First off, oboe is a concert-pitched (in C) double reed instrument that is not a bassoon (the tall thing that sticks up over people's heads but is double reed), nor is it a clarinet (a bit bigger than the oboe, but unlike oboe, unfortunately, is used in jazz and is a single reed). Also the oboe has a conical bore (small at the top, gets larger towards the bottom), while the clarinet has a cylindrical bore (same size all the way down). Two pieces of thined cane (basically bamboo) on a cork covered metal tube makes the reed (mouthpiece). You put your lips over your teeth, stick the reed in your mouth and blow (this is harder than it sounds. non-oboe players can rarely produce any noise other than a gasping when they're through trying). The reed not in the instrument should be pitched to a high C, in the instrument (reed goes in the hole right on top) the pitched can be changed with different fingerings. The lowest note the oboe can play is a B flat below the treble clef staff, the highest note consistently written for us to play is an F above the same staff, though it can go higher. An english horn (also called cor anglais-- "horn of the angels") is pitched a fifth lower than an oboe, and is around one and a half times as long. If I'm transposing correctly (someone let me know if I'm not. can't do it worth crap) this means that when the english horn plays a written F, the note sounded is really a concert C. Other instruments in the oboe family include: musette (in F, smaller than oboe), oboe d'amore (in A, keeps getting larger than oboe from here), english horn (in F), and bass oboe (I think in C, I forget).

The Early Oboe

The earliest found instrument to be classified as an oboe is dated to 2800 B.C., and was found at the Royal Cemetery of Ur. It has three tone holes used to play whole tone scales (every note is a whole step apart-- from white key to white key on piano with black key in between). Such a scale would be something like this: C D E F# G# A# B#=C. Many pictures on walls of these kinds of instruments have been found as early as 3000 B.C. all throughout the Middle East.(pg 16) In Egypt, there are numerous pictures that have double oboes in ceremonial progressions.

Moving on through time, in Greece the instrument was called the aulos, in Rome it was the tibia who got it from the Etruscans, who named it subulo.(pg 18, 24) For the Greecians, the aulos was invented by the goddess Pallas(Athena to the Romans) and was extremely popular to the extent where playing contests were held. And these contests were as famous as the Olympic Games.(pg 18) There were also double aulos which usually were played with a head piece, a phorbeia, to prevent the cheeks from puffing. Aulos were used in wars(pg 21), just as pipers and drummers were used in Scotland.

The Romans had several different types of tibias, compared with Greece's two kinds of aulos. There was a straight (lunga), one that was curved at the bell (curva), and two types of double tibias. Tibia pares had parellel tone holes, and tibia impares had non parellel tone holes. Tibias came to be the principal instrument which was used for a variety of occassions such as festivals, funerals, gladiator events, and even everyday things like punishing slaves or the making of food. The players were held in high social standing until Christianty came along, which wanted only vocal music and the rank of the players dropped to the lowest social level.(pg 24-26) The oboe was not limited to the western world, many different double reeded instruments were found in the East and were very common. However, to the peoples of North and South America, oboes are almost an unknown for they prefered the flute for music.

Just to give an idea to the wide range of variety the oboes in the East, I'll list some of the instruments and where they came from. Middle East: zamr-el-kebir, zamr-el-soghair, and zourna (Persia). India: kalama, shahnai, and nyastaranga. China (the same instrument has different names in different provinces): kuan, pi-li, so-na, and gya ling (Tibet). Indochina: cai ken mot (one tube), cai ken doi (double tube), and cai ken loa (conical bore). Japan: hichiriki (still played) and the players who play the hichiriki also play the modern oboe in Court concerts.(pg 27, 28)

Middle Ages and Renaissance

The most outstanding feature of this peroid, music wise, is the incredible variety of instruments that were of the same family. Not only this, but a musician had to be able to play quite a collection of instruments: guitar, harp, organ, horn, hurdy-gurdy, shawm, flute, timpani, dulcian, and many others.(pg 31) This was necessary because musicians (called minstrels) of this time traveled from village to village offering their musical serivces for a number of different occasions: journeys, banquets, bathing, going to church, weddings, funerals, cermonies of the state, or even working peasants.(pg 33) Now you see why they had to play so many different instruments. Now on to the oboe!

The double reed instruments of this time include the shawm (predecessor of the oboe), cornamuse, bombarde, dulzaina, pommer, racket, and crumhorn. Quite a collection, huh? But then you still have the different sizes of each like treble (soprano), small, large, alto, tenor, bass and great bass. The bass pommers look very much like modern bassoons and the shawms (also called hautbois by the French, meaning high wood, and howeboies by the English, probably with similar meaning)(pg 37) and crumhorns are more oboe-like. Shawms had a straight bore yet the crumhorns had the bottom curved out away from the player, and tended to be larger than shawms. Crumhorns also had something called a wind-cap covering the reed, which you blew into causing the reed to vibrate rather than putting the reed itself into the mouth. Shawms had something similar called a pirouette. No I don't know the difference, but if you do please enlighten me ;-) It was much more difficult to get a nice sound this way since there was no way to directly influence the reed. Pommers smaller than the bass look to me like an english horn, except for the bulge near the middle that the pommers have.

The variety of music, unfortunately, was not on the same level as the variety of instruments. Instrumentalists were normally used only as accompianment to vocal singers; going back to the Christian church which only wanted vocal music. There was not much music written for solo instruments during the Renaissance, but this changed as the transition to the Baroque era began.

Baroque

During this time was when composers began to write music for solo instruments and also started to sign their works. Because of the growing repitoire for individual instruments, the demand for specialized players also grew (like really awesome oboists). The traveling minstrel became an endangered species. Also because of the specialization the instruments became better and easier to play (yes, the modern oboe is easier than its ancestors), as well as losing the wide variety of instruments.

Other than the variety of instruments dropping and instrumental music increasing, not much happened in the way of the oboe during this time. The bore was split into three pieces instead of one long bore, much easier to make. Keys were added to make playing some notes easier and having better intonation. This was when the E flat key for the right and left hands were added. Though most oboes had only two keys, a few three. Many players did not approve of the adding of keys and thought that such additions were of no importance, and some disliked the idea.(pg 65) This was also the time when the bottom was made to flare into a bell, and the top had a bulge. On oboes now such a bulge is only a swelling, but used to be larger to prevent condensation and cracking of the top joint.(pg 67)

still under construction (of course)

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