to be very simple to play. (Or to learn, if need be.)

To meet these requirements, the US government selected the plastic ocarina.

As you may know, the ocarina is a vessel flute — a flute in which air resonates inside an enclosed chamber. This is what gives the instrument its uniquely recognizable sound. (The design differs from that of a pipe flute, in which air vibrates through a tube.)

The ocarina's mouthpiece functions like that of a recorder. It automatically directs the player's breath to the sharp edge, or labium, that splits it to create sound waves.

This makes learning and playing an ocarina much easier than learning a transverse flute. And like many keyless plastic flutes, the ocarina's fingering is simplicity itself. Simpler, even, than the recorder.

As it said right on the box the ocarinas came in:

ANYONE! EVERYONE CAN PLAY OCARINA WITH THE ARMY METHOD!

The Army's brag was largely true. I've left the accidentals out of this chart, so that you can see that it's “straight up the ladder” to play the C-major scale:

The Army felt that anyone who had ever touched a musical instrument could quickly pick up the “oc.” As they might have said at the time, you didn't have to play in a “big band” to “catch that train.”

Another advantage: the ocarina is tuned to C major, tying it to much of the sheet music circulating at the time. And, the instrument can be quickly and cheaply produced from plastic molds.

Oc's on the Mind

There was another factor in the ocarina's selection: it had a bit of a profile in the popular culture of the day.

Ocarinas show up in The Wizard of Oz (“If I Only Had a Brain”), and in a number of 1940s movies. For example, several of Bing Crosby's “Road” movies included happy ocarinists. Here Bing, Bob, and Dot toot in step:

Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour in 1940's Road to Singapore<br>(Photo from the Bettmann Archive)

Irving Berlin released his hit “Dance to the Music of the Ocarina” a bit later, in 1950. And of course, POW Joey plays an ocarina in a German camp in the 1953 film Stalag 17.

Why Not Recorders?

The modern reader might well ask, “Why didn't they just ship them recorders?” After all, recorders are now ubiquitous in early music education. They're considered easy to play and virtually indestructable.

The answer is that the plastic recorder was only invented in 1946, and it wasn't popularized until the 1970s. In the early 1940s, all recorders were wood. Wood simply could not withstand the water exposure and poor conditions musical instruments would face in the field.

The ocarinas were pressed from two plastic molds, one for each half of the instrument. The two halves were then glued together. Voilà! A simple, cheap, mass-produced instrument that was as robust as possible for adverse conditions.

Another option would have been the harmonica. It's small, pocketable, playable, and inexpensive. Many soldiers did carry harmonicas during the war, a tradition that first started in World War I. But to my knowledge, the military did not distribute free harmonicas during the Second World War.

The Lucky Selections

The military selected two different ocarinas for the troops. One was the Alto C “sweet potato” or “submarine” style made by Gretsch.

Gretsch was a family-run company founded, somewhat ironically, by a German immigrant in Brooklyn in the 1880s. By the 1920s, Gretsh claimed it was the largest musical instruments manufacturer in the country.

Gretsch supplied this somewhat primitive plastic ocarina to the Army:

Gretsch ocarinas (photos from Jack Campin's website)

With 7 holes on top and 1 thumb hole below, this oc could play 9 whole notes plus all accidentals in range.

Note how the...