Chinese Sheng
Image from Wiki
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE OBOE
Some of the earliest known relatives of the oboe are the aulos of ancient Greece and the tibia of ancient Rome. Pictured on Grecian pottery, aulos players often wore a lip band, presumably to help hold in the lips, which were pushed out by the air pressure of playing. Often the instrument was doubled, each hand fingering a different pipe. The aulos was associated with the cult of Dionysis rather than Apollo, meaning the instrument was considered to evoke ecstasy and intoxication rather than reason.
Many variations and elaborations that developed from the aulos and tibia spread east and west through Asia and Europe. These instruments, still in use around the world, include the sheng (China), the shanai (India) the zurna (Turkey), and the bagpipe (many countries), as well as a more direct relative of the modern European oboe, the shawm.
The shawm, which developed from the zurna, was, as stated by authors Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes in The Oboe,
“boisterous, festive and impressive, an ‘Hautbois’ or ‘loud-woodwind’, and it was heard in consorts of various sizes..…” Other Renaissance oboe related instruments included the crumhorn, with an internal reed not touched by the lips, and the racket, a small, compact instrument with long internal tubes.
The early oboe was most likely created in Paris, perhaps by several instrument makers associated with the court of Louis XIV in the mid 1700s.
Again from authors Burgess and Haynes, "...by contrast, the (new) hautboy was created to play solos, and its own particular character was often part of the ‘message’ of the piece it was playing.” This new instrument, what we now call the Baroque oboe, involved several bore
and mechanism changes from the shawm and encouraged the players' lips to be on the reed, allowing for more tonal control. The Baroque oboe became part of the developing orchestra and military bands.
The oboe has remained a popular solo instrument and active member of the orchestra and wind ensemble through the Classic, Romantic and Modern eras while changing its bore size, key layout and complexity, reed size, and scrape. Major innovations have been driven by the desire to increase the instrument’s volume to keep up with the increase in size of the orchestra, and adding more keys to improve intonation and facilitate trills. Recently oboe makers have experimented with creating an instrument with more consistent tone through all registers, less tendency to crack, or crack as badly, and an improved, more facile mechanism.
UNCOMMON OBOE FAMILY MEMBERS IN CURRENT USE
The Viennese or Weiner oboe
This oboe is still used in the Vienna Philharmonic today, the only major orchestra to continue to use this version of the oboe.
Guntram Wolf describes them thus: "From the concept of the bore, the Viennese oboe is the last representative of the historical oboes, adapted for the louder, larger orchestra, and fitted with an extensive mechanism. Its great advantage is the ease of speaking, even in the lowest register. It can be played very expressively and blends well with other instruments."
For more information about the Wiener oboe
Image from Wiki.
The Low A Oboe
The instrument that includes a low A is very rare. The addition of this one note allows for more repertoire possibilities.
For more information on the Low A oboe
Lupophone (modern)
The Lupophone is a modern remake of the bass oboe, extending the range lower to cover some of the bass oboe’s orchestral literature that extends beyond the normal range.
For more information about the Lupophone
To hear the Lupophone
The Sarrusaphone
The Sarrusaphone family is similar to that of the saxophone family, and was designed to replace the “soft” oboe and bassoon in wind bands. The metal bore is conical, and fingerings are similar to the saxophone. It also had some limited orchestral usage particularly in the early 20th century, and more recently, is featured in some jazz and film recordings.
There is also the related Rothophone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothphone), designed to even more closely resemble the saxophone.
For more information about the Sarrusaphone
Image from Wiki.
RARE HISTORICAL OBOE FAMILY MEMBERS
The Oboe da Caccia
The Oboe da Caccia, or “hunting oboe” in Italian, is an early English horn. Curved, held together with leather, it looked more like the hunting horn of it’s name than a modern English horn. It was used almost exclusively in the late Baroque period. Generally substituted by English horn in current modern performances of baroque works.
For more information about the oboe da Caccia
The Vox Humana
The vox humana is essentially a tenor oboe pitched a fifth deeper than the typical oboe. It flourished in England and southern Italy between the 1730s and about 1810, when the English horn supplanted it. The vox humana features an undecorated straight shape without a flaring bell. In England, it was usually used in double reed bands.
The Contrabass oboe
The contrabass oboe was pitched two octaves below the oboe. It was used primarily by French Baroque composers.
For more information about the Contrabass oboe
Image from here.
The Boehm System Oboe
The Boehm system was developed by the manufacturer Buffet and uses a key system and bore shape similar to that of a standard modern clarinet. Somewhat popular in the 19thCentury, but no longer in use.
For more information on the Boehm System Oboe
The Piccolo Heckelphone
The piccolo heckelphone is a very rare woodwind instrument invented in 1904 by the firm of Wilhelm Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Germany. A variant of the heckelphone, the piccolo heckelphone was intended to add power to the very highest woodwind register of the late Romantic orchestra, providing a full and rich oboe-like sound well into the sopranino range. A transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fourth above the oboe, its range as described in contemporary fingering charts is from B to G♯, though it can reach tones as much as a third above this. Text from here.
WORLD OBOE FAMILY INSTRUMENTS IN CURRENT USE
Duduk (Armenian) Used in several movie soundtracks. Listen
Rhaita or Ghaita (Northwest African). Listen
Sorna or Sarna (Ancient Iranian instrument related to the Zurna). Listen
RESOURCES
An interesting short history of the oboe (in German)
A quick overview of historical oboes
David Munrow playing and talking about the Shawn
Burgess, Geoffrey, and Bruce Haynes: 2004, The Oboe, The Yale Musical Instrument Series, New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09317-9
Bate, Philip: 1975, The oboe: an outline of its history, development, and construction by Philip Bate. London: E. Benn ISBN 0-510-36250-8