Oboe Instruments
Oboe Instruments Fast Facts
Made of granadilla, rose or cocus wood, the oboe has a narrow conical bore terminating in a slight flare or bell. It is held vertically and the double reed, which is mounted in the top, is held in the player’s mouth. When blown the lips of the double reed start beating; this drives beaten air into the pipe which then becomes alive with sound. The quality of sound or timbre depends to a major degree on the dimensions of the reed, the grain and its density. Like the flute, the oboe can be dismantled into three sections and carried discreetly in a small case along with what looks like a small flue brush, used to dry out condensation in the bore at the end of a performance. The precious reeds will very likely be nursed in a small box which allows them adequate ventilation when they are not in use.
A Brief History of the Oboe Instrument
The name oboe derives from the French haut bois, meaning literally high wood, but in musical terms, loud instrument. This in its turn derives from early times when instruments were classed as loud or soft, the recorder for example often being called flute douce. ‘Who would suspect,’ wrote David Munrow in his book Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ‘listening to the intimate and seductive tone of the orchestral oboe today, that it was the offspring of … on aggressive outdoor parent.’ And still today that aggressive, reedy sound, alive with strong upper partials or harmonics, can be heard outdoors in four continents of the world, playing mostly for secular merry-makings, but also for weddings and religious ceremonies.
The double reed pipe has been known for many centuries.
The aulos of ancient Greece is the most obvious example, but a pair was
found in the royal cemetery at Ur, the city of the moon god of ancient
Sumer, dated at approximately 2800 BC; their sophistication indicates
that the instrument was known a good time before this. It will never be
known whether the cradle of the double reed pipe was in the Sumerian world
or whether it was developed in different countries at different times.
Europe is said to have received it from the East sometime in the 12th
century – or a form of it, called the shawm. This was made from one block
of wood with a pronounced flare at the bell. At the base of the staple
carrying the reed there was a metal disk or pirouette which was pressed
firmly against the mouth of the player. Then the player blew, his cheeks
distended and became a form of air reservoir. In ancient civilizations,
as well as more recent folk cultures, the players would bind their cheeks
with material when playing. This served two purposes: it concealed the
disfigurement caused by distension, and also assisted control. These players
also used what has been called the circular form of breathing, which is
used by glass blowers: the pressure on the cheeks enables the player to
blow out through his mouth while simultaneously breathing in through his
nose.
From the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) in England bands of oboe
players called wayghtes, or waits, were employed to mark the merry seasons
as well as to attend on Magistrates and Officers the ‘pomps and ceremonies’.
A wait was thus often another name for an oboist or the instrument itself.
But shawm, derived from calamus, a Latin word meaning reed, was its proper
name.
The first indoor or domesticated oboes were developed in France and by the mid-17th century were introduced into opera scores. By now the flare of the bell had been reduced and the outstanding pirouette abandoned: the staple carrying the reed stood clear of the rim of the pipe itself. The sound lost its rural roughness and became sweet and tame. From the end of the 18th century onwards an increasing number of keys were added, the characteristic bulge beneath the vestigial pirouette was slimmed away, boxwood was abandoned as a material and a fully chromatic oboe, described as ‘the most elaborate and complicated of reed instruments’ was developed, mainly by the Parisian maker Frederic Triebert, who virtually re-designed the instrument in the mid-19th century. Triebert of the 19th century was to the oboe what Hotteterre was to the 17th century flute; instruments of either of these makers, along with those by the English Stanesby and the French Cahusac, both of the 18th century, are now collector’s pieces only to be marveled at in museums or private collections.
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