Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/764

Rh 706 OBOE an insignificant place in the instrumental music of ancient Greece and Home. The instrument we call oboe appears for the first time in Sebastian Virdung s Musica getutscht und auszgezogen (1511). It there bears the name of schalmey, and is already combined with an instrument of similar construction called bombardt. This beginning of the oboe family suggests the possibility of Yirdung s schalmey having existed in the Middle Ages. Where, when, and how it was introduced into western Europe is at present unknown, but the zamr-al- keblr still used in Moslem countries is practically identical with it, a circumstance which suggests the possibility of its having been brought into Europe by the crusaders. 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. Pras- torius, in his Syntagma Musicum (1615-20), gives us the full nomenclature of the family with which we are con cerned, composed of the following individuals. (1) The little schalmey, he says, rarely employed ; it measured about 17 inches in length, and had six lateral holes. Its deepest note was SB *~ =3. (2) The discant schalmey (fig. 1), the primitive type of the modern oboe ; its length was about 26 inches, and its deepest note s5 J- (^) The alto pommer (fig. 2), 30^ inches long, with its deepest note vy i (4) The tenor pommer (fig. 3), measuring about 4 feet 4 inches ; besides the six lateral holes of the preced- n ing numbers there were four keys which gave the grave notes (5) The bass pommer, hav ing a length of nearly 6 feet, and six lateral holes and four keys which gave 1 The great double pommer, measurin quint about 9 feet 8 inches in length ; the four keys permitted the production of the notes 1 These instruments, and especially numbers (2), (3), (4), and (5), occupied an important place on the Continent in the in strumental combinations of the last three centuries. The following illustration (fig. 4), borrowed from a picture, 1 painted in 1610 by Van Fl - L FlG - 2 - FIG. 3. Alsloot, represents six musi- f ( iscant P e alto e tenor . l ,, ,, ,, . Bchalmey. Pommer. Pommer. cians playing the following instruments indicated in the order of their position in the picture : a bass oboe, bent over and become the bassoon, an alto pommer, a cornet (German &quot;zinke&quot;), a discant schalmey, a second alto pommer, and a trombone. - The 17th century brought no great changes in the con struction of the four smaller instruments of the family. 1 This picture, belonging to the National Museum of Madrid, repre sents a procession of all the religious orders in the city of Antwerp on the festival of the Virgin of the Rosary. 2 For further details see Mahillon s catalogue of the Musee du Con servatoire royal de musiqxe de Bruxelles. Of much extended use in France, they were there called &quot; haulx bois,&quot; or &quot;haultbois,&quot; to distinguish them from the two larger instruments which were designated by the FIG. 4. words &quot; gros bois.&quot; Haultbois became hautbois in French, and oboe in English, German, and Italian ; and this word is now used to distinguish the present smaller instrument of the family. The little schalmey and tenor pommer seem to have dis appeared in the 17th century; it is the discant schalmey and the alto pommer which by improvement have become two important elements in modern instrumentation. The oboe, as such, was employed for the first time in 1671, in the orchestra of the Paris opera in Pomone by Cam- bert. The first two keys, BEE3EiiJ:3, date from the end of the 17th century. In 1727 Gerhard Hoffmann of Ras- tenberg added the keys A Parisian maker, Delusse, furnished, at the end of the 18th century, much appreciated improvements in the boring of the instrument. The Methode of Sellner, published at Vienna in 1825, allows nine keys, and one which, when opened, established a loop or ventral seg ment of vibration in the column of air, facilitating the production of sounds in the octave higher. Triebert of Paris owes his great reputation to the numerous improve ments he introduced in the construction of the oboe. The alto pommer became but slowly transformed : it was Oboe di called in French &quot;hautbois de chasse,&quot; in Italian &quot;oboecaccia. di caccia.&quot; In the 18th century we find it more elegant in form, but with all the defects of the primitive instru ment. The idea of bending the instrument into a half circular form to facilitate the handling is attributed to an oboist of Bergamo, one Jean Perlendis, who was estab lished at Strasburg about 1760. The fact of the instru ment s resembling a kind of hunting-horn used at that time in England probably gained for it the name of &quot; corno inglese,&quot; which it still retains (&quot;cor anglais&quot; in French). Cor The first employment of it in the orchestra is referred to anglais. Gluck, who had two &quot; cors anglais &quot; in his Alceste, as played at Vienna in 1767. But it was not until 1808 that the cor anglais was first heard in the Paris opera ; it was played by the oboist Vogt in Alexandre chez Apelle by Catel. The improvements in manufacture of this instrument closely followed those introduced in the oboe. The 18th century produced an intermediate oboe between (2) and (3), which was called &quot;hautbois d amour,&quot;and was frequently employed by J. S. Bach. It was a third lower than the ordinary oboe, and fell into disuse after the death of the great German composer. It has been resuscitated by the firm of C.