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Anthony McColl, former Chairman of the Double Reed Socie
ty and former oboist with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, explains why this instrument plays such a prominent role in the modern orchestra.
The oboe is a woodwind instrument of conical bore, descended from the 15th and 16th century shawms. It is played with a reed made from two pieces of bamboo cane tied together and then scraped, thus vibrating the air column when blown. The range of the modern instrument extends from the B flat below Middle C to the G sharp (A flat) nearly two octaves higher.
It made its first appearance as a
n indoor ensemble instrument in France at the end of the 17th century, and was soon taken up in England and the north European states.
The tone of the oboe has a unique and poignant sonority derived from a combination of reedy vibrancy and sweetness, and it soon became a prime partner in the emerging orchestra of the early 18th century, where its lively, flexible and penetrating treble voice made it a valuable contrast to the flute and an ideal complement to horns and bassoons.
J.S. Bach, in his many church cantatas and settings of the Passion narrative, composed some of the very finest music for the oboe, and also for its alto and tenor relations, the so-called “Oboe d’Amore”, pitched a third lower, and the “Cor Anglais”, pitched a fifth lower. Needless to say, Mozart’s compositions are full of the most wonderful writing for the oboe, by turns sprightly and sweetly expressive, and in the 19th century orchestra, from Beethoven onwards, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mahler have all appreciated and understood the instrument’s unique expressive qualities.
The convention by which, traditionally, the oboe sounds the tuning note (A) for the whole orchestra is derived solely from the quality of penetration in the sound across a large ensemble, rather than any belief that the oboe’s pitch is infallible and therefore more reliable than any other instrument. In fact this convention places an onerous responsibility on the oboe player, which he or she could well do without!
It is sometimes suggested that the oboe is more difficult to master than other woodwind instruments, but this is not strictly true. The fingering is almost the same as that for the recorder or the flute, and the principal difficulty lies in learning to control, by the lips, a very small stream of air passing through the reed under high pressure, which gives birth to the characteristic sound of the instrument.
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