Antonio CANELLA – Ferrara’s mysterious ocarina maker

Makers

Giuseppe DONATI (1836-1925) was the ‘inventor’ of the ocarina. His hometown was Budrio in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, about 15 kilometres east of Bologna, where today there is even an ocarina museum.  Other makers sprung up and are known as the Budrio makers. They include Ercole MEZZETTI (1841-1918) & Alberto Napoleone MEZZETTI (1843-1906), Cesare VICINELLI (1841-1920), Emilio CESARI (1888-1962), Guido CHIESA (1884-1965), Arrigo MIGNANI (1918-1997) and Fabio MENAGLIO (1967-present day).

But another maker also set up shop in FERRARA, about 50 kilometres away from Budrio, and his name was Antonio CANELLA (1861?-1952?). Little is known about Antonio Canella, other than that he was active making ocarinas from around 1878 to 1940. He worked on various types of double ocarinas and invented the ‘Bi-ocarina’ (one on top of the other), with a metal piston to change the pitch.  

Since there seem to be very few Canella ocarinas in public museums or for sale, we can only assume that he did not produce so many, or they are perhaps all broken or stashed away somewhere! However, he did produce some very fancy-looking ones… exquisitely made to take your breath away.

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Cocuswood

Cocuswood is the very dense hardwood of a Caribbean flowering tree called the ‘Brya ebenus’.

‘Brya ebenus’ belongs to the pea family ‘Fabaceae’ and is native to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Cuba. It also goes by the quite romantic name of Jamaica Rain Tree because it blossoms bright yellow-orange flowers right after it rains.

Cocuswood’s lovely medium to dark reddish-brown colour is further enhanced with dark blackish streaks. With time, its colour darkens. The grain of cocuswood tends to be straight or a bit wavy. It has a wonderful natural lustre and a fine, even texture.

So absolutely nothing to do with coconuts or coconut trees at all! Really!

With its amazing density, hardness and colour, it’s no wonder that this wood was considered to be one of the very best tonewoods and was widely used in the manufacture of woodwind instruments in the 1800s. It was an exotic, tropical alternative to woods such as boxwood, which were widely used at the time. Flutes, oboes and bagpipes were crafted in cocuswood as well as other items such as carvings or inlays.

Back then cocuswood was all the rage and sadly, due to this previous over-exploitation and the small size of its natural habitat, this wonderful natural resource has been commercially exhausted. So, it is not a protected species, but extremely expensive and difficult to source – making it a very special wood indeed.

 

Monzani & Co serial numbers

Roughly serial numbers 1-102 c. 1810, 103-500 c.1811, 501-1000 c. 1814, 1001-1500 c. 1817, 1501-2000 c. 1821