The tones of the latter, i. e. the Haut boy, or Oboe, are by no means so smooth and agreeable as those of the instrument just described ; the hautboy has obtained a place among theatrical and other nume rous bands, more from the peculiarity of its intonations, and the studied cadences of those who give themselves up entirely to its practice, than from any real merit it possesses. Although we have often been highly gratified by the beautiful passages allotted to the hautboy, and which, being so very exquisitely delivered, command ed our admiration as much of the per former as of the music ; yet we could never divest ourselves of the recollection of n bagpipe's nasal intonation ; for, set ting partiality and fashion aside, we must confess that the soft tones of the flute are better suited to the expression of smooth familiar music ; and where more force, and deeper tones are required, we really prefer the clarinet to the haut boy.
We have already stated, that the for mation, fingering, &c. of the hautboy, ex actly resembles those points in the vox humana, as does also in the reed, that of the former being smaller, proportioned to its size. Its scale reaches from the tenor C to Din alt ; including every chro matic in tolerable perfection, except the low C sharp. Some performers reach to F natural, but we cannot say the sounds, though perfectly in tune, were satisfac tory ; on the contrary, they added to the nasal effect already noticed, a shrillness, if not a squeaking, which called to our remembrance the answer of Dr. Johnson to a friend who had performed what he termed a cruelly difficult solo on the vio lin, " Yes, sir, it was a cruel solo, and I wish it bad been an impossible one !" The people of Asia have a kind of short hautboy, which has a large swell near its middle ; they use a piece of double palm leaf for a reed. The intonations of this instrument, which are something similar to those of the hautboy, are peculiarly attractive to all the serpent tribe ; which often quit their haunts on hearing it, and play round the performers ; on this ac count it is invariably used by the snake catchers.
The Clarinet appears to us, by far, the most noble instrument of this species, it being capable of such mellowness of in tonation, such varied expression, and having such a compass : it performs the whole of the chromatic scale from E, be low the bass-clef note, to F in alt; in cluding rather more than three octaves, which exceeds any other wind instrument with which we are acquainted. The cla
rinet is, with great propriety, considered the principal in our military bands ; in these its powerful and rich notes are du ly displayed ; must, however, re. mark, that this instrument is not, gene rally speaking, calculated for chamber performance; for, with so few exceptions as to be unworthy notice, a certain sibi lation is at times very audible, and there is much difficulty in rendering some transitions smooth, so as to avoid a cer tain kind of stoccato distinctness, not un like an organ badly played : besides, the number of its keys, especially if they are patent, with metal plugs, occasions a rat tling that distracts the attention, and greatly deteriorates the value of the in strument. In the open air, and at a little distance, when these defects cannot ob trude, we think the clarinet, either in a bold martial strain, or in a little air bade riant, or in a pathetic plaintive movement, stand4pre.emineut above all the tribe of ' at instruments; for it admits of the and of so much expression, ay points, it even claims a pre , - the organ itself.
'me, in general, five keys, ' have six and eight holes, of wht nder the instrument, is stop ped by thumb of the left hand, which also commands a key called G sharp, or the calameau. The little finger of the right hand commands both a hole and a key. The G sharp key covers a very small brass tube, that projects through the wood, about a quarter of an inch, into the thickness of the bore in that part. When the key is uplifted by the thumb, the whole of the notes are raised a twelfth (i. e. twelve notes ;) when it is shut, the tones become deep and rich, and are called calameau, probably in conse quence of the brass tube above described, which originated in a small bit of reed having been inserted there.. We are at the same time aware, that all wind instru ments are but improvements upon the ancient calamus, or reed pipe, formerly used by shepherds and other rustics. The mouth-piece of the clarinet something re sembles that of the,common or English flute. but its groove would be open above for about an inch and a half, were it not covered by a flat single reed, the ma nagement of which is by no means very easy. When blown by a novice, the cla rinet sounds extremely shrill and harsh, not unlike the most uncomfortable tones proceeding from a goose in distress. The bell of the clarinet is not pierced with lateral holes, as that of the hautboy is; it is spacious, and gives a prodigious reso nance to the notes.