I'm listening to Lou Harrison's Canticle #3 for ocarina (or flute), guitar, pipes, woodblocks, brake drums, xylophone, dragon's mouths, maracas, elephants bells, tam-tam, cowbells, and drums. The percussion and guitar here are not particularly attractive but the timbre of the ocarina is striking. Raymond Tuttle in a review calls it "plaintive." I think of the ocarina as an annoying kid's toy but apparently not. And leave it to New Sounds to have a program entitled "What Is an Ocarina?
Harrison's piece has some resemblance to the earthy improvisations Keith Jarrett recorded around the time of his breakdown.
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