Oboe

Oboe (from French hautbois, literally "high tree", English, German and Italian oboe) is a wooden wind musical instrument of soprano register, which is a conical-shaped tube with a system of valves and double reed (reed). The oboe has got its modern look in the first half of XVIII century. The instrument has a melodious but a little bit gnarly and in the upper register - sharp timbre.

Instruments considered the direct predecessors of the modern oboe, are known from antiquity and have survived in pristine form in different cultures. Folk instruments such as the bombarda, bagpipe, duduk, gaita, chitiriki, zurna along with New Age instruments (musette, oboe proper, oboe d'amour, English horn, baritone oboe, baroque oboe) constitute a large family of the instrument. The oboe is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music and in symphony orchestra.

The core of the oboe repertoire consists of works from the Baroque era (works by Bach and his contemporaries) and the Classical period (Mozart). Works by Romantic composers (Schumann) and modern composers are performed less frequently.

Already in the conditions of the primitive society 3 varieties of modern wind instruments were formed: flute, reed and mouthpiece. These three types differed (and differ) by the principle of sound formation. With flute wind instruments the air stream splitted by a sharp edge of the barrel wall creates the vibration of the air column enclosed in it. In the reed type, the vibration of the air column in the barrel is created by the vibration of an elastic mobile plate (reed) excited by the force of the air. And finally, the third type of instruments has the air column oscillating only by the tension of the player's lips. The first type includes modern flutes, the second includes oboes, clarinets and bassoons, and the third includes French horns, trumpets, trombones.

Double reed wind instruments, to which the oboe belongs, appeared a long time ago. The ancient prototype of the oboe in Mesopotamia was charged with sad, sorrowful melodies, as it was called "the whistle of sorrow. In ancient Palestine there was a reed instrument with a support for the lips, a bell and a conical trunk, which is now used by Arabs, under the name of zamr, and also khalil, a cylindrical drilled instrument with a sharp sound. It was paired, that is, it consisted of two barrels, one of which was used to play a melody and the other to accompany the bourdon. The khalil was not used in temple music, and was exclusively a folk instrument. Its harsh sound seemed appropriate for expressing great joy or intense grief.

Much closer to the oboe were the ancient Greek aulos (in Rome they were called tibias), widespread in the 6th - 5th centuries BC, 5th century AD in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Avlos had 2 short cylindrical or slightly conical tubes, each with 3-4 playing holes with a rather long mouthpiece where an open cane was inserted. They were between 275 and 575 mm long. The cane was not clamped by the performer's lips, but was completely in the mouth. The range of the avlos was approximately from D of the first octave to D of the third. These instruments were made in five different sizes, and each avlos had a different, and special meaning. The smallest was used for teaching and at funerals, the second, at feasts and celebrations, the third accompanied stage performances, the fourth served to perform nohs at the Pythian games (nohs are solo works for avlos), the fifth, the longest in size, was used in cult music in temples. The best avlets (avlos performers) were honored and respected. The Phrygians Hyagras and Olympus, the winner of the Pythian games in 596 BC, Sakadas, and the Theban athlete Antigenides, who created his new style of performance, have come down to us. Later avlos with a single barrel, the monoavlos, appeared in Alexandria.

The art of playing the avlos was called avletica, and singing to accompaniment was called avlodia. Avlodia was mainly used in military campaigns and gymnastic exercises, and was also used in ancient Greek tragedy, where the choruses were accompanied by avlos. In the latter case avlet was called "choravlos" (from the words "chorus" and "avlos"). Avlodia was less popular than cipharodia (singing to the accompaniment of the cipharos). The genre of instrumental solo on avlos, called avletika, gained outstanding importance in Greece, apparently under the influence of Asian instrumental culture. The reason of Avletika's success, which surpassed Citharism (solo performance on cithara) in this respect, is probably the victory of the Avlet Sakad of Argos at the Pythian games in 586 B.C.. His performance of the so-called "Pythian Noam" was universally recognized and used as a ceremonial solo piece for almost three centuries. This work, the content of which is a struggle between Apollo and Python and Apollo's victory, is the oldest known example of program instrumental music. Instrumental ensembles were also somewhat widespread in Greece: the duet of two avenues (sinavlia), which was a variation of the theme performed by one avenue (heterophony), as well as the duet of avenues and cephara - a comparison of long, lasting sounds of avenues with short, quickly dying down cephara overtones.

In Ancient Rome the performance on the aulos, which received the Latin name "tibia", was widespread. Public performances on this instrument became fashionable. These recitals were held with great pomp. These concerts were notable for their striving for bright sounds and virtuoso effects. With this, apparently, related modifications of avlos in the beginning of I century AD. They were expressed in some reconstruction of the system of playing holes and weighting of the copper frame. As a result, avlos gained new virtuoso capabilities and tremendous power of sound

It should be said that neither avlos, nor tibia have gone beyond the ancient Mediterranean culture and ceased to exist together with it. The genealogy of the European oboe goes back to two medieval types of the Eastern oboe family. The Persian-Indian zurna is the founder of the oboe-type folk instruments in Eastern Europe. The completion of this type was the French folk musetta, with its graceful elongated body and pear-shaped bell, which seems to have influenced the oboe d'amour design. Another direction leads to the Arabian zammer, whose short, dense, sharp-conical trunk, number and arrangement of playing holes are literally repeated in medieval Western European (for example, Italian) oboe instruments. As far as one can judge, they were most in line with the features of modern oboes.

