Encyclopedia:
Oboe,
Oboe d'amore,
Oboe (navigation),
Bass oboe,
Oboe (disambiguation),
Talk:Oboe,
Piccolo oboe,
Contrabass oboe,
Oboe#Baroque oboe,
Image:Baroque oboe damour.jpg
oboe see Oboe (disambiguation).Infobox Instrument
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|name=Oboe
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|classification=
*
Woodwind*
Wind*
Aerophone|range=
130px|center|related=
*
Piccolo oboe*
Oboe d'amore*
Cor anglais*
Oboe da caccia*
Bass oboe*
Contrabass oboeThe
oboe is a
double reed musical instrument of the
woodwind family. The English word "oboe" comes from the Italian version of
hautbois, the name of the instrument in French (literal meaning, "high wood"); the Italian name displaced the older English name "hautboy" or "hoboy" in the 18th century. 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. Out of all of the instruments, the harmonics produced by the oboe most mimic those of the human voice.
[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.] 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
right|thumbnail|60px|Baroque Oboe, Stanesby CopyThe 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 c1 to d3. 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
left|framed|border width=0|Classical Oboe, copy by Sand Dalton of an original by Johann Friedrich Floth, c. 1805In 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 c1 to f3, 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.
[See: Robert Howe. "The Boehm Oboe and its Role in the Development of the Modern Oboe". Galpin Society Journal, 2003.].
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. Because wooden oboes can crack when exposed to poor conditions, student models are often made from 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♭0 to about g3, over two and a half octaves, though its common
tessitura lies from c1 to e♭3. Some American oboes for beginners can only play down to b0, as the key for b♭ is not present. However, this variant is becoming less common.
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 little finger) 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
[See: Robert Howe and Peter Hurd. "The Heckelphone at 100". Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, 2004.]. 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 or
chirimia (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
*
Benedetto Marcello, Oboe Concerto in c minor
*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Oboe Concerto in C major, Quartet in F major
*
Antonio Vivaldi, Oboe Concerti
*
Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concertos nos. 1 and 2, Concerto for
Violin and oboe, lost oboe concerti, numerous oboe obbligato lines in the sacred and secular cantatas
*
Tomaso Albinoni, Oboe (and two oboe) Concerti
*
George Frideric Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Oboe Concerti and Sonatas
*
Georg Philipp Telemann, Oboe Concerti and Sonatas, triosonatas for oboe, recorder and basso continuo
*
Richard Strauss, Oboe Concerto
*
Joseph Haydn (spurious), Oboe Concerto in C major
*
Vincenzo Bellini, Concerto in E♭ major (arranged)
*
Luciano Berio, Sequenza VII
*
Domenico Cimarosa, Oboe Concerto in C major (arranged)
*
Francis Poulenc,
Oboe Sonata*
Benjamin Britten,
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Temporal Variations
*
Robert Schumann, Three Romances for Oboe or Violin
*
Carl Nielsen, Two Fantasy Pieces for Oboe and Piano
*
Alessandro Marcello,
Concerto in D minor*
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Concerto for Oboe and Strings,
Ten Blake Songs for oboe and tenor
*
Rutland Boughton, Oboe Quartet
*
Camille Saint-Saëns, Sonate for Oboe and Piano in D Major
*
Germaine Tailleferre,
Sonate Champêtre for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano
*
Bohuslav Martinu,
Oboe Concertothumbnail|200px|right|Oboist [Albrecht Mayer preparing reeds for use. Oboists scrape their own reeds to achieve the desired tone and response]
The oboe outside of classical music
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
http://www.wildasparagus.com/index.html Wild Asparagus, based in western
Massachusetts, also uses the oboe, played by David Cantieni.
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.
http://home.att.net/~dawild/jcdisc61.htm Gil Evans scored for the instrument in his famous Miles Davis collaboration "Sketches of Spain." 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.
Rock
The oboe has been used sporadically in rock recordings (generally by studio musicians on recordings of specific songs such as "
Hergest Ridge" by
Mike Oldfield), though a few bands have featured oboists as members. Such bands include
Henry Cow,
Roxy Music, and
Sigur Rós (although the oboists in these bands generally used the oboe as a secondary instrument, not playing it on every song). The work of the indie rock musician
Sufjan Stevens (who also plays
cor anglais and often overdubs both instruments on his albums) is also notable.
