Story

The Transformative Power of Sound:  Star Key Literature Contest

Winner Non Fiction:

Crystal Howe

Healing Sound, Healing Songs

 

Winner Fiction:

 Luke Sciarappa
Inspired by an account of the steam tunnels under Caltech

 

Runner Up Fiction:

 Darcy Tarquinio The Legend of the Star Key

 

 More Stories and Essays from the Star Key LIterature Contest Coming Soon

 

User submitted stories about the Power of the Ocarina

Alexander Keane

I struggle to put into words the force that is the ocarina.  The best analogy would be the old idea of the four Elements:  Earth, the clay and craftsman who form the ocarina; Air, the breath that powers it; Fire, the kiln that brings the ocarina to life; and finally Water, the emotions within each of us...
Andrew Evans

Music is power.  The power of beauty:  the power to create, to express.  Music is the power to convey any emotion imaginable...

Aris Suarez Ocarinas pause time for us, it lets us absorb the beauty of the world around us. It opens our ears, letting us hear the most simple of sounds in a very dazzling way...
Brandon Fetterly
The power of your spirit is translated by the ocarina into song, a universal language we’ve understood since birth...
Brendan Parsons
A story set in a village in Ancient China 12,000 years ago. This is my take on how this Ancient Aztec Instrument found its way into normal civilisation and the Power within the chambers of the Ocarina.  
The protagonist discovers the sound of an Ocarina early in the story and later seeks out to find the origin of the sound...
Brenda Toyoshima
Rumors of a great being, a guardian dragon, have been passed down from generation to generation of peoples throughout the land...
Carter Peevy
The ocarina has changed my life.  When I’m upset, I play it and it calms me down.  When I’m sad I play it and forget my troubles for a while.  
I would never have guessed that a finely crafted and manipulated chunk of clay could have the power change everything I knew and did....
Chris Davies
You lose yourself while playing. You really do. One moment you're lifting your fingers on and off holes, fiddling with a piece of ceramic. The next, you're miles away, lost in the sea of music flowing from your hands. You cease to realize that you're playing a physical instrument, and instead, you come to feel that the music is coming from deep within you, your body merely a conduit...
David Shifflet 1
A fiery glow and black smoke comes from above. Kimba smells the fire burning, and he knows that his prayers of warmth are answered. He stalks quietly towards the camp. A strange man lies by a campfire, a spear near his hand...
David Shifflet 2

Electric age, data in the air

we breathe in fumes

analogue emotions do not function

circuits buz to make our music.

But  never is there soul present.

David Stanton
Many years ago a small scroll was found washed up in a very very old bottle sealed upon the shores of a distant land it read.....
John King
The power is only what you can do with any instrument. If you play weak the power is weak. If you play strong the power is strong...
Kevin Were
Before my Grandma died she gave me her Old Ocarina but the ocarina didn’t look very old...
Koji Ocampo

Born in different parts of the world, united in one language.

Draws breath from millions of hearts, shares one beat....

Landon Neil
...its like an (almost) never ending chain of people playing ocarinas, now think for a minute, if more people play the more it would turn-up in our daily live and would be an instrument of great inspiration...
Nicole Furlotte
...his grandfather had given him a wooden sweet potato ocarina back in the 1940’s, and that my playing reminded him of his ocarina. The smile that my playing had brought to him made...
Richard Thalman
One note flowing into the next, the hypnotic spell bewitches the mind. Once someone has heard this fine flute play an ensnaring euphony, their mind wanders, leaving their subconscious open for suggestions. Any amateur hypnotist...
Roger Agraviador
Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others, and in this essay I will explain the powers of the ocarina in my best knowledge as a musician...
Sora Fujiwara
My ocarina held a special interest in one person's heart. This one person loved hearing my ocarina more than anything else. I think it healed her, you see this particular person had Autism...
Taylor Allred

Often I wander these woods of deep emerald green shrouded in mist

I walk along by enjoying life’s wonders...

Terra Cookman
Long ago, in a Korean village, there lived a young girl named Min Ji. She was gorgeous, and had long, dark-brown hair, and gorgeous brown eyes...
Victoria Hess
The tone is reminiscent of an ancient people, a curious explorer, and a playful poet on a lazy day...
Water Sensei
His eyes were closed, but he could feel the cold, damp of the wood grain at his back from the elm...
Wesley Kao
One ocarina can be the key to thousands of different doors and openings. When someone plays or hears the pure song of the ocarina, the sound of it may...

 

Stay in the Know!

Sign up for Ocarina news and special offers!