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Oboe

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For other meanings of oboe see Oboe (disambiguation).
Modern Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. The word "oboe" is derived from hautbois, the name of the instrument in French (meaning "high wood"). A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. Careful manipulation of embouchure and air pressure allows the player to express a large timbral and dynamic range.

The instrument

In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the oboe has a very clear and somewhat piercing tone, because it expresses a large range of harmonics. In fact, out of all of the instruments, the harmonics produced by the oboe most mimic those of the human voice. [1] Its uniquely penetrating timbre gives it the ability to be audible over other instruments in large ensembles, making it easily heard for tuning. Orchestras will usually tune by listening to the oboe play a concert A. Setting the pitch of the oboe is achieved by changing the position of the reed in the instrument, or by permanently altering the scrape of the reed itself. Subtle changes in pitch are also possible by adjusting the embouchure.

Beginners often produce a nasal, often out-of-tune, and strident tone that is difficult to blend with other instruments, but an advanced oboist can produce a rich, warm, and beautiful tone. It is pitched in concert C.

Baroque oboe

Baroque Oboe, Stanesby Copy

The baroque oboe first appeared in French courts under Jean-Baptiste Lully in the late 17th century, where it was called hautbois. It was developed from the shawm, an instrument widely used in the Medieval and Renaissance periods, but considered too raucous for Baroque music. Musician and instrument maker Jacques Hotteterre was responsible for many of the new instrument's early developments, though it quickly spread to other parts of Europe (including England, where it was called "hautboy"). It was the main melody instrument in early military bands until ousted by the clarinet.

Hautboys were generally made from boxwood and had three keys; the great and two side keys. (The side key was often doubled to facilitate use of either the right or left hand on the bottom holes) In order to produce higher pitches the player had to "overblow," or increase the air stream to cause a jump in the harmonic series. Notable oboe-makers of the period are the German Denner and the English Stanesby Sr. and Jr. The range for the Baroque oboe comfortably extends from C4 to D6. With the resurgence of interest in early music in the mid 1960s, a few makers began producing copies to specifications from surviving historical instruments.

The Classical oboe

Classical Oboe, copy by Sand Dalton of an original by Johann Friedrich Floth, c. 1805

In the classical period, the oboe's bore was gradually narrowed, and the instrument became outfitted with several keys, among them those for the notes C♯, F, and G♯. A key similar to the modern octave key was also added (called the "slur key"), though it was at first used more like the "flick" keys on the modern German bassoon. Only later did French instrument makers redesign the octave key to be used in the manner of the modern key (i.e. held open for the upper register, closed for the lower). The narrower bore allowed the higher notes to be more easily played, and composers began to more often utilize the oboe's upper register in their works. Because of this, the oboe's tessitura in the Classical era was somewhat higher than that found in Baroque works. The range for the Classical oboe extends from C4 to F6, though some German and Austrian oboes were capable of playing one half-step lower. Classical-era composers who wrote concertos for oboe include Mozart (both the solo concerto in C major K. 314/285d and the lost Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major K. 297b), Haydn, (both the Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat Hob. I:105 and the probably mis-attributed solo concerto in C major Hob. VIIg:C1), Beethoven (the F major concerto, Hess 12, of which only sketches survive, though the second movement was reconstructed in the late twentieth century), and numerous minor composers including Johann Christian Bach, Johann Christian Fischer, and Jan Antonín Koželuh. Innumerable solos exist for the oboe in chamber, symphonic, and operatic compositions from the Classical era.

The Viennese oboe

In Vienna, a unique oboe has been preserved with its bore and tonal characteristics remaining unchanged in use to the present day. This Akademiemodel oboe, invented in the early 20th century by Hermann Zuleger, is now made by a select few makers, notably Guntram Wolf and Yamaha. Apart from its use in the major Viennese orchestras, which continue to exploit the Akademiemodel's unique color, it is not used.

The modern oboe

The oboe was further developed in the 19th century by the Triebert family of Paris. Using the Boehm flute as a source of ideas for key work, Guillaume Triebert and his sons Charles and Frederic devised a series of increasingly complex yet functional key systems. A variant form using large tone holes; the Boehm system oboe, was never popular for orchestral use, but was used in military bands in Europe into the 20th century. F. Lorée of Paris further developed the modern oboe. Minor improvements to the bore and key work have continued through the 20th century, but there has been no fundamental change to the character of the instrument for several decades. [2].

