Oboe And History Behind The Double Reed Instrument
The Oboe
Oboe is an old instrument with an old history dated back to many centuries. The oboe is a wooden tube with a long and slender body.
The instrument is widening out from the upper side to a bell shape at the lower side. A standard oboe as a woodwind instrument is about 2 feet long.
It is a member of a woodwind musical instrument family. Also, it belongs to the double reed family. Because it uses a double reed as its sound generator.
Oboe’s Mechanism and Body
Oboes cause a column of air to vibrate just like a flute in order to produce its sound. However, the instrument makes use of reed to blow the air across instead of a hole used in the flute.
Generally, the oboe has wide double reeds that convert the vibrations from the player’s lip into powerful sound waves.
Also, metal keys are attached to the wooden body of the instrument. The metal keys are moved by fingers to close and open the holes along the length of the wooden tube. The keys are used by musicians to change the tone of the instrument.
You can learn more about part of the oboe to have a broad idea about the mechanism of the oboe.
Oboe in Music
The oboe along with other wind instruments like flute, clarinet, and bassoon are basic woodwind instruments of the orchestra. Oboes have been members of orchestras for almost 400 years.
In fact, the oboe is among the instruments of the orchestra that were in a firm position. Oboe is known as one of the most delicate and unique instruments in the orchestra.
Moreover, the oboe is a typical member of a concert band. Besides, you can see the oboe as a solo instrument in other genres of music like jazz, rock, and popular music. The oboe player is generally known as oboist.
The Origin and History of Oboe
The double reed pipe is also known with the Sumerian term sem. The Sem is often made with copper, bronze, or silver. This Sumerian instrument is regularly acknowledged in the temple ritual. It is also called gis har-har when made of wood or reed.
The history of this reed instrument is not well established because of its existence since antiquity. However, the oboe as a double reed instrument developed into a modern one along with other reed instruments like a bassoon. It developed from the primitive double-reed instrument to what we have today.
The reed pipes kept at the University Museum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with approximate dates of 2800 BC were known as the oldest reed pipes. The pipes were discovered in a royal cemetery in Ur, Mesopotamia. This information was established by Curt Sachs in his book History of musical instruments.
Reed instrument In The Ancient Time
There is much evidence that cannot be questioned that shows that several ancient instruments had reeds. Specifically, all the Instruments that belong to the double reed family-like oboe are very old.
For instance, the ancient Greek wind instrument aulos or tibia in Roman is an old double-reed instrument. Aulos as a musical instrument was a pipe with a reed mouthpiece and a couple of finger-holes.
The earliest aulos was found in a village and a former municipality in the Larissa regional unit, Koilada at Thessaly. This instrument is carved from bone, has five holes, and dates from around 5000 BCE known as the Neolithic Period.
Aulos was known for its usage in martial music. Also, aulos is popular in elegiac poetry, sacrifices, dramas as well as wrestling, and other physical activities in ancient Greek.
Other Ancient Ancestors Of The Oboe
The aulos is the ancient ancestor of the oboe from which shawm that was popularly known as the precursor of oboe was crafted. The Shawn was known to be the immediate predecessor of the oboe.
Notwithstanding, there were other Arabian reed instruments that were also known as the ancestor of Shawn. Other instruments that were related to being the predecessor of shawm the ancestor of the oboe are zamr and Mizmar, rhaita or ghaita, and duduk.
Zamr is a reed instrument with a pair of hornpipes merged to a double reed cane. Each pipe of the zamr has 5 to 6 holes and is beautified with artificial leather or skay ribbons.
Mizmar is a traditional reed instrument from the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia and is found in Egypt. Mizmār is also known as Zurna in Turkey but with little difference in construction and materials.
Rhaita is also a double reed musical instrument that is popular in North Africa countries like Morocco. It looks much like the Turkish zurna and Egyptian Mizmār.
Some of these instruments like aulos are old reed instruments played in pairs as double pipes. Normally, they were cylindrical-bored and also played by blowing through the reeds. Notwithstanding, recent research has confirmed that they differ from the regular description of oboes.
Double Reed Instrument In The Middle Ages
During this period, the Shawm was the most popular double reed instrument known. The English name shawm came from “calamus” which means reed in Latin. Generally, the term shawm is used to characterize any type of instrument playing with a single or double reed at that time.
