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.
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.