The Oboe

The oboe family consists of several different instruments; the oboe, cor anglais, oboe d'amore and the bass oboe. The oboe is a treble instrument in C and is the most used of its family.  However, players will often play and own some of the sister instruments.  The cor anglais and oboe d'amore are the most likely to be needed as extras in an orchestral or chamber music setting.  The cor anglais most famously plays the theme from the Largo in Dvorak's New World Symphony while the d'amore is featured heavily in both Bach's Matthew and John Passion's.  The bass oboe is the largest of the oboe family.  Though it is rarely written for, it has a significant part to play in Holst's The Planets.

Instruments can either be built on the conservatoire or thumbplated systems. British oboists usually use instruments with a thumbplated system while the rest of Europe predominantly use the conservatoire system.  This leads to a few significant differences in the fingerings used.  Despite this, the three most popular instrument makers; Marigaux, Loree and Howarth are the same across the continent.  Some instruments are also sold with 'automatic' features.  These are designed to reduce the work  for the player by closing some keys automatically.  This system can be a hindrance to more advanced players who wish to produce different 'colours' of sound by using alternative fingerings that the automatic system will prevent.