Along the line, Shawm became the predecessor for the modern oboe that we have today. Surely, the history of the oboe is not complete without mentioning the Shawm and hautbois. The reason being that the two instruments were successively developed to modern oboe.
Shawm description
Shawm is a conically-bored tube with a flared end and six or seven finger (or tone) holes. The instrument composed a single piece of wood, unlike the oboe we have today with different parts.
The reed of the instrument was fixed to a brass tube with a conical shape known as the staple. The staple can be bent or straight depending on the instrument size.
The smaller version of shawm possessed a pirouette. Pirouette is a turned detachable piece of wood. The reed of the instrument was perfectly inserted and fixed in the middle of the pirouette.
The other side of the pirouette without a reed was normally inserted in the narrow end of the instrument. No pirouette on the larger shawm but it has its lowest hole covered by a key with a double touch-piece.
Shawm Playing
The Shawn is played with the double reed attached to the end of the conical tube fully taken into the mouth. The pirouette allows the players to insert a particular length of the reed into their mouth.
So the reed of the instrument will be inside the cavity of the player’s mouth. Specifically, the lips of the players will be pressed against the rim of the pirouette to form an air-tight wind chamber.
Playing the double reed at that time with this method generated a strong, strident sound. The sound produced is rough and bagpipe-like on the grounds that the player cannot compress the reed.
Shawm entry to West Europe
The instrument was believed to find its way to Western Europe through Italy. This was influenced by the Eastern Mediterranean country.
Because identical double-reed instruments have been in existence around Southern and Eastern Europe for a long time. The typical example of this is the ancient Greek aulos as well as Armenian duduk.
Shawm other names
Shawm as a primitive oboe of the era is known with different names across Europe. In German, it is known as Schalmei, ciaramella in Italy, and chalemie in France. The early shawms were majorly used as an outdoor instrument and the sound suited the music of the period.
Oboe In Baroque Period (c. 1600 – c. 1750)
The Baroque period recorded the actual birth of the oboe. Generally, it was believed that the 17th century gave birth to oboe development. Actually, the instrument experienced physical and tone changes during the 17th century that lead to its modern development.
Oboe came into existence around the second half of the 17th century as hautbois. This happened when the popular shawm of the late Renaissance was later reinvented in France to hautbois.
The term hautbois is derived from the French words “Haut and bois” which means “high or loud wood”. The hautbois is treated as the immediate ancestor of the modern oboe. Because the construction of hautbois marks the inception of the switch from shawms to oboes.
Specifically, the hautbois was designed by Jacques Hotteterre and Michel Philidor who are French court musicians to Louis XIV. The two musicians reconstructed the reed, holes, and conical bole of the middle age shawm to modify the tone of the instrument.
As a result, they created a double-reed instrument with a light, non-shrill, and bleating tone that blended well with other instruments. Also, it can ascend up to three or four notes higher compared to the old shawm.
In a short time, the baroque oboe replaced the shawms because of the new “monodic style” of that period. The “monodic style” required versatile instruments that can express the qualities of singers and also has an extensive range.
Oboe as hautbois in Europe
The hautbois as a new instrument later spread to other countries in Europe with its French name. Normally, the hautbois was known as treble shawm made in France with an improved higher tone
However, due to the local phonetics, the hautbois was pronounced and spelled in different ways. The spelling and pronunciations vary from huautboits, howbois, hoboy, hoboe, howboy, hoeboy, to oboe.
Probably the English name came from mispronouncing and misspelling of the original French name. The instrument was later considered to be the baroque oboe.
Usually, people in Western Europe treat the oboe and its ancestor shawm as the same. But the English and Scottish people see them as different instruments.
Hautbois (Baroque Oboe) Construction Style
Typically, the hautbois as the baroque oboe was constructed differently. The material used is generally boxwood and brass for the key attached to its body.
Also, the instrument was constructed in three sections. It was not a single piece of wood used in shawm construction. This makes it different from the Shawm that was one tube long and not divided into joints.
The three sections of the instrument are the pavilion, body top, and bottom body. And they were connected together as one tube with the aid of a tenon and socket.
Bore and Finger holes
In addition, hautbois has a narrow bore instead of a wide conical bore in shawm. The big finger hole of the old instrument was also reduced in the new instrument.
