Blog Post #5—Let's take a step back from reeds, shall we? (5)

Guten Tag (I'm running out of greetings, please forgive me), readers!  Last week was a HUGE success, and I'm really proud of what I accomplished!  Unfortunately, I must take a step back from over-enthusiastic vlogs of myself screaming over a quaking piece of wood to *learn you guys a thing or two.  So, in light of my newfound crowing reed (see here), I've decided to do some nifty, cool research on the oboe as a whole.

A Shawm

To kick off, the first definite appearances of the oboe were in the 17th century (Baroque Period), through an instrument called the hautbois (you think I'm kidding; trust me, I wish I was, too).
The hautbois, was a descedant of the shawm, the medieval version of the oboe.  Despite appearances dating back to the Egyptian times that depict images of double reed instruments, these two occurrences are the first official oboe sightings.

A Hautbois

The baroque oboe (hautbois) was made of boxwood and had only three keys.  Additionally, to play an octave higher, an oboe player at that time had to use more air, as opposed to just using the octave key on the modern day oboe.  And, to be quite honest, I would have died as an oboe player in the 17th century because my asthmatic lungs would not be able to survive.


Now, moving onto the classical period (18th - 19th-ish century), the oboe was given a pretty snazzy makeover!  For example, it was resized, keys were added, it had r a n g e!  By this period, the oboe had a range from a C4 to an F6.

Classical Period Oboe

From here, the modern oboe finally emerges.  However, there is still an old-modern oboe that exists in our world today. Developed in the 1880s, the Viennese, or Wiener, Oboe is the spawn of the Germans and Austrians.  This oboe, holding a smaller size and different reed shape than the modern oboe, is thought to be the last direct replicate of the historically known instrument.  Though it has been succeeded by the modern Conservatoire Oboe, the Viennese Oboe is still used today in place of the hautbois in various Baroque pieces.

Viennese Oboe

Finally, we arrive at the modern oboe, the Conservatoire Oboe.

Conservatoire Oboe

This oboe, made from African blackwood (grenadilla), was created in the 19th century as a further development of the instrument.  The Conservatoire Oboe was developed by the Triebert family in Paris.  One of the most significant differences of this oboe as compared to all its predecessors, was the utilization of the Boehm key system, the structure of keys and tone holes used on the flute.  The addition of this system to the oboe allowed for an oboist to produce larger amounts of sound in a more efficient manner.  To this day, the Conservatoire Oboe is used as the modern version of the instrument.

Now you might be thinking, Liv, why does this matter? So what? Literally no one cares about the oboe.  I've never even heard an oboe in my life.  What's an oboe?  Whom?

Well, first of all, RUDE.  Second of all, I'LL TELL YOU WHY THIS MATTERS.

The oboe is obviously used in a lot of classical music.  Pieces such as...

• Marcello—Oboe Concerto in C Minor
• Srul Irving Glick—Sonata for Oboe and Piano
• Antonio Vivaldi—Oboe Concerto in F Major
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky—Swan Lake (Swan Theme)

While these pieces are all very beautiful and certainly characterize the oboe, it is also very prevalent in modern music.  The oboe is often used in film music, for example, due to its sad, flowing, melancholic sound.  Generally the it is used to convey a specific emotion for the duration of its playing.  For example, in both Star Trek and Star Wars, composers have pieces featuring the oboe, one sounding very hopeful and ready to charge, while the other sounds more defeated.  Below is a list of film songs that feature the oboe.

• "Suite for Oboe and Piano" From the Original Score To "Star Trek: The Original Series"
  click here to listen (0:00 - 2:08)
• "Gabriel's Oboe" From The Missing Soundtrack
  click here to listen (0:18 - end)

• "Plantarium" La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
  click here to listen (1:01 - 1:12)

• (the solos in) "Symphonic Suite from Far and Away" From Far and Away
  click here to listen [ psst!  I may be playing this ;) ]

As you can see, in all of these pieces (including the classical ones), the oboe is utilized to convey specific emotions in relation to the setting, development, and tone of the scene.  Additionally, the oboe is said to "speak," as it plays, many times taking up "roles" of scenes through its unique melodies and sound qualities.

So, I'd say the oboe is pretty neat... Maybe I'll learn how to play it sometime!

WELL, that's all, folks!  Kudos to you if you read all that.  I really enjoyed learning about the oboe and its evolution / importance to a piece of music, and I hope you did, too!

Bis später!

- OMB

*yes, this is on purpose

P.S. Click HERE for a link to my vlog, from when I first got a reed to make sound
P.P.S. Please click HERE for a very important vlog / update for this week!

For Blog Post #4 I commented on: Han, Kuo, and Wee