A musical instrument made of wood in three jointed sections, opening to a small bell; it is fitted with a double reed. It first appeared in recognizable form in the mid-17th-c and was widely used in the 18th-c. Since then its mechanism has been developed, particularly by the addition of keys. In the orchestra it is normally the oboe that sets the pitch for the other instruments. A lower-pitched instrument, the oboe d'amore, was also used in the 18th-c, but fell into disuse later.
Oboe
|
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist.
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. 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.
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.
Baroque oboe
The baroque oboe first appeared in French courts under Jean-Baptiste Lully in the late 17th century, where it was called hautbois.
The Classical oboe
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♯. 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.
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.
The modern oboe
The oboe was further developed in the 19th century by the Triebert family of Paris.
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. 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.
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.
Other members of the oboe family
The oboe has several siblings. 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. Even less common is the bass oboe (also called baritone oboe), which sounds one octave lower than the regular oboe. Similar to the bass oboe is the more powerful heckelphone, which has a wider bore and larger tone than the bass oboe. 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.
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 Concerto]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.
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. 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.
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), and the work of the indie rock musician Sufjan Stevens is also notable.
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."
Film music
The oboe is frequently featured in film music. 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) 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-rockFamous 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.
User Comments Add a comment…