The baroque oboes were constructed with six finger holes. Two of these finger holes were double. The doubled finger-holes were smaller and sat side by side on the same level along the oboe tube.
Also, two smaller finger-holes were purposely placed close together. This is done so the player will be able to close them together or separately with the same finger.
In addition, the doubled finger-holes were designed for semitones. The semitones they were designed for are F1 or F#1 as well as G1 or G#1 respectively.
Traditionally, the baroque oboes were in the key of D major as well as low pitch. Also, they have a compass of two octaves C1 to C3, and a comfortable tone range from C4 to D6.
The Brass Key on the Baroque oboe
Specifically, the three brass keys were attached to the body of the instrument. One of the keys is called a “great key” and the other two keys were known as “side keys”.
The great key was designed as a double wings (or “swallow-tail”) key. The great key closed an alternatively open hole at the bottom of the instrument. This action lengthened the tube to produce the lowest note which is C1.
The great key was put in place for players to be able to close the last hole easily. Because the player cannot physically stretch the little finger in to cover the hole at the bottom.
The other two keys were located by the sides of the great key and they were opposite each other. Those keys were situated like this so that the player can easily use them by either the left or right hand
When the double keys were used the holes would be opened for the note Eb1 or D#1. Every other hole is like the one we have on a recorder. The player can cover them directly with the fingers.
However, the players have to use half holing or cross fingering for certain semitones. The half-holing or cross fingering opens a whole new variety of sound colours.
Reed Side of the Instrument
Again, the oboe construction of the baroque period gets rid of the cup-shaped pirouette on the Shawm. Remember that the pirouette is used to connect the oboe reed and the body of the instrument together. As a result, the reed was held between the lips instead of inserting them into the mouth directly.
Consequently, the player can control the quality of the instrument’s tone as well as its pitch, dynamic, and strength. In addition, the new oboe sound is not that rough as that of the older instrument. And it has a softer and more delicate sound.
The Instrument Popularity During The Baroque Period
The baroque oboe set a new standard for wind instruments of that period in terms of musical character. This is because of the sound weight and flexibility of tones in the range of a true soprano.
Consequently, the oboe became an important instrument of the symphony orchestra after the violin toward the end of this period. Also, the oboe was one of the principal instruments of the military band during the period.
Specifically, many outstanding composers of that time usually employed the oboe for a soprano wind soloist. Also, they used oboe when they needed a strengthened “ripieno” line.
Furthermore, almost every piece of music composed for orchestra performance since 1700 has consisted of oboe’s part. In fact, most of the wind ensembles of that period included a section or part for oboe.
One of the compositions of that period that includes solo oboe is Alessandro Marcello’s Concerto in C minor. Some other examples are Bach’s Double Concerto in C for violin and oboe and Handel’s two concertos for oboe and strings.
In fact, the legendary “Les douzes grandes Hautbois du Roi” French band of that period was dominated by the oboe. The band name means “The Twelve Great Oboes of the King” and was composed of ten oboes and two bassoons.
Oboe In Classical Period (c. 1750 – c. 1830)
The 18th century was the end of the baroque period and the beginning of the classical period. And throughout the 18th century oboe was the principal woodwind instrument in the orchestra.
The double reed instrument enjoyed its dominance till the early classical period. In the 19th century, the oboe continued to maintain its importance in the orchestra but not like it did during the baroque period.
Because other woodwinds as well as oboe underwent several improvements primarily through changes in their keys and fingering. Specifically, the flute and clarinet later gained equal importance in the century with the growth in orchestra size.
The development of the oboe during the Classical period was correspondingly simple and modest. However, the double-reed instrument was fabricated to be agile and capricious compared to its earlier generations.
The classical oboe differed from its predecessors in outward form. Also, it differed from the baroque style with smaller bore, and miniature tone holes.
The Bore in The Classical period
During the classical period, the oboe’s conical tube was reconstructed and the bore was narrower compared to the baroque oboe. The narrow bore of the classical oboe enhanced higher notes to be played with greater fluency.
Moreover, lining the oboe’s bore with a conical metal tube was practiced during the classical period but it was quickly stopped. This is because the practice made the oboes sound exactly like a horn or trumpet.
Additional Keys During The Classical Period
During the Classical period, the double side keys from the baroque oboe were reduced to one for the right hand alone. This was done with the fact that the player placed the right hand at the lower side of the tube.
