This is my instrument, it was made by Pau Orriols, luthier in "Vilanova i la Geltrú", based on a baroque oboe model by the english luthier of the 18th century, Stanesby Jr.
Although I am mainly a keyboard performer, since a few years ago I study and play the baroque oboe and I am very happy with the new experience.
Altough I have only achieved a basic level of proficiency at the moment, I enjoy very much the possibility to play a melodic wind instrument, and I hope I will soon be able to use the instrument to do baroque chamber music with friends and colleagues.
By clicking here, we will be able to see the oboes and other double reed instruments present at the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments.
Looking at the pictures of this collection we can see that during all the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the oboes were of 2 keys (what changed the instrument from the baroque to the classical one of Haydn and Mozart was not the number of keys but the inside diameter and conicity - which cannot be seen in a photo - and which is narrower in the instrument of the classical period). It was not till the first half of the 19th century that more keys were gradually incorporated.
By the way, in the collection of Edinburgh instruments we can see also a "tarota" (popular shawm) and its evolved variants, the "tible" and the "tenora" of the 19th century, all of them probably from Catalonia.
Finally, click here to see the complete collection of instruments of the Museum.
You will find a detailed description of the historical instrument when visiting this page.
I also add a link to the Web page of the german instrument maker of period oboes, Paul Hailperin, where you will find a small history of the baroque oboe, and pictures of the instruments he makes, including an oboe d'amore and an oboe da caccia,
and another in the Web page of the instrument maker from USA, Sand Dalton, with very detailed pictures of the oboes he makes.
Article The oboe ensemble in german military and city music up to 1720 about music for oboe bands, written by Renate Hildebrand, our german teacher of the instrument that we meet again every summer at the Early Music courses in Daroca (Zaragoza).
The previous page contains one of the many articles accesible in the Web site of the International Double Reed Society which contains the online versions of the “Journal” and “The Double Reed” magazines of the IDRS since 1973. Very interesting to peruse all of them and find the article that most interest each of you. Free access only to the old numbers, the newer magazines require a subscription.
The Web page about “Oboe and reed information”.
Web page of the oboist and pedagogue Matthew Peaceman, who wrote a book with exercises for baroque oboe. Interesting the pictures on the section "Reeds".
The Oboe Solo before 1800: a Survey, an article written by Bruce Haynes, Montreal, Canada.
International List of Discussion on all aspects of the historical oboe. The messages are accesible from this page, but there is as well the possibility to suscribe and receive them by mail at the moment they are sent, thus without the need to access this page.
Wikipedia (in english): General information about the oboe.
Wikipedia (in spanish): General information about the oboe.
An ironical text about the oboist (in spanish), the difficulty of the instrument, the idiosyncrasy of the performer and his/her oddities, and above all, his/her worries about the reeds.
In 2000 I attended for the first time the baroque oboe classes by Renate Hildebrand in Daroca (Zaragoza, Spain), and could participate in the ensemble formed by oboes, "taille d'oboe" (tenor oboe) and bassoons, que constitutes the so-called "oboe band", an instrumental group very usual at the beginning of the 18th century. From this picture of our "oboe band" I took the banner for the main page of this my Website.
If you want to listen to the band, click here to go to the files of our final concert of that year 2000.
