Piccolo oboe

Piccolo oboe
Two oboe musette players from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (13th century).
A piccolo oboe with two-key action.

The piccolo oboe, also known as the piccoloboe, is the smallest and highest pitched member of the oboe family, historically known as the oboe musette. (It should not be confused with the similarly named musette, which is bellows-blown and characterized by a drone.) Pitched in E-flat or F above the regular oboe (which is a C instrument), the piccolo oboe is a sopranino version of the oboe, comparable to the E-flat clarinet.

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Makers

Piccolo oboes are produced by the French makers F. Lorée and Marigaux (pitched in F) and the Italian firm Fratelli Patricola (pitched in E-flat). Lorée calls its instrument piccolo oboe or oboe musette (in F), while Marigaux and Patricola call their instruments simply oboe musette. As of 2006, a new instrument typically sells for US$6,000-7,500.

Repertoire

The instrument has found the most use in chamber and contemporary music, where it is valued for its unusual tone colour. It is also employed in double-reed ensembles such as Amoris, and in film scoring. Perhaps the best-known pieces requiring piccolo oboe are Solo for Oboe Instruments (1971) and Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra No. 2, both by Bruno Maderna, as well as Ar-Loth (1967) by Paolo Renosto.

Other contemporary works for the instrument are Scherzo Furioso by William Blezard, Tasmanian Ants by Ian Keith Harris, Iberian Improvisations and Bailables [1] by Leonard Salzedo, Variations on a Sicilian Shepherd Tune by Clive Strutt

References

  1. ^ Rondeña, Guajira, Tonada, Fandango recorded by Jennifer Paull's Amoris Consort

External links

See also