Oboe d'amore

Baroque oboe d'amore, Denner copy

Woodwind instrument
Woodwind
Wind
Classification
Double reed
422.112-71
(Double-reeded aerophone
with keys)
Eighteenth century
Developed
Related instruments

HornbostelSachs
classification

Piccolo oboe
Piccolo heckelphone
Oboe
Cor anglais (English horn)
Oboe da caccia
Bass oboe
Heckelphone
Lupophon
Contrabass oboe

Piccolo oboe
The piccolo oboe, also known as the piccoloboe and historically called an oboe musette (or
just musette), is the smallest and highest pitched member of the oboe family. Pitched in Eflat or F above the regular oboe (i.e. notated a minor third respectively a perfect fourth lower
than sounding), the piccolo oboe is a sopranino version of the oboe, comparable to the E-flat
clarinet.
(Note: This musical instrument should not be confused with the similarly named musette de
cour, which is bellows-blown and characterized by a drone.)

Contents

1 Makers
2 Repertoire
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

Makers

Two oboe musette players from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century).

Piccolo oboes are produced by the French makers F. Lore and Marigaux (both pitched in F)
as well as the Italian firm Fratelli Patricola (pitched in E-flat). Lore calls its instrument
piccolo oboe or oboe musette (in F), while Marigaux and Patricola call their instruments
simply oboe musette. As of 2006, a new instrument typically sold for US$6,000-7,500.

Repertoire
The instrument has found the most use in chamber and contemporary music, where it is
valued for its unusual tone colour. It is also employed in double-reed ensembles such as
Amoris,[1] and in film scoring. Perhaps the best-known pieces requiring piccolo oboe are Solo
for Oboe Instruments (1971) and Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra No. 2, both by Bruno
Maderna, as well as Ar-Loth (1967) by Paolo Renosto.
Other contemporary works for the instrument are Scherzo Furioso[2] by William Blezard,
Tasmanian Ants[3] by Ian Keith Harris, Iberian Improvisations[4] and Bailables[5][6][7][8][9] by
Leonard Salzedo, Variations on a Sicilian Shepherd Tune[10] by Clive Strutt

See also

Oboe
Piccolo heckelphone

References
1.
http://www.amoris.com/
"Scherzo furioso (Blezard, William)" (PDF). icking-music-archive.org.
"Tasmanian Ants (Harris, Ian Keith)" (PDF). icking-music-archive.org.
"Iberian Improvisations, Op.143 (Salzedo, Leonard)" (PDF). icking-music-archive.org.
"Bailables, Op.127 (Salzedo, Leonard)" (PDF). icking-music-archive.org.
"Bailables, Op.127 (Salzedo, Leonard)". icking-music-archive.org.
"Bailables, Op.127 (Salzedo, Leonard)". icking-music-archive.org.
"Bailables, Op.127 (Salzedo, Leonard)". icking-music-archive.org.
"Bailables, Op.127 (Salzedo, Leonard)". icking-music-archive.org.
10. "Variations on a Sicilian Shepherd Tune (Strutt, Clive)" (PDF). icking-music-archive.org.

External links

F. Lore page with description and photograph

Amoris International Musette page
WIMA scores for oboe family instruments

Oboe d'amore
The oboe d'amore (pronounced [boe damore]; Italian for "oboe of love"), less commonly
hautbois d'amour, is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family.
Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is
considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, between the oboe (soprano) and the cor
anglais, or English horn (alto). It is a transposing instrument, sounding a minor third lower
than it is notated, i.e. in A. The bell is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a bocal, similar to
the larger cor anglais, whose bocal is larger.

Invention and use

The oboe d'amore was invented in the eighteenth century and was first used by Christoph
Graupner in Wie wunderbar ist Gottes Gt (1717). Johann Sebastian Bach wrote many
piecesa concerto, many of his cantatas, and the "Et in Spiritum sanctum" movement of his
Mass in B minorfor the instrument. Georg Philipp Telemann also frequently employed the
oboe d'amore.
Its popularity waning in the late eighteenth century, the oboe d'amore fell into disuse for
about 100 years until composers such as Richard Strauss (Symphonia Domestica, where the
instrument represents the child), Claude Debussy ("Gigues", where the oboe d'amore has a
long solo passage), Maurice Ravel, Frederick Delius, and others began using it once again in
the early years of the twentieth century. It can be heard in Toru Takemitsu's "Vers, l'arc-enciel, Palma" (1984), but its most famous modern usage is, perhaps, in Ravel's Bolro (1928),
where the oboe d'amore follows the E-flat clarinet to recommence the main theme for the
second time. Gustav Mahler employed the instrument once, in "Um Mitternacht" (1901), one
of his five Rckert-Lieder. American composer William Perry uses the oboe d'amore in his
film scores and most recently in the third movement of his Jamestown Concerto for cello and
orchestra (2007). In his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Vladimir
Ashkenazy uses the oboe d'amore to highlight the plaintive solo of the "Il vecchio castello"
movement.

Modern instruments
Modern makers of oboes d'amore include Howarth of London (instruments in African
Blackwood or Cocobolo wood), F. Lore in Paris (instruments in African Blackwood or
Violetwood) and others such as French makers Rigoutat, Fossati and Marigaux, Italian maker
Bulgheroni (who offer instruments in Grenadilla, Violetwood, Cocobolo, Rosewood,
Palisander, and Cocus wood), Japanese maker Joseph and German makers Pchner, Mnnig
and Ludwig Franck. New instruments cost approximately 8,250 at 2016 prices (roughly
$11,885 US), comparable to the cost of a new cor anglais. This cost, coupled with the limited
call for the instrument, leads many oboists not to possess their own oboe d'amore, but to rent
one when their work dictates the need. For the same reason, however, second-hand oboes
d'amore surface from time to time with very little wear (and yet with very little reduction in
price over a new instrument).

External links

Media related to Oboe d'amore at Wikimedia Commons