The modern oboe is most commonly made from grenadilla (African blackwood), though some manufacturers also make oboes out of other members of the dalbergia family of woods, which includes cocobolo, rosewood, and violetwood. Alternatively, some makers use a plastic resin. The oboe has an extremely narrow conical bore. The oboe is played with a double reed consisting of two thin blades of cane tied together on a small-diameter metal tube (staple), which is inserted into the reed socket at the top of the instrument. The commonly accepted range for the oboe extends from B♭3 to about G6, over two and a half octaves, though its common tessitura lies from C4 to E♭6.

A modern oboe with the "full conservatory" key system has 45 keys, with the possible additions of a third octave key and an alternate (left pinky) F-key. The keys are usually made of nickel silver, and are silver or occasionally gold-plated. Besides the full conservatory or "conservatoire" system, oboes are also made using the English thumbplate system or the automatic octave system.

Other members of the oboe family

The oboe has several siblings. The most widely known today is the cor anglais, or English horn, the tenor (or alto) member of the family. A transposing instrument, it is pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the standard oboe. The oboe d'amore, the alto (or mezzo soprano) member of the family, is pitched in A, a minor third lower than the oboe. J.S. Bach used both the oboe d'amore as well as the taille and oboe da caccia, Baroque antecedents of the cor anglais, extensively. Even less common is the bass oboe (also called baritone oboe), which sounds one octave lower than the regular oboe. Delius and Holst both scored for it. Similar to the bass oboe is the more powerful heckelphone, which has a wider bore and larger tone than the bass oboe. Only 165 heckelphones have ever been made, and competent players are hard to find [3]. The least common of all are the musette (also called oboe musette or piccolo oboe), the sopranino member of the family (it is usually pitched in E-flat or F above the standard oboe), and the contrabass oboe (typically pitched in C, two octaves deeper than the standard oboe).

Keyless folk versions of the oboe (most descended from the shawm) are found throughout Europe. These include the musette (France) and bombarde (Brittany), the piffero and ciaramella (Italy), and the xirimia (Spain). Many of these are played in tandem with local forms of bagpipe. Similar oboe-like instruments, most believed to derive from Middle Eastern models, are also found throughout Asia as well as in North Africa.

Classical works featuring the oboe


Oboist Albrecht Mayer preparing reeds for use. Oboists scrape their own reeds to achieve the desired tone and response

The oboe in non-classical genres

While the oboe is rarely used in musical genres other than Western classical, there have been a few notable exceptions.

Traditional and folk music

Although keyless folk oboes are still used in many European folk music traditions, the modern oboe has been little used in folk music. One exception was the late Derek Bell, harpist for the Irish group Chieftains, who used the instrument in some performances and recordings. The U.S. contra dance band Wild Asparagus, based in western Massachusetts, also uses the oboe, played by David Cantieni. The American rock band REM features the oboe in several tracks of their album Out of Time, most notably as the lead melodic instrument on the wordless song "Endgame."

Jazz

Although the oboe has never been featured prominently in jazz music, some early bands, most notably that of Paul Whiteman, included it for coloristic purposes. The multi-instrumentalist Garvin Bushell (1902-1991) played the oboe in jazz bands as early as 1924 and used the instrument throughout his career, eventually recording with John Coltrane in 1961.[1] Though primarily a tenor saxophone player, Yusef Lateef was among the first (in 1963) to use the oboe as a solo instrument in modern jazz performances and recordings. The 1980s saw an increasing number of oboists try their hand at non-classical work, and many players of note have recorded and performed alternative music on oboe.

Other oboists performing in non-classical genres

Famous oboists

See this list of oboists.

Fictional oboist

Oboe manufacturers

A majority of professional oboists in the United States favor instruments made by the French company F. Lorée. Following is a list of the major oboe manufacturers.

Notes

  1. ^ This is in contrast to the clarinet, whose tone emphasizes the odd-numbered harmonics, giving it a more mellow timbre. The clarinet emphasizes these odd-numbered harmonics because its nearly cylindrical bore and pressure-controlled reed make it behave approximately like an ideal closed cylindrical pipe, unlike the oboe which behaves approximately like a conical pipe.
  2. ^ See: Robert Howe. "The Boehm Oboe and its Role in the Development of the Modern Oboe". Galpin Society Journal, 2003.
  3. ^ See: Robert Howe and Peter Hurd. "The Heckelphone at 100". Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 2004.

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