The American rock band
REM features the oboe in several tracks of their 1991 album
Out of Time (most notably as the lead melodic instrument on the wordless song "Endgame"), as well as on four tracks of their 1992 album
Automatic for the People. The oboe is also featured in the
Stereophonics' 2001 cover of "Handbags and Gladrags" by
Rod Stewart. Jarlaath, the vocalist of the French
gothic metal band Penumbra, plays the oboe in a number of the band's songs, as does Robbie J. de Klerk, the vocalist of the Dutch melodic
doom/
death metal band
Another Messiah.
Queen's song "
It's A Beautiful Day," which appears on the group's 1995 album
Made in Heaven, contains an oboe part (this oboe part was bassist
John Deacon's idea).
Film music
The oboe is frequently featured in film music, often to underscore a particularly poignant or sad scene. One of the most prominent uses of the oboe in a film score is
Ennio Morricone's "Gabriel's Oboe" theme from
The Mission.
Other oboists performing in non-classical genres
*
Marshall Allen (with
Sun Ra Arkestra), jazz,
free jazz*
Kyle Bruckmann, free improvisation
*
Garvin Bushell, jazz
*
Joseph Celli, free improvisation, contemporary classical music
*
Brian Charles*
Gene Cipriano*
Lindsay Cooper,
art rock*
Jean-Luc Fillon, jazz
*
Caroline Glass,
indie rock (played with Cirque du Soleil)
http://www.carolineglass.com/*
Robbie Lynn Hunsinger*
Joseph Jarman, jazz, free jazz
*
Karl Jenkins*
Rahsaan Roland Kirk*
Marta Konicek*
Yusef Lateef, jazz
*
Caris Liebman*
Andy Mackay (with
Roxy Music), art rock
*
Charlie Mariano*
Paul McCandless (with Paul Winter Consort and
Oregon), jazz
*
Makanda Ken McIntyre, jazz
*
Janey Miller (with New Noise)
*
Mitch Miller*
Roscoe Mitchell, jazz, free jazz
*
Manuel Munzlinger*
Romeo Penque*
Dewey Redman, jazz
*
Don Redman, jazz
*
Nancy Rumbel easy listening
*
Brenda Schumann-Post world, jazz
*
Matt Sullivan*
Sufjan Stevens,
indie rock*
Kjartan Sveinsson (with
Sigur Rós), post-rock
Famous oboists
See this list of
oboists.
Fictional oboist
* Tess Bagthorpe (in the
Bagthorpe Saga by
Helen Cresswell)
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.
*
http://www.buffet-crampon.com/ Buffet*
http://www.bulgheroni.it/home.asp?l=eng/ Bulgheroni * Cabart ( A Division of
http://www.loree-paris.com/ F. Lorée )
*
http://www.oboes.com/ Covey*
http://www.fossati-paris.com/ Fossati*
http://www.foxproducts.com/ Fox*
http://www.frankundmeyer.de/ Frank*
http://www.howarth.uk.com/ Howarth*
A. Laubin*
http://www.loree-paris.com/ F. Lorée*
http://www.marigaux.com/ Marigaux*
Musik Josef*
http://www.moennig-adler.de/ Mönnig*
http://www.patricola.it/ Patricola*
http://www.rigoutat.com/ Rigoutat*
Selmer*
YamahaNotes
External links
*
http://mfo.alte-musik.net/ Bruce Haynes: Music for oboe Online bibliography of literature for oboe written between
1650 and
1800.
*
http://web.archive.org/web/20050316222137/http://www.uky.edu/~moses/bdrp.ref/jazz.htm Experiments in Jazz Oboe by Alison Wilson (
archive link, was
dead)
*
http://www.oboespace.com/ OboeSpace: Oboe information*
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/main.html ASU Oboe Homepage*
http://www.oboe.ru/ Russian Oboe Page*
http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/oboe/ Oboe fingering guide*
http://www.friendlyfish.co.uk/ Reed making information and new music featuring oboe*
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6088896 Oboist Liang Wang: His Reeds Come First, NPR story by Debbie Elliott
*
http://www.abctrainer.com Oboe Fingering Trainer, Interactive Oboe Fingering Trainer
*
http://www.quacktocrow.com From Quack to Crow in 30 Minutes, From Quack to Crow in 30 Minutes: A Beginner's Guide
Listening
*
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6088896&ft=1&f=2 NPR interview with New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Wang, September 2006
Category:Woodwind instruments Category:Single oboes with conical boreLink
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