Giuseppe Donati (2 December 1836 – 14 February 1925) was an Italian musical instrument maker who invented the ocarina, a ceramic wind instrument based on the principle of a Helmholtz resonator.

Donati was born in Budrio. Legend has it that he created his first "little goose" ("ocarina" in Italian dialect) in 1853, aged 17, whilst still working as a brickmaker. His first ocarina-making workshop was in his hometown of Budrio. When he moved to larger premises in Bologna in 1878, a fellow musician of the Gruppo Ocarinistico, Cesare Vicinelli, continued the Budrio workshop. Donati died, aged 88, in Milan.

Giuseppe Donati

References

External links

Budrio Ocarina Museum

1836 births

1925 deaths

Italian musical instrument makers

19th-century Italian inventors

19th-century Italian musicians

Ocarina makers

Brickmakers

Giuseppe Donati