OBOE I It. oboe, from Fr. Eng. haut boy, high wood, so called front rho high notes of the instrument. front haul, high huts, wood). The oldest and nwst important wood-Ivind instrn It is of great antiquity and is traced in the sculpture of Egypt and I:reece. The oboe is the most elaborate and difficult of reed instru ments. It is made of wood, generally of box, ebony, eocoa, or rosewood, and is constructed in three pieces. or joints. forming a continuous tapering tube. about 2l inches long, the bore of which is n:r•row at the small end, and widens into a bell-shaped opening, one Mill one-half inches in diameter at the mouth. In the upper and middle piece are holes, by stopping o• opening which w•itll the fingers the player forms the notes of the natural scale, the intermediate semitones being formed by the keys. The, recut is fixed upon the end of a small brass tube which fits, socket-111:e, into the small eml of the upper piece. The sound of the oboe is reedy and pene
trating. though mild. and from it. great prover in swelling or diminishing the sound, it is capable of every the In modern or•c•hestra two oboes are employed, the Ittbl, oboe. a non-transposing instrument. the for which is written in the G clef, and the otto-o/m, or con anglnis (q.v.), a transposing- in strument. 'Flit' principal solo for the oboe are: llandel's six concertos; quinlet for oboe and strings; Beethoven's trio for two treble oboes and eor anglais; Iltiminel's varia with orchestra; and luutlio•od3's concertino in F. with orchestra. The 01111f. IltOre. in use in the eighteenth century, became obsolete. but \Va.. reconstructed by .1Iahillon, of Brussels, at the order I if Cevrtert, in order to perform correctly the works of Bach. See N STIR' MENTs.