What is an oboe: description, device, famous concerts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

What associations appear in our minds with the word "oboe"? Obviously, some people imagine ancient two-horned pipes of fauns, someone for some reason thinks of a clarinet, and someone, perhaps, sees a long flute with many holes, and someone is definitely inclined to consider ancient Egyptian pipes as an oboe.

One way or another, but all these options are true to some extent, since the oboe is a unique wind instrument that combines almost all representatives of this family in structure and manufacturing methods.

What is an oboe

Oboe is a traditional folk instrument from the wind family, arranged in the form of an oblong tube, inside there are special partitions, thanks to which the sound is extracted. Since its inception, the oboe has undergone many changes, and throughout the development of the instrument, there was no specific standard model. Almost every created instrument was author's, different from other models. It is only now that several oboe models have appeared that are recognizedclassic.

Despite the ease of manufacture, in 1989 the oboe was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most complex instrument in the world.

Related models

Since the oboe belongs to the family of wind instruments, almost all tubular instruments, both folk and academic, are considered to be close to it in structure and sound production. Flute, bagpipe, gaita, horn, duduk - all these and many other instruments are members of the oboe family.

Even by their appearance, anyone can tell that the flute, oboe and clarinet belong to the same family.

Antiquity

Even the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt knew what an oboe was, they carved special pipes from sugar cane stalks. Of course, then the oboe did not yet have its own name and permanent appearance. However, the pipes of the ancient Egyptians are direct prototypes of this musical instrument.

From Egypt, the pipe came to Ancient Greece, changing its name to "avlos". The Hellenes turned out to be more subtle in nature and made a pipe from beech wood, which gave the sound smoothness and softness.

The oboe is a musical instrument that did not receive proper development in the era of antiquity, remaining at the level of home-made, often roughly crafted pipes.

Europe

In Europe, the oboe was much more fortunate. The Middle Ages, marked by the era of chivalry, simply could not do without a wind instrument of this type. In Western Europe, almostmass production of these musical instruments. Craft workshops produced oboes of any shape, type and with a wide variety of sound timbres. The most common model was the "minstrel oboe", which includes two horns with different tones and allows you to play more complex melodies than a regular flute.

The Renaissance gave the oboe a new life. Academic composers of those years became interested in the instrument, and the oboe was re-created: it was divided into three parts, the tube became longer, and the number of reeds increased, automatically making the sound of the instrument richer and more saturated.

Oboe structure

Oboe, the photo of the structure of which you can see below, is extremely simple. The instrument consists of an elongated tube of a certain diameter, in which resonating reeds are installed at different angles, which are set in motion and make sounds when strong air currents hit them.

Over the past millennia, the structure of the oboe has hardly changed, and the only difference between the modern instrument and its ancient models is observed only in more accurate manufacturing and carefully selected wood species, which affects the rich sound palette of the instrument.

Oboe materials

The first pipes of ancient musicians - prototypes of the oboe - were made from reed or bamboo stalks. However, later manufacturers of musical instruments noticed that each type of woodgives it a certain sound. Since then, the production of oboes has undergone dramatic changes. Oboes are traditionally made of beech, boxwood or rosewood, the straight grains of which ensure that the sound is evenly distributed in the wood pipe. Oboe reeds are made from hardwoods such as larch or ebony.

Oboe models

For a long time, all models of oboes are divided into two types: folk instruments and academic instruments. The first group consists of scattered varieties of pipe oboes with different characteristics that do not have a specific system.

The academic group is a collection of instruments ordered by characteristics, and it is by the examples of this group that one can understand what a real oboe is.

The main oboe models are:

• Conservative model - standard 23-hole oboe.
• The Viennese oboe is a unique but rare instrument with five holes.
• Alto oboe - the well-known "shepherd's English horn", widespread in foggy Albion, has 16 holes.
• Oboe-piccolo - also known as "musette", having a conical bell and 18 holes.
• The oboe d'amour is an instrument with a small curved nose and 13 holes.
• The hunting oboe is a rough-hewn instrument with 8 holes that makes short, low sounds similar to the sound of a military horn.
• The baritone oboe is an instrument whose sound has a lowerthreshold.

The role of the oboe in music

Starting from the Renaissance, the musical oboe becomes one of the leading instruments in academic music. Many composers create solo suites. As well as cantatas and even oboe symphonies, the instrument is actively used in the recording of academic works.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the oboe not only remained relevant, but also became in demand in recording musical accompaniment for films, games and performances.

Oboe parts include such composers as Enio Morricone, Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, John Powell and John Williams, who dedicated several suites to the oboe in his work on the Star Wars film, and many others.

Oboe production

Obviously, the countries of Western Europe know better than others what an oboe is, because the most famous workshops for the production of this musical instrument are in France and Germany.

Most musical groups prefer to order oboe in these countries, however, traditional type instruments, close to the original models, are best made in Greece, where they are distributed in the form of two-horned pipes, which have more souvenir than a full-fledged musical purpose.