Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/989

 The first appearance of the instrument we call oboe in a musical work occurs in Sebastian Virdung’s Musica getutscht und aussgezogen (1511). It there bears the name of Schalmey, and is already associated with an instrument of similar construction called Bombardt.

There exists, however, much earlier evidence, in the illuminated MSS. and in the romances of the middle ages, of the great popularity of the instrument in all parts of Europe. The origin of wind instruments with conical tubes must be sought in the East, in Asia. An early medieval Schalmey with three holes may be seen on the silver cup of the goddess Nana-Anat.

There are two or three Schalmeys in the fine 13th-century Spanish MS. Cantigas de Santa Maria executed for Alphonso the Wise, preserved in the Library of the Escorial (J. b 2).

The oboe was known during the early middle ages as Calamus, Chalumeau (France), Schalmei (Germany), Shawm (England). It is mentioned in the Roman de Brut (12th century) (line 10,822 seq.) “Lyres, tympres, et chalemiax.” An interesting MS. at the British Museum, Sloane 3983, contains among other musical instruments on fol. 13 a large shawm with 6 finger-holes described at the side as Calamus aureus.

A miniature in the Paris Manesse MS. of the 14th century depicts Heinrich von Meissen, better known as Frauenlob, conducting, from a raised platform, a band of musicians, one of whom is holding a Schalmey with 6 or 7 holes.

The chaunter of the bagpipe was a shawm, having the double reed concealed within an air-chamber, while the drones had single beating reeds concealed in the same manner. Mersenne calls both chalumeaux. The cornemuse or chalemie of shepherds and peasants was of this kind, but a special cornemuse, used in the 17th century in concert with the hautbois de Poitou, had double reeds throughout in chaunter and drone. The hautbois de Poitou was a primitive oboe with the reed placed in a bulb, forming an air-chamber, having a raised slit at the top through which the performer breathed in compressed air; as the reed could not be controlled by the lips, it was impossible to play with expression on the hautbois de Poitou or to obtain the harmonic octaves; the compass was therefore limited. The kind of (q.v.) known as Musette, inflated by bellows, also had double reeds throughout in spite of having a cylindrical chaunter.

The manufacture of musical instruments could not remain unaffected by the great artistic movement known as the Renaissance; accordingly, we find them not only improved and purified in form in the 16th century, but also ranged in complete families from the soprano to the bass. Praetorius, in his Syntagma Musicum (1615–1620), gives us the full nomenclature of the family with which we are concerned, composed of the following individuals: (1) The little Schalmey, rarely employed, measured about 17 in. in length, and had six lateral holes. Its deepest note was. (2) The discant Schalmey (fig. 2), the primitive type of the modern oboe; its length was about 26 in., and its deepest note. (3) The alto Pommer (fig. 3), 30 in. long, with its deepest note. (4) The tenor Pommer (fig. 4), measuring about 4 ft. 4 in.; besides the six lateral holes of the preceding numbers there were four keys which produced the notes. (5) The bass Pommer, having a length of nearly 6 ft.; it had six lateral holes and four keys which produced. (6) The great double quint Pommer, measuring about 9 ft. 8 in. in length; its four keys permitted the production of the notes. These instruments, and especially numbers (2), (3), (4) and (5), occupied an important place on the continent of Europe in the instrumental combinations of the 16th-18th centuries. Fig. 5, borrowed from a

picture painted in 1616 by Van Alsloot, represents six musicians playing the following instruments indicated in the order of their position in the picture from left to right: a bass oboe, bent over and become the bassoon, an alto Pommer, a cornet (German “zinke”), a discant Schalmey, a second alto Pommer and a trombone.

The 17th century brought no great changes in the construction of the four smaller instruments of the family. Michel de la Barre writing in 1740 states that in the archives of the Chambre des Comptes are 4 charges for hautbois and musettes de Poitou created by King John (14th century). Extensively used in France, they were there called “haulx bois” or “haultbois,” to distinguish them from the two larger instruments which were designated by the words “gros bois.” Haultbois became hautbois in French, and oboe in English, German and Italian; and this word is now used to distinguish the smallest instrument of the family.

During the 17th century some of the most important names connected with instrumental music in France are to be found amongst the Grands Hautbois of the Grande Écurie du Roi, such as Hotteterre (Jean, Louis and Nicholas), Philidor (Jacques and André), Gilles Allain, Destouches, &c.

In Germany the Schalmey was represented in the town band, in the Court and the Church orchestras, and later in that of the Opera. In 1580 it is recorded that the Orchestra of the elector of Brandenburg included Schalmeys and Bombarts. In Dresden the orchestra possessed (1593) no less than 16 Schalmeys, large and small. Heinrich Schütz, who founded the first Opera in Germany, at Dresden, used two fiffari or early oboes in 1629 in one of his works.

The little Schalmey and the tenor Pommer seem to have disappeared in the 17th century; it is the discant Schalmey and the alto Pommer which by improvement have become two important members of the modern orchestra. The oboe, as such, was employed for the first time in 1671 in the orchestra of the Paris opera in Pomone by Cambert. The first two keys date from the end of the 17th century. It is not known who added the first keys to the oboe; there is, however, a drawing of a French Hoboy in an English MS. by the third Randle Holme, which formed part of his Academy of Armoury known to have been written before 1688, in which the two keys are shown. The instrument must have been well known in England at the time, and Randle Holme’s rough little drawing fixes the date of the transformation approximately as not later than 1680, probably earlier, since the oboe was used in Pomone in 1671. According to the flautist Quantz the transformation of Schalmey into oboe took place when the keys for C sharp and D sharp were added, at about the same time as they were added to the flute.

In 1727 Gerhard Hoffmann of Rastenberg added the keys. A Parisian maker, Delusse, furnished at the end of