RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Can be a very evocative instrument. In a high school band it usually sounds like an artifact designed to simulate the noise of buffaloes farting.

Actually, I hear oboes in music more than most instruments of course I do listen for them but, the oboe is in nearly every piece of music I have ever heard. Most people can't hear it though because 1)they don't know what to listen for 2)it is all too often in music we don't pay attention to, like back ground music on a T.V. show or in Orchestra music blending with the clarinets and flutes. When you really listen though you can hear it's elegance and beauty, for how often I hear it in music it is shocking to me how few people could tell you what it looks like and it's also shocking that there are so few in high school band and orchestras (do they even have high school orchestras now days?) I actually find that if you listen to classical pieces of music 7 out of 10 times (or more) there is and oboe solo, of course I don't know how many kids these days like classical music! -Clara

Be it 'd'Amore', 'da caccia' or the plain garden variety oboe (including the 'cor anglé), composers and orchestrators of the last 300 years have had a joyous go at it with this most musical of instruments (a 'double-reed' piece from the 'Aerophone' category).

From the shawm (a loud 13th century double-reed instrument) developed the oboe in the 17th century, "to meet the demand of a shawm-like instrument suitable for indoor use. The first oboes are thought to have been made by the Hotteterre family...During the 18th century several different sizes of oboes were introduced into the orchestra. Among them was the alto version - the con anglais - which remains in use today. The main development in the 19th century was the application of key mechanisms." (from 'Musical Instruments of the World,' Bantam Books)

Performance: "The oboist draws his lips between the teeth into the mouth, and then forces air through the reed at high pressure. Only a little air can be exhaled through such a small opening, and before inhaling again the player must take care to expel unused air from the lungs." (ibid.)

"The 'oboe da caccia' is probably the ancestor of the 'cor anglais' and is thought originally to have been used in pairs for hunting purposes. The 'oboe d'amore' was first developed in Germany around 1720 and has a bulbous bell and short brass crook...The cor anglais of the 17th and 18th centuries was curved, whereas the 19th century instrument was angled, and later, straight..." The reedy sound of the 'cor anglais' "is heard best either in plaintive melodies or in quick stacatto passages." (ibid.)

For a treat, there are: Tomaso Albinoni's and V. Bellini's lyrical oboe concertos; J. S. Bach's evocative compositions for church services, cantatas and oratorios large and small; etc.

Dude Oboes ROCK!!!!!!!!

I play the oboe, and it rocks!

What's a good pitch for an Oboe? 20 yards into a dumpster without hitting the sides. OK, just kidding, but had to share the bad band joke.

Oboes rule (and so do their players).

Duck-like?! Listen to Mozart's symphonies--the best part are those gentle swellings of the oboes that seem to initiate each chord change. Absolute beauty. They're easy to make fun of because, well... who plays oboe anyway? But nonetheless they are greatly underappreciated.

Oboe beyond all instruments has the purest sounds. Given that it is the least utilized instrument in music I can understand why it doesn't have a higher rating, but I have heard some beautiful solos from oboes that I'll never forget.