Ornamentation: rolls, cranns, and strike cranns on the ocarina
In a previous article, we learned about cuts and strikes, fingered articulations that allow us to separate notes without using the tongue. They work by sounding a higher pitch (cut) or lower pitch (strike) and are notated like this:
Rolls and cranns are ornaments formed from sequences of cuts and strikes. They can serve several functions, including creating emphasis and articulating a string of notes.
Rolls – articulating multiple notes in sequence
Try playing a sequence of notes of the same pitch by a sequance of either cuts or strikes on one finger. Start slowly and gradually increase the tempo.
What you'll find is that, at a low tempo, this doesn't pose much difficulty. However, as you speed it up, there will be a limit to the tempo you can achieve. Instead, we commonly alternate between cuts and strikes because it allows the work to be spread across two hands.
The following shows how this would be played. Tongue the first note and play the remaining two in a single slur. Articulate the second note using a cut and the third by using a strike. Spend a few minutes playing through this repeatedly and particularly pay attention to getting both the cut and strike exactly on the beat.
As fingered articulations are only effective when the instrument is sounding, it is normal to slur into this pattern from a previous note, as done here.
In Irish traditional music, a single instance of the pattern is called a 'roll'. In that idiom, it is considered an ornament, but in reality, it's essentially both an ornament and an articulation at the same time. It produces two notes articulated in an ornamental way.
Also, while these articulation patterns are most common in Irish music and related traditions, there's no reason they can't be applied to other genres as well. What I've shared in this article is intended to generalise the concept.
Practising rolls
Rolls can be performed on every note on the ocarina besides the highest, lowest, and subholes. Most accidentals can also be rolled. The only requirement is to have a finger covering a hole and a free raised finger to strike with. Preferably, these should be on two different hands.
I'd recommend practising a roll on all of the 'rollable' notes of the C major scale:
Practice each one of these in sequence. If you're a beginner, you might want to learn one or two of them a day.
The ocarina offers more freedom than tubular instruments because strikes can be played with any free raised finger against its respective open hole. To give some ideas of how these could be performed:
- Both low E and F can be rolled by cutting with the left middle finger and striking with the right ring finger.
- G and A can be rolled by cutting with the left middle finger and striking with the right index finger.
- High B and C can be rolled by cutting with the left thumb and striking with the right index finger.
- High D and E can be rolled by cutting with the left pinky and striking with the right index finger.
However, note that these fingerings are just suggestions; it's best to use whatever fingering works best for you.
Once you've got the hang of playing a few of these, it would be a good idea to try applying them in some music. Either make up some simple melodies or find some songs or tunes with repeated notes and try articulating them with a roll.
The cross-fingered accidentals can also be rolled using the same ideas, but it is not advisable to attempt to 'strike' a subhole or part-covered split hole. The brief duration of a strike is created by a finger bouncing off the instrument. Achieving the same thing with a finger slide is practically impossible.
More examples
Being essentially an articulation of sequential notes, rolls can be applied to notes of any duration; they do not have to be equal.
They work particularly well for articulating three eighth notes of the same pitch, especially in compound time signatures like 3/8, 6/8, and 9/8. The first example with three eighth notes of the same pitch is called a 'long roll' in Irish traditional music.
It is also possible for the cut and struck note to be of different pitches. However, this only really works if the struck note is lower, as strikes aren't very effective on ascending intervals.
Rolls can also be performed without being slurred into from a preceding note, in which case the first cut will be a tongued cut. The tongue lowers to start the note at the same time as the cutting finger is lifted.
If you continue to alternate cuts and strikes, you can separate an arbitrary number of sequential notes. Below is the pattern used to articulate a string of eighth notes.
It can be encountered often in tunes as well, for instance, at the beginning of 'Jim Ward's Jig', with four notes in sequence. It is common to separate them by tonguing the first, cutting the second, striking the third, and cutting the fourth. This is essentially a roll and a half.
The term 'roll' is often defined strictly as an articulation of three sequential notes, and within that definition, the above patterns are not technically 'rolls'. However, to me, that distinction is kind of pointless.
We often use alternating cuts and strikes because it's easier, and if every possible form had its own name, you would quickly end up with a huge number of names for things that are essentially the same.
Rolls: as emphasis
One of the advantages of fingered articulations is that they respond exceptionally quickly. We can play several of them very close together in time to create a kind of 'drum tap' or double articulation.