However, the oboe later became outfitted with several keys during this period. These new keys were used to eliminate cross-fingerings for each semitone through a separate tone hole that can be opened by its own key.
The new key attached impacted the fingering technique. Moreover, it altered the sound as well as the character of the instrument.
Furthermore, the key for the notes D♯, F, and G♯ were also added. With the new key, accidental notes were clearer. As a result, the whole scale of the instrument became brighter and more focused.
It was during the Classical period the “slur key” was added to the instrument. The key is used to prevent some slurred notes from “cracking”. Consequently, it enables the instrument to produce clean, quick, and consistent slurred notes.
However, around 1800, a “speaker key” also known as “octave key” was added to the instrument. The addition of new keys to the oboes created a turning point in the history of the instrument.
The key was designed by French instrument makers to replace the “slur key”. Appollon Barret, a French oboist, instrument-maker, and composer was probably the first oboe builder to add octave keys to the instrument.
The addition of a speaker key enables easy playing of the upper register and upward slurs. Specifically, the speaker key prevented the over blowing and aided attacking high notes.
Classical Oboe Tone and Range
With additional keys and a narrower bore, the oboe now has a wider range and new tessitura. The tessitura of the classical oboe was broader to some extent than that of the baroque period.
The pitch of the instrument was moving to a standard of A′ = 440 around 1770. This later became standard in northern Italy as well as Venice.
Also, the classical oboe’s range extended from C1 to F3. Notwithstanding, some oboe from German and Austrian makers could still play a tone B4 with one-half step lower.
Oboe Music During The Classical Era
The narrower bore gave composers an edge to use the oboe’s upper register in their composition. Along this line, composers of the Classical era beautifully utilized more range available on the classical oboe.
Specifically, the new half-octave awaked the classical era composer to write a concerto for the oboe. For instance, Wolfgang Mozart wrote Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 in 1777 for the oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis.
In addition, Mozart also wrote Quartet in F major for oboe and strings, K. 370. In like manner, Joseph Haydn composed “The Oboe Concerto in C major, Hoboken number (VIIg:C1)” around 1790.
Other composers of the classical era that composed for classical oboe are Ludwig August Lebrun, and Johann Christian Fischer. Also, Jan Antonín Koželuh, Johann Christian Bach, and many others.
Notwithstanding, composers do more solo works for the oboe during the classical era. These solo works are in symphonic, chamber, opera, and other composition styles from the Classical era.
Oboe in Romantic Period (c. 1830 – c. 1900)
The development of the oboe from the Classical period continued in the Romantic period. And the improvement in industrialized manufacturing processes of the 19th century contributed greatly to the oboe development.
Generally, the industrial revolution of the romantic period had great impacts on speedy improvement in woodwind instrument design. It increases the production as well as the sophisticated key mechanism.
In particular, the oboe passed through several developments during this period. The development was in such a way to make it equal to the flute. As a result, the oboe experienced more change during the Romantic period than any other period.
The major changes were noticeable in its key mechanism. The complex key mechanism that was created bolstered the technical capabilities of the instrument.
The change in key mechanism and other less obvious alterations really influenced the characteristics of playing the instrument. As a result, the instrument was able to meet the technical concerns of new musical aesthetics.
Moreover, the instrument pitch including the timbre was also affected. The intonation, carrying power, and balance of registers of the instrument were also changed.
Again, the change affected the character and function of the instrument that it became a specialist’s instrument. The difficulties in making the reed of acceptable tone quality also limited the oboe as an amateur instrument.
Keys Modifications During The Romantic Period
The instrument maker keeps improving the instrument with several developments. By the year 1840, the number of keys on the instrument had increased to fourteen.
Thereafter, the ideology of Boehm’s flute in terms of range, volume, and intonation improvement started to influence the oboe. So, the French Oboe makers, Charles Triébert and his brother Frédéric Triébert applied the same modification to the instrument.
The modification done by the Triéberts resulted in extending the range of the instrument. Also, it improved the intonation as well as the uniformity of the oboe timbre.
The range of keys that the instrument could be played effectively was also expanded. They also made changes to the perforated plates placed in the earlier open holes.
The instrument maker Charles Triébert obtained a medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 for applying Boehm modification on oboe. As well as improved bassoons, a member of the oboe family.
