Game Leads to Fascination With Rare Instrument

Fayetteville Observer

WHITEVILLE -- Ten years ago, Spencer Register got a video game for Christmas -- "The Legend of Zelda" -- and it changed the direction of his life.

The character in the game played a magical ocarina -- a flutelike instrument that is usually oval-shaped. Register was instantly fascinated.

"The sound of it, and the fact that it was a small, odd-looking instrument just kind of piqued my interest," said Register, who is 22.

Register has translated his fascination with the ocarina into a growing business that includes making and selling the instrument, performing public concerts and even recording a CD of hymns set to the ocarina's haunting strains.

Mostly, he's trying to get the word out about the unusual instrument.

"You say 'ocarina,' and people say, 'Yeah, I know how to do the Macarena,' " said Valerie Register, Spencer's mother. "You would not believe the responses we get."

Spencer Register has always been interested in the arts. In 2003, he was one of five area students to be nominated for a prestigious American Visions Award for his drawings.

Music, too, was a passion. Before he came across the ocarina, Register played piano, guitar, trumpet and French horn.

Then came "The Legend of Zelda."

The wildly popular action-adventure video-game series centers on a character named Link who must solve a series of puzzles and defeat a host of enemies to rescue Princess Zelda. Link is often depicted playing an ocarina.

The video game brought increased interest to an ancient instrument, which is believed to have originated in China or Central and South America about 12,000 years ago.

Ocarinas are typically ceramic, although the instrument has been made out of plastic, wood, glass and metal. Music is produced by blowing into the ocarina while covering and uncovering holes with the fingers, similar to a flute.

The instrument can produce a range of notes of about an octave and a half. The pitch varies depending on the size of the ocarina.

Register said he felt an instant connection to the instrument after playing "The Legend of Zelda." He ordered one from a Web site and began playing by ear.

"It was like nothing I'd ever heard," said Register, who graduated from Whiteville High School in 2005 and from Southeastern Community College in 2007. "The sound really was magical."

Register's father, Carlton, chuckles when he remembers his son's infatuation with the instrument.

"At first, I was telling him, shut up that racket," he said. "But he sure has turned me around and made a believer out of me. We're his No. 1 fans now."

Register's ambitions quickly extended beyond just playing the instrument. He wanted to learn how to make it.

At first, Register experimented by making ocarinas out of paper, Play-Doh and cardboard. Eventually, he centered on clay as his material of choice.

When he was 17, Register started selling ocarinas through his Web site at www.spencersocarinas.com. In the years since, Register estimates, he's made more than a thousand of the instruments, selling them at prices starting at about $200.

Register makes his ocarinas in a garage workshop at his parents' house.

He begins by kneading the clay, making sure to squeeze out all the air bubbles. Then he puts the clay through a slab roller, flattening it to a thickness of about3/8of an inch.

Register cuts the clay into an ocarina shape using a tool that looks like a big cookie cutter. The two sides of the instrument are then pressed into a mold, and the excess clay is trimmed off.

After drying, the ocarinas are fired in a kiln at about 1,900 degrees. A ceramic glaze is usually applied, and the instrument is fired again.

During a recent visit, dozens of ocarinas in varying degrees of completion lined shelves in Register's workshop. "It took him 10 years to perfect this thing," said Valerie Register. "He's good at it."

While the manufacturing and sale of ocarinas takes up much of Register's time, he hasn't neglected his performance skills. Register has performed at churches and other venues.

A highlight was a performance in April at a 700 Club partner's event in Virginia Beach. To hear Carlton Register tell it, his son's reception was akin to a rock star's. Carlton said Spencer got a standing ovation and sold about 100 copies of his CD, "Ocarina Hymns," after the event.

"These people were falling all over him," Carlton said. "These were older people, but they were acting just like teenagers."

Register shrugs off the attention.

"I'm actually very introverted and shy," said Register, who is tall and thin with angular features. "I don't know how to take stuff like that."

Register said he's working on a Christmas CD and is looking for venues to play. Register said he doesn't charge for his performances and asks only that he be able to sell his CD afterward.

As for his ultimate goal, Register said he'd like to have a career like that of Gheorghe Zamfir, the Romanian musician who popularized the pan flute. He can envision the instrument being used in movie soundtracks and in the world music genre.

"It's beautiful for so many different types of music," he said. "It's such a pure sound."

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