Say you have two half notes in series and you want to emphasise the second. You can use a roll with tight timing to do this, as shown in the following notation. Note that here, we are just introducing the concept; it does not matter if you can play these right now.
Going further still, 'double cut rolls' and 'double strike rolls' exist. They are performed by halving the duration of the first note and inserting a second cut. Performing these is best done by cutting with multiple fingers. How to do so is discussed in the section about 'cranns' further below.
It is also worth noting that a roll doesn't need to have a very short duration to be emphatic in all cases. If you have a very long note, even a fairly widely spaced roll can be effective.
You should note that the emphatic effect depends on context. For example, if you have a sparse melody, then having a sequence of rapid articulations at the beginning of a note stands out. However, if the melody is already busy, the effect would be less pronounced and may go unnoticed. It may be more effective to insert an unexpected long note in the latter case.
Learning how to perform these kinds of rapid patterns is best done by first performing them very slowly, and gradually working up the tempo.
Cranns
On the ocarina, there are a few notes which are impossible to roll. Assuming C fingerings, low C and any subhole notes are impossible to strike as there are no raised fingers. The highest note cannot be cut as there are no covered holes. It is still possible to achieve a similar effect on these notes, which is commonly called a 'crann'.
The basic idea of a crann is to separate multiple notes in sequence using only cuts. As playing multiple sequential cuts on the same finger at speed is very difficult, multiple fingers are used. One finger can prepare to cut while the other is still in the air.
The following example shows a general use of a crann. For this one, the first cut may be performed with the left middle finger and the second using the right index finger. Make sure that the first cutting finger has returned to its hole before performing the second cut. This is shown in the first demonstration in the video.
Cranns are most often used on notes that are impossible to strike, although it is possible to use them on any note where enough fingers are covering holes to play the required cuts.
If you wish to separate multiple notes in sequence, you can loop through the fingerings. To articulate the four C's in sequence, cut in the order of: left middle finger, right index finger, left middle finger, right index finger. Doing this generally gives the finger enough time to recover from its prior action.
Cranns can also be used to articulate longer sequences of notes and notes with differing rhythmic values, as shown in the second example. In the case of a straight rhythm, for instance, you would articulate four eighth notes.
This can be done by continuing to alternate the left middle finger and right index finger. In the case of three sequential notes, as in the second example, I find it easiest to perform the cuts using three different fingers – here, the left middle, left ring, and right index finger.
If the rhythmic value of the notes is shortened, the crann can also be used in an emphatic form. The eighth notes would be replaced with 16th or 32nd notes. This is basically the same as an emphatic roll, but done using only cuts.
Strike cranns
A strike crann takes the same idea as a crann, but uses only strikes and can be used on the ocarina's high notes.
As far as I know, strike cranns are unique to the ocarina. Rolls and cranns may be performed on any tubular wind instrument, but on such instruments, it is only possible to play a strike using the finger below the lowest closed hole.
The fact that an ocarina's entire chamber oscillates is what makes it uniquely suited to strike cranns, as strikes can be played using multiple fingers and any open hole.
For instance, the first example here can be played by striking with the left middle finger and right index finger. In the second emphatic example, a third strike may be performed on the left middle finger. Like the demonstration of the emphatic crann, it is played slowly.
Notating rolls, cranns, and strike cranns
In my opinion, the best way to notate rolls, cranns, and strike cranns for ocarina music is to notate the individual cuts and strikes above note symbols describing the intended rhythm.
It makes sense to name more specific variations of these patterns where they are used within a single idiom. For example, Irish music has 'long' and 'short' rolls. The example below shows two different notations for an Irish long roll on the left and how it is played to the right. A roll can be noted by an arched line or a tilde (~) above a note.
Creating notation symbols that refer to a given sequence of cuts and strikes in a given order makes sense within the context of Irish traditional music because the number of variations is quite limited. But within the context of music as a whole, creating specific notations is infeasible, as it would result in an enormous number of symbols.
I feel this would be confusing, as the symbols would refer to slight variations of the same thing. The specifics would be closely tied to the intended effect in a given piece of music and would have limited applicability in general.
If you are interested in learning more about the uses of this ornamentation in Irish traditional music, I recommend reading The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle by Grey Larsen. It is exhaustively detailed and easy to adapt to the ocarina.
