Oboe d'amore
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2021) |
 | |
| Woodwind instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.112-71 (Double-reeded aerophone with keys) |
| Developed | Eighteenth century |
| Related instruments | |
The oboe d'amore (
Liebesfuß) is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a bocal
, similar to but shorter than that of the cor anglais.
Invention and use
The oboe d'amore was invented in the eighteenth century and was first used by Christoph Graupner in his cantata Wie wunderbar ist Gottes Güt (1717). Johann Sebastian Bach wrote many pieces—a concerto, many of his cantatas, and the Et in Spiritum sanctum movement of his Mass in B minor—for the instrument. Georg Philipp Telemann also frequently employed the oboe d'amore.
Its popularity waning in the late eighteenth century, the oboe d'amore fell into disuse for about 100 years until composers such as
Toru Takemitsu's Vers, l'arc-en-ciel, Palma (1984), but its most famous modern usage is, perhaps, in Ravel's Boléro (1928), where the oboe d'amore follows the E-flat clarinet to recommence the main theme for the second time. Gustav Mahler employed the instrument once, in Um Mitternacht (1901), one of his five Rückert-Lieder. In his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Vladimir Ashkenazy
uses the oboe d'amore to highlight the plaintive solo of the Il vecchio castello movement.
Modern instruments
Modern makers of oboes d'amore include
cocus wood), Japanese maker Joseph and German makers Püchner, Mönnig and Ludwig Franck. New instruments cost approximately £8,250 at 2016 prices (roughly $11,885 US), comparable to the cost of a new cor anglais. This cost, coupled with the limited call for the instrument, leads many oboists not to possess their own oboe d'amore, but to rent one when their work dictates the need. For the same reason, however, second-hand oboes d'amore surface from time to time with very little wear, demonstrating they were well loved (and yet with very little reduction in price over a new instrument).[citation needed
]
References
- ISBN 0-313-23762-X.
- ISBN 0-520-05062-2.
External links
Media related to Oboe d'amore at Wikimedia Commons- Demonstration and talk on
- List of Compositions Featuring the Oboe d'amore on IMSLPpage
