Why Play Oboe
The oboe is a woodwind instrument .Oboe has a penetrating nasal tone. Range of oboe: about two octaves plus a sixth upwards from B flat below middle C. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist.
In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the oboe has a clear and penetrating voice.
The oboe is a woodwind which can be made of plastic or wood.
Gorgeous as it is, the oboe is a very difficult instrument to learn.
Oboe was the first wind instrument to be regularly included in the orchestra,
so it is often heard in Baroque and Classical orchestral works.
The most famous oboe part is the solo in the slow movement of Dvorak's Symphony #9 "From the New World".

The oboe is a woodwind instrument of the family that includes the bassoon, consisting of a conical tube fitted with a mouthpiece having a double reed. Oboe has a penetrating nasal tone. Range of oboe: about two octaves plus a sixth upwards from B flat below middle C. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. Careful manipulation of embouchure and air pressure allows the player to express a large timbral and dynamic range. The oboe was developed from the treble shawm during the 17th century when a shawm-like instrument was desired that could play indoors. The earliest oboes are believed to be creations of the Hotteterre family and used at the court of Louis XIV. They were created in three sections, like the modern oboe, and they had accurately placed and dimensioned holes. During the 1700’s the oboe could be found in several sizes including the alto version which is regularly used today. The next important development came in the 1800’s and was the use of key mechanisms. There was no single outline for the key sytems. Generally, the Germans created simpler systems, and the French more complicated ones. Still today, the key systems do vary from oboes of one manufacturer to another.

In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the oboe has a clear and penetrating voice. Similarly, the voice is described in the play Angels in America as sounding like that of a duck if the duck were a songbird. The timbre of the oboe is derived from the oboe's conical bore (as opposed to the generally cylindrical bore of flutes and clarinets). As a result, oboes are readily audible over other instruments in large ensembles.
The oboe is pitched in concert C and has a mezzo-soprano to soprano range. Orchestras will usually tune by listening to the
oboe play a concert A (usually A440, but sometimes higher if the orchestra tunes to a higher pitch). The pitch of the oboe may be adjusted by permanently altering the scrape, removing cane from the reed, or changing the position of the reed in the instrument (although the latter method should only be used as a last resort, because adjusting the position of the reed may cause some notes to warble). Subtle changes in pitch are also possible by adjusting the embouchure.



The oboe is a woodwind which can be made of plastic or wood. It is the smallest orchestral double-reed instrument and very important in the orchestra. Because the oboe’s pitch varies little with temperature, the oboe will play the A-note to which all other instruments in the orchestra will tune to. The oboe also is an important soloist. The very expressive and almost “exotic” sound of the oboe can play a very emotional part. It’s penetrating sound can also give it very important solos in works for other instruments as well. Often, the oboe player will have a beautiful solo from within an orchestra or during a concerto for another instrument.


Gorgeous as it is, the oboe is a very difficult instrument to learn. While the entire channel of the oboe is very narrow, the reed is downright tiny. Through this tiny reed, the oboe musician must force air at a very high pressure. In doing this, stale air will often accumulate in the lungs and if the oboe musician isn’t careful to expel this air before breathing in, they will feel faint.
Oboe players, however, must usually make their own reeds. In an oboe's double reed, two pieces of cane are bound together and attached to one end of a metal tube. The other end of this assembly is inserted into the oboe and forms an extension of its bore.

The behavior of the oboe reed is the primary factor in the oboe's quality of sound (pitch, tone quality, etc). The relative ease (or, more often, difficulty) which which it can produce a given note, at a given volume level, etc., is determined primarily by the reed as well. Each oboist develops his/her own particular style or reed design. Since each player's embouchure and instrument is different, reeds made by one player are often not very playable by anyone else.

The oboe is most easily recognizable (sound-wise) as the instrument that gives the "A" for tuning at the beginning of an orchestra concert or rehearsal. If you would like to hear the oboe, it should be pretty easy to find recordings of some of the following:
Oboe was the first wind instrument to be regularly included in the orchestra, so it is often heard in Baroque and Classical orchestral works. Listen to early orchestral works, including cantatas. (The "Sinfonia" of Bach's Cantata No. 156 has a particularly lovely oboe solo.)
Even in later orchestral works, the oboe remains a favorite soloist. For example, Bizet's Symphony in C major features a solo oboe in both the first and second movements.
From Bach and Vivaldi to Strauss and Vaughan Williams, many composers have written oboe concertos. Marcello's Concerto in D minor is particularly popular. (In fact, there are so many popular oboe concertos, that many have also been transcribed for other solo instruments.)
The most famous English horn part is the solo in the slow movement of Dvorak's Symphony #9 "From the New World".

Here is a list of great works featuring the oboe for further listening:
Tchaikovsky, Theme to Swan Lake
Sergej Prokovieff, Quintett for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Bass op.39 (1923)
Robert Schumann, Three Romances for oboe or violin and piano
Joseph Haydn (spurious-possibly by Kozeluch), Oboe Concerto in C major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Oboe Concerto in C major, Quartet in F major
Francis Poulenc, Oboe Sonata 2012.05.17 Why Play Oboe