History of the Oboe
In ancient Greece the Aulos, an early ancestor of the oboe, had a double reed made from papyrus and a simple tubular body. During the Early Music period double reed instruments were generally for outdoor bands because of their harsh strident and loud sound, and at this time the Shawm was the predominant equivalent to the oboe of the day. The baroque oboe first appeared in the French court in the mid-17th century, where it was called hautbois (from the French haut meaning "high, loud" and bois meaning "wood, woodwind"). This instrument was a great advance on the shawm since careful manipulation of embouchure and air pressure allowed the player to express a large range of timbre and dynamics. When played by its best proponents, it was considerably more mellow in tone than the previous shawm and began to find a place in indoor ensembles and chamber orchestras. By around 1770 in England the name "oboe" had become accepted. Throughout the Classical and Romantic periods the oboe evolved to have increased vibrancy, projection and resonance – made necessary by the demands of the larger symphony orchestra. Keywork was also gradually added, and designs diverged into two slightly different fingering systems – the French conservatoire system, and the English thumbplate system. As part of this process, by the start of the 20th century the full Gillet system of keywork had been created, and since then the oboe has mainly been developed through improvements in bore and tone hole design. ©David Blyth
The Oboe Section
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Younger players may need to start playing on a “covered-hole” oboe as the fingers may be too slender or short to fully reach and cover the open tone-holes on an “open-hole” oboe. Most modern oboes from intermediate level to professional level are covered hole oboes.
Oboes have delicate mechanisms and must be handled with care – teachers will usually show pupils the best ways to handle and care for the instrument during lessons.
Players should always clean moisture from the inside of the instrument after each time they play, and either Mop Sets or Pull-Throughs are available for this purpose.
Cleaning the outside of the instrument is best performed only occasionally with a special Silver Cloth – never be tempted to use silver polish as this will enter the internal oiled mechanism and damage the instrument.