They continue their modification and their efforts on the instrument at the climax are still in use today. They provided a key mechanism that allows smooth playing with different ways of producing the same note.
German Model and France Model
During this period, the makers of oboe based their designs on national characteristics as a model. And the common two models of that period were German and French styles.
The design by Frédérics became the adopted French model of the 20th century. The French model had thin walls and narrow tubes with an elegant tone. In addition, the tone of the French model is thinner, reedy and can travel across thunderous orchestra swells.
However, there was another design by German Karl Golde that used many keys and was common in Europe before the French oboe model.
The German model had a thick-walled and more conventional wide bore. Also, it had a noticeable “onion” bulge at its upper side.
The resulting sound of the German model is full and rounded. Also, its tone is clumsy and dark with little or no vibrato.
Specifically, the German model was designed to meet the military band requirement. This model was able to produce an increased loudness that was apparently inspired by the military.
Consequently, the German oboe was harsher in tone and its sound was more powerful. On the other hand, the French oboe possessed a fine and more delicate tone.
Materials Used For Oboe In Romantic Period
The material used for the oboe also changed during this period. Generally, most makers used ebony or rosewood frequently to make the oboe during this period and not boxwood as usual. In addition, the double reed is peculiar to the player’s choice.
Oboe Music During The Romantic Era
Actually, there is an unfortunate lack of quality concertos from the Romantic period for oboe. Composers treated the oboe as an instrument lacking the ability to cope with the aspirations of Romantic expression.
Composers of these periods focused more on the piano and instruments of the string family. Because they found the oboe restricted in range as well as technical facility. Also, the romantic oboes lack the dynamic power required in military and ceremonial music.
Notwithstanding, some composers still composed several wonderful solos for the instrument in the symphonic and opera repertoire.
For example, the Three Romances for Oboe and Piano, Op. 94 by Robert Schumann. Schumann wrote this composition only for oboe during the Romantic period in December 1849.
But many pieces of music written for oboe during this period were the work of lesser-known composers. Many of them were also from the work that some oboists wrote for their personal use or their students.
Oboe in Modern Period (1900 – Onward)
Oboe underwent several modifications through the centuries and the process continued until we have modern oboe. Also, the instrument has existed in numerous variations. However, the modifications during the Romantic period gave birth to the modern oboe.
The modern oboe utilized a key system known as the full conservatory. This key system comprised 45 pieces mostly made of silver. This development came from the French conservatory oboe system of the late 19th century.
The further modification to the French conservatory oboe system by Adolphe Lucien Lorée, and Georges Gillet took place in 1906. They worked together and modified the Triébert’s Système 6 oboe to the 6bis (plateau) oboe.
Octave keys on Modern Oboe
The modern oboe possessed more than one octave-key. Specifically, it has two octave-keys while some have three.
The first octave-key was designed specifically for E5 to G#5. And the second octave-key was designed for A5 to C6. The 3rd Octave key assists the sound of high E and F, G, Gb, or F# to be clearer.
Some modern oboes utilized a design system with an automatic octaves system. This gives players the freedom of playing the octave.
The instrument Tone Range In Modern period
The modern instrument has a commonly accepted soprano range from B♭3 to about G6. Although the acceptable tessitura of the instrument is between C4 to E♭6.
Besides, some student oboes only extended to B3 because they do not have a key for B♭.
The material used for Modern Oboe
During the Modern period, instrument makers used different materials for the oboe’s conical body. Most often, they used materials like the African blackwood known as granadilla, as well as cocobolo, rosewood, and kingwood, ebony, and plastic resin.
The key system on most of the modern oboes used keys made with nickel silver plated with silver or gold.
Music for Oboes in Modern Period
The 20th-century composers found the potential of the instrument as a solo instrument. In the early 20th century, several composers like Francis Poulenc, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, and others wrote music for the oboe.
In particular, they wrote masterpieces chamber and solo unaccompanied repertoire for the instrument. For instance, Francis Poulenc wrote a sonata for oboe and piano in 1962.
What Does An Oboe Sound Like?
The sound of the oboe is warm, reedy, almost squawking.
The oboe has a pitch that is “lipped higher” or ” lipped lower” by the oboist.
Above all, a professional oboist is capable of playing a long note and long passages using a single breath because of the nature of the instrument.
The video below demonstrates what an oboe sounds like with a simple melody called “Ode to Joy”.
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