contrabass oboe
Contrabass oboe sounds an octave and a fifth or two octaves below written. • Related — * Oboe • Bass oboe • Heckelphone • Lupophon • Bassoon The contrabass oboe is a double reed woodwind instrument in the key of C or F, sounding two octaves or an octave and a fifth (respectively) lower than the standard oboe. Recent research, in particular that by oboe historian Bruce Haynes, suggests that such instruments may have been developed in France as part of an attempt to maintain the complete family of double reed instruments when the oboe was created from the shawm. There was an instrument referred to by H. de Garsault in 1761 as the basse de cromorne or basse de hautbois which was used by Lully, Charpentier, and other French Baroque composers.
contrabass oboe
- Name
- Contrabass oboe
- Field
- oboe family instrument
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wikidata · Q5165635 · wikipedia · Contrabass oboe
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Overview
Overview
This apparently was an oboe-type instrument in the bassoon range. It had, nonetheless, a distinct tonal quality of its own. Richard Strauss states, in his edition of Hector Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation, that its tone "..had not the slightest similarity with the low tones of the bassoon". Despite this distinction, the contrabass oboe never became popular or widely used, and few remain today.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Contrabass oboe • Background — woodwind • Classification — * Aerophone • Woodwind • Double reed • Hornbostel Sachs — 422.112 • Hornbostel Sachs Desc — Double-reeded aerophone with keys • Range — { \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } \clef treble \key c \major ^ \markup "written" \cadenzaOn b1 \glissando e1 \clef bass ^ \markup "in F" e,1 \glissando a'1 \clef bass ^ \markup "in C" b,1 \glissando e'1 }
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Contrabass oboe, revision 1374651533 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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