In the living room of my grandmother's house was a built-in, glass-front bookcase. And in that bookcase was what my grandmother called a sweet potato. We cousins laughed. "A sweet potato?!" She told us it was a musical instrument but she did not show us how to play it. She said it was Grandpa's and that it had been his father's before him. Grampa was W. C. Robert Meinzen and his father was Henry C. Meinzen.
The sweet potato (also known as an ocarina), above, right, is not my grandfather's but looks similar. Thanks to musiking for permission to use the above image from Pixabay.
When I saw this article about ocarinas at Atlas Obscura I remembered Grampa's sweet potato. It seems that the modern ocarina, like my grandfather's, was invented by Giuseppe Donati in 1853 in Budrio, Italy. The shape of the instrument evolved over time until he perfected the design. Then he created five different ones, each with a different pitch. In 1863, Donati and several other musicians formed an ocarina quintet which eventually became a septet. By 1870, the group was playing in European cities.
There are several mysteries surrounding my grandfathers' sweet potato.
Mystery Number 1
After Gramma died in 1973 I didn't hear anyone mention the sweet potato, and I didn't think about it. After Grampa died in 1979, we thought about it because it was his. The sweet potato was gone, nowhere to be found.
What happened to that sweet potato? I doubt we'll ever know because my grandparents are dead and so are all their daughters who, at the time of their parents' deaths, seemed unable to shed light on its whereabouts or what happened to it. Did Gramma or Grampa give it away, maybe to one of the grandchildren or a cousin? Or donate it, thinking it was of little value? Did one of the sisters secretly take? It will continue an unsolved mystery.
Mystery Number 2
My great-grandfather, Henry, was born in Germany (either Prussia, Hanover, or Germany depending on which record you read) in 1837. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1866. Where did he get the sweet potato? Did Henry see and hear the ocarina septet somewhere in Germany (carrying ocarinas to sell), where he heard them, and bought one? Did the ocarina group travel to the U.S. and Henry bought one from them? Did someone give it to him as a gift? Did he buy it from a mail order catalog after he came to the U.S.? There are so many possibilities I can't number them. Whatever happened, it will remain an unsolved mystery.
Mystery Number 3
Could either of my grandfathers actually play the sweet potato? Were either of them musically inclined? There is no evidence either way. In fact, the only evidence of musicality in that line of our family is a photo of my grandfather and his brother-in-law, Benjamin Harris, in which Grampa is holding a violin and Uncle Ben is holding a guitar. Both look as if they're playing the instruments. But were they? Yet one more unsolved mystery surrounding my grandfathers' sweet potato..
I always put the sweet potato in the category of the children's musical instrument,the recorder (or tonette as ours was called in fifth grade). I was surprised and delighted to learn how beautiful ocarinas can sound and that there are musical groups and festivals devoted solely to the instrument. There are many videos of groups on YouTube but I liked Gruppo Ocarinistico Budriese best. I hope you enjoy the music.
Other videos of Gruppo Ocarinistico Budriese are The Typewriter, Napolincanto, a group of four songs, and Cinema Paradiso.
—Nancy.
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