Modern Oboe

The Oboe is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It is a descendant of the shawm. The word "oboe" is derived from the French word hautbois, meaning "high woods". It is so-named because of the instrument's rather high and reedy sound. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist.

The instrument

Compared to woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet, the oboe is very difficult to play and produce a good sound on. Amateur players often produce an unpleasant (if not downright out-of-tune), strident tone that blends badly with other instruments. However, the professional oboe players can produce a rich, warm, and beautiful tone. It was the main melody instrument in military bands before it was ousted by the clarinet.

The oboe has a very straight sound, a tone which is quite poor in harmonics, therefore it's easy to tune to. The orchestras usually set the pitch by the oboe playing concert A (earlier 440Hz everywhere, now only in the USA; in Europe mostly 442Hz and 443Hz in Germany). Setting the pitch of the oboe is easily achieved by changing the position of the reed in the instrument. Slight (temporary) changes in the pitch (intonation) can be made by adjusting the embouchure accordingly.

The oboe first appeared in French courts around 1650. In the 17th century Jean Hotteterre and Michel Danican Philidor modified the shawm, so that the new oboe had a narrower bore and a reed which is held by the player's lips near the end. Henry Purcell was the first composer to specifically score for it. Careful manipulation of embouchure and air-pressure allows the player to express a huge range of emotions and moods.

The oboe is most commonly made from grenadilla (or African blackwood), but some manufacturers also make oboes out of other members of the dalbergia family of wood (rosewood; violetwood), or even high-quality plastic resin. The oboe has an extremely narrow conical bore, and double-reed mouthpiece consisting of two thin blades of cane tied together on a small-diameter metal tube (staple). The commonly accepted range for the oboe extends from Bb3 to A6, nearly three octaves. Together with the flute/recorder it is one of the oldest woodwind instruments.

Baroque Oboe, Stanesby Copy

In the Baroque era the oboe only had two brass keys, one called the C-key and the other the Eb-key. On this instrument there wasn't any C#4. There wasn't any octave-keys either, so for the higher octaves it was necessary to overblow it. Notable oboe-makers of that period are the German Denner and the English Stanesby. The range for the Baroque oboe extends from C4 to Eb6.

Classical Oboe

Later in the Classical period the oboe became outfitted with 8 keys, among them the so-called G#-key and the long-awaited octave-key, which allowed the player to play in the higher ranges without overblowing the instrument. The range for the Classical oboe extends from C4 to F6. The modern oboe has more than 20, usually silver-plated (rarely gold-plated) keys.

The oboe has several sibling instruments. The most widely known today is the cor anglais (English Horn), which evolved from the Baroque oboe da caccia. Both are pitched a perfect fifth lower than the standard oboe. The oboe d'amore, also popular during the Baroque period, is pitched a minor third lower than the oboe. Johann Sebastian Bach used the oboe d'amore extensively. Even less common is the baritone or bass oboe, which sounds an octave lower than the regular oboe. Delius and Holst both scored for it, but today it is almost a museum piece. Instead, the more powerful heckelphone is used.

Long-term professional oboe playing has been claimed to be linked to brain damage because of the allegedly too high air pressure required for playing; this is no more than an urban legend.

Some works featuring the oboe

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Oboe Concerto in C major
• Alessandro Marcello, Oboe Concerto in D minor
• Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerti
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concertos nos. 1 and 2
• Tomaso Albinoni, Oboe Concertos
• George Frideric Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
• Richard Strauss, Oboe concerto
• Franz Joseph Haydn, Oboe Concerto
• Vincenzo Bellini, Concerto
• Luciano Berio, Sequenza VII
• Francis Poulenc, Sonata
• Benjamin Britten, Metamorphoses after Ovid for Oboe Solo
• Robert Schumann, 3 Romances for Oboe and Piano

Jazz and Improvised Music

While oboe is rather rare in jazz and free improvisation, there are a few notable players.

Though primarily a tenor saxophone player, Yusef Lateef was among the first and remains, arguably, the preeminent jazz oboist.

Other performers include:

• Lindsay Cooper
• Roland Kirk
• Paul McCandless
• Karl Jenkins

Famous oboists

See this list of Oboists.

Fictional oboist

• Tess Bagthorpe (in the Bagthorpe Saga by Helen Cresswell)

Oboe manufacturers

• Buffet (http://www.buffet-crampon.com)
• Frank (http://www.frankundmeyer.de)
• Howarth (http://www.howarth.uk.com)
• Lorée (http://www.loree-paris.com)
• Marigaux (http://www.marigaux.com)
• Mönnig (http://www.moennig-adler.de)
• Rigoutat (http://www.rigoutat.com)

External links

• Bruce Haynes: Music for oboe (http://mfo.alte-musik.net) Online bibliography of literature for oboe written between 1650 and 1800.

• Experiments in Jazz Oboe by Alison Wilson (http://www.uky.edu/~moses/bdrp.ref/jazz.htm)