An instrument capable of producing a wonderful sound, the oboe enjoys an illustrious place among woodwind instruments and is commonly used to tune the orchestra with it’s distinctive bright and cutting tone. The instrument may look like a clarinet, but it has many differences.
A double reed instrument in the woodwind family with a narrow conical bore modern oboes are usually made from grenadilla, also known as African blackwood, but makers also use woods such as cocobolo and rosewood. Some student instruments are made from ABS resin, and some use a mixture of wood and composites.
The earliest form of the oboe was the Shawm, an instrument from the 14th century used mainly in the military. The first oboes can be traced back to the French court of Louis XIV. The baroque oboes featured one great key and two side keys and were usually made of boxwood. The design underwent several design modifications during the classical period and in the 1800s the Viennese oboe was introduced by Josef Hajek. The oboe was developed further in the 19th century using the Boehm flute as a source for the key work and the modern oboe that is used today was created in the early 1900s.
A modern oboe with the conservatoire system has a large number of pieces of keywork, sometimes with the addition of a third-octave key and alternate F- or C-key. Besides the full conservatoire system, oboes can also made using the thumbplate system and some even have a dual system which allows both conservatoire and thumbplate systems to be used on the same instrument. Most have semi-automatic octave keys in which the second-octave action closes the first. The keys are usually made of nickel-silver and are silver or gold plated.
Music for the standard oboe is written in concert pitch and although heard mostly in classical music the oboe can also be heard in other genres of music. It’s uncommon in jazz, but there have been notable uses, and it can be heard occasionally in popular music and is frequently featured in film music.
At Ackerman Music we stock oboes from Buffet Crampon, Howarth and Yamaha and our fully equipped workshops can set up and repair all woodwind instruments.
