narrows to the diameter of the tongue reed must have
been early discovered, and was the original type of
the pastoral and beautiful oboe of the modern orchestra.
Like the flute, the oboe has only the soprano register,
extending from B flat or natural below middle C to
F above the treble clef, two octaves and a fifth, which
a little exceeds the flute downward. The foundation
of the scale is D major, the same as the flute was
before Boehm altered it. Triebert, a skillful
Parisian maker, tried to adapt Boehm’s reform
of the flute to the oboe, but so far as the geometrical
division of the scale was concerned, he failed, because
it altered the characteristic tone quality of the
instrument, so desirable for the balance of orchestral
coloration. But the fingering has been modified
with considerable success, although it is true by
a much greater complication of means than the more
simple contrivances that preceded it, which are still
preferred by the players. The oboe reed has been
much altered since the earlier years of this century.
It was formerly more like the reed of the shawm, an
instrument from which the oboe has been derived; and
that of the present bassoon. It is now made narrower,
with much advantage in the refinement of the tone.
As in the flute, the notes up to C sharp in the treble
clef are produced by the normal blowing, and simply
shortening the tube by opening the sound holes.
Beyond that note, increased pressure, or overblowing,
assisted by a harmonic “speaker” key,
produces the first harmonic, that of the octave, and
so on. The lowest notes are rough and the highest
shrill; from A to D above the treble clef, the tone
quality of the oboe is of a tender charm in melody.
Although not loud, its tone is penetrating and prominent.
Its staccato has an agreeable effect. The place
of the oboe in the wood wind band between the flute
and the clarinet, with the bassoon for a bass, is
beyond the possibility of improvement by any change.
Like the flute, there was a complete family of oboes
in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century;
the little schalmey, the discant schalmey, from which
the present oboe is derived; the alto, tenor, pommer,
and bass pommers, and the double quint or contrabass
pommer.
In all these old finger hole instruments the scale
begins with the first hole, a note in the bagpipe
with which the drones agree, and not the entire tube.
From the bass and double quint pommers came ultimately
the bassoon and contra-bassoon, and from the alto pommer,
an obsolete instrument for which Bach wrote, called
the oboe di caccia, or hunting oboe, an appellation
unexplained, unless it had originally a horn-like
tone, and was, as it has been suggested to me by Mr.
Blaikley, used by those who could not make a real hunting
horn sound. It was bent to a knee shape to facilitate
performance. It was not exactly the cor Anglais
or English horn, a modern instrument of the same pitch
which is bent like it, and of similar compass, a fifth