In the Middle Ages there was a family of oboe-type instruments. There were seven instruments in this family. The soprano instrument was called the chalmel, hence the French - chalumeau, the Italian - ciamella, the English - shaum, and the German - chalmey. Instruments from viola to baritone were called pommes, and bass instruments were called bombards and bombardones (contrabass). These instruments were carved from a whole piece of wood, had a rather wide conical channel, funnel-shaped bell and 7-8 playing holes, giving a diatonic scale. Up to 5 holes were additionally drilled at the base of the sound tube to specify the tuning of the instrument. Different types of registers - alto, tenor, bass - had from two to five flaps corresponding to the holes inaccessible for fingers. The sound was extracted through a wide double reed mounted on a wide brass tube. The tube, in turn, was inserted into a wooden cup that served as a support for the musician's lips. This complex mouthpiece was called a "pirouette." Unlike eastern reed instruments such as the zamr and zurna, where the reed oscillated freely in the mouth and the sound was uncontrollable, here the player could press the reed with his lips to a certain extent, but still the real control of the embouchure was limited, prevented by the supporting cup. Pommers and bombards, because of their large size, had long curved metal tubes on which the canes were attached: the pommers had a pirouette, the bombards did not have a pirouette. The valves were covered with an openwork cover - "fontanella" - to protect them from damage. In the XIV-XV centuries, all these instruments were the basis of small orchestral ensembles that also included bagpipes, trombones and trumpets. They were called "loud music". Such ensembles were usually played at feasts, weddings, hunting festivals, as well as in the parks of lords and kings. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ensembles of shalmes, pommers and bombards turned into city orchestras, formed mainly from city guards. Among oboe instruments of the Middle Ages it is worth mentioning the krumgorn, which apparently entered into practice at the beginning of the second millennium. There were five varieties of krumgorn - small, discant, alto-tenor, bass and big bass.

Since the middle of the 17th century, the major French musicians and musicians at the royal court, Otteter and Philidor, took up the task of perfecting the instrument. The first innovation was to divide the oboe into three parts for easy storage and carrying. Subsequently, intonation was improved, the location of the sound holes was more precisely calculated, and several valves were added. The reed was also improved: now the musician could control its vibrations directly with his lips, which improved the purity and beauty of the sound. Subsequently, the same reforms led to the modern clarinet and bassoon. Otteter and Philidor are considered to be the creators of what is now called the "baroque oboe.

In 1664 Jean Baptiste Lully, court conductor and composer, composed a march for the new instruments and included them in the court orchestra. Gradually they displaced the less technically advanced krummhorns from the orchestra, and other ancient instruments (block flutes, theorbs, violas, spinets, etc.) ceased to be used as well. The oboes also became part of military brass bands and thus spread quickly enough (along with bassoons) throughout Europe. The new instrument was used in opera orchestra, court ballet performances, oratorios and cantatas and became widely used as a solo and ensemble instrument.

Almost all leading composers of the Baroque epoch created works for oboe and its variations: oboe d'amour, oboe da caccia, English horn, baritone oboe (this instrument was used rather rarely. What is interesting - already in 1680 it had a shape, resembling a saxophone). The XVIII century can be rightly called the "golden age" of the oboe.

Classical oboe (mid 18th - early 19th century) practically did not differ from its predecessor. To simplify the fingering (for example, to perform trills), to expand the range (up to the middle of the third octave) the number of valves was increased, but in general the shape of the instrument has not changed. It was not uncommon for additional valves to be added to an oboe quite a long time after it was made.

In the second quarter of the 19th century, the construction of woodwind instruments was revolutionized: Theobald Böhm invented a ring-shaped valve system for closing several openings at once and used it on his instrument, the flute, later adapted for the clarinet and other instruments. The size and location of the holes no longer depended on the length of the musician's fingers. This improved intonation, made the timbre clearer and clearer, and widened the range of the instruments.

For the oboe this system in its original form was not suitable. Some time later Guillaume Triebert and his sons Charles-Louis (professor at the Paris Conservatory) and Frederic proposed an improved mechanism adapted for the oboe, at the same time slightly changing the construction of the instrument itself. Their followers, François and Lucien Lauré, created a new model of oboe, called the "Conservatoire model with flat valves", quickly adopted by all oboists.

Case material

The first oboes were made of reed or bamboo - a natural cavity inside the tube was used to create the body. Despite the fact that some folk instruments are still made in this way, the need to find a more durable and stable material became evident rather quickly. In search of a suitable option, musicians tried different types of wood, usually hard, with the correct arrangement of the fibers: boxwood, beech, wild cherry, rosewood, and pear. Some baroque oboes were made of ivory.

In the 19th century, with the addition of new valves, an even more durable material was needed. Ebony turned out to be a suitable option. Ebony remains the primary material for making oboes to this day, although wood from exotic trees such as cocobolo and "purple" wood is sometimes used. Experiments have been made with metal and plexiglass oboes. One of the latest technological innovation is Buffet Crampon's Green Line instruments made of a material consisting of 95% ebony powder and 5% carbon fiber. With the same acoustic properties as ebony instruments, Green Line clarinets are much less sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, reducing the risk of instrument damage, and are also lighter and less expensive.

The channel width is 4 mm at the point where the cane enters the body, 16 mm at the end of the lower elbow (at a length of 480 mm), then widens to 38 mm at the bell (length 110 mm).

There are 23 holes on the body, closed by valves. The main material for the valves is melchior. Each valve is adjusted to the shape of the instrument, ground, polished and coated with a thin layer of nickel or silver. The oboe mechanism is also made up of numerous rods, springs, bolts, etc. This complex system allows the modern instrument to produce notes of almost three octaves: from b (B-flat of the lowest octave) to f3 (F of the third octave) and higher.