Musical Morale: How the US Army Distributed Ocarinas in WWII

During the Second World War, the United States experienced a level of national unity that is nearly unprecedented. This collective spirit was evident in the way citizens embraced the hardships of the era.

The Home Front Effort

To support the war machine, the public accepted the rationing of essential goods, including:

• Foodstuffs: Sugar and coffee.
• Resources: Fuel and rubber.

Simultaneously, scrap drives were ubiquitous, collecting materials such as:

1. Metal
2. Paper
3. Rubber
4. Rags

Driven by this patriotic fervor, the US government sought to provide every possible comfort and distraction for "the troops." While the USO is a well-known provider of entertainment, the government also took the unusual step of shipping thousands of flutes to soldiers in the field.

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Selecting the Ideal Instrument

The Army required an instrument that was both small and portable—something a soldier could easily carry and, if necessary, learn to play on the fly. Their choice: the plastic ocarina.

What is an Ocarina?

Technically, an ocarina is a vessel flute. Unlike a standard pipe flute, where air vibrates through a cylindrical tube, a vessel flute resonates within an enclosed chamber. This structural difference creates the instrument's iconic, haunting tone.

The mouthpiece directs breath toward the labium (the sharp edge), which splits the air to generate sound waves. This design makes the ocarina significantly more accessible than a transverse flute. Furthermore, the fingering is incredibly intuitive.

"The Army believed that anyone with even a passing familiarity with music could master the 'oc' quickly. In the parlance of the time, you didn't need to be a member of a 'big band' to 'catch that train.'"

Additional Advantages:

• Tuning: Set to C major, making it compatible with the majority of sheet music available at the time.
• Production: Could be mass-produced cheaply using plastic molds.

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Cultural Influence and the "Recorder" Question

The ocarina wasn't just practical; it was trendy. It had a visible presence in 1940s pop culture:

• Film: Featured in The Wizard of Oz (specifically during "If I Only Had a Brain").
• The "Road" Movies: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour were seen playing them in Road to Singapore (1940).
• Later Hits: Irving Berlin's "Dance to the Music of the Ocarina" (1950).
• War Cinema: The 1953 film Stalag 17 features a POW playing one in a German camp.

Why not use recorders?

Modern readers often wonder why the Army didn't just provide recorders, which are now the standard for music education. Recorders were the obvious choice. In reality, the plastic recorder wasn't even invented until 1946 and didn't become popular until the 1970s. Wooden recorders were too fragile to survive the damp, harsh conditions of military deployment.

While many soldiers brought their own harmonicas (a trend starting in WWI), the military did not officially distribute them for free during WWII.

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The Chosen Models

The military settled on two specific types of ocarinas.

1. The Gretsch "Sweet Potato"

This "submarine-style" Alto C ocarina was produced by Gretsch, a company founded in the 1880s by a German immigrant in Brooklyn. By the 1920s, Gretsch was purportedly the largest instrument manufacturer in the US.

Technical Specifications:

• Layout: 7 holes on top, 1 thumb hole below.
• Capacity: 9 whole notes plus all accidentals within its range.

// Conceptual representation of the basic C-Major scale fingering
const ocarinaScale = {
  "C": "all_holes_closed",
  "D": "open_1_hole",
  "E": "open_2_holes",
  "F": "open_3_holes",
  "G": "open_4_holes",
  "A": "open_5_holes",
  "B": "open_6_holes",
  "C2": "open_7_holes"
};

2. The Tonette

Invented in the late 1930s, the Tonette was a cultural phenomenon. It is estimated that roughly half of all American schoolchildren used Tonettes to learn music in the 1940s. Unlike the Gretsch, the Tonette is a linear (inline) ocarina, extending straight from the mouth like a recorder, though it retains the simple ocarina fingering.

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The "Hidden" Notes: Customization

Both the Gretsch and the Tonette featured a unique design choice: the holes for the left-hand pinky and right-hand thumb were filled in at the factory.

The Logic of the Filled Holes:

• Beginner Phase: Filled holes simplify the experience for novices.
• Advanced Phase: Proficient players can "unlock" more notes.

By using a simple penknife to clear these two holes, a soldier could expand the instrument's range by two whole notes, significantly increasing its musical versatility.