View source for Contrabass oboe

{{Short description|Musical instrument lower than an oboe}}
{{Refimprove|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox instrument
 | name                  = Contrabass Oboe
 | image                 = File:Bass Oboe in F MET MUS1450A1.jpg
 | image_capt            = Contrabass oboe in F, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
 | background            = woodwind
 | classification        = {{hlist
   | [[Wind instrument|Aerophone]]
   | [[Woodwind instrument|Woodwind]]
   | [[Double reed]]
  }}
 | hornbostel_sachs      = 422.112
 | hornbostel_sachs_desc = [[Double reed|Double-reeded]] [[aerophone]] with [[key (instrument)|keys]]
 | developed             = 
 | range                 = <div style="text-align: center; background-color: white;">
  <score lang="lilypond">
    {
      \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" }
      \clef treble \key c \major ^ \markup "written" \cadenzaOn
      b1 \glissando e'''1
      \clef bass ^ \markup "in F" e,1 \glissando a'1
      \clef bass ^ \markup "in C" b,,1 \glissando e'1
    }
  </score></div> Contrabass oboe sounds an octave and a fifth or two octaves below written.
 | related               = {{hlist
   | [[Oboe]]
   | [[Bass oboe]]
   | [[Heckelphone]]
   | [[Lupophon]]
   | [[Bassoon]]
  }}
}}
The '''contrabass oboe''' is a [[double reed]] [[woodwind instrument]] in the key of C or F, sounding two [[octave]]s or an octave and a fifth (respectively) lower than the standard [[oboe]].

Recent research, in particular that by [[oboe]] historian [[Bruce Haynes]],{{Full citation needed|date=October 2019}} 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 {{harv|Finkelman|2001}} which was used by [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]], [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier|Charpentier]], and other French Baroque composers. 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" {{harv|Berlioz and Strauss|1948|loc={{Page needed|date=October 2019}}}}.

Despite this distinction, the contrabass oboe never became popular or widely used, and few remain today.

==See also==
*[[Bass oboe]]
*[[Heckelphone]]

==References==
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Berlioz and Strauss|1948}}|reference=Berlioz, Hector, and Richard Strauss. 1948. ''Treatise on Instrumentation'', translated by Theodore Front. New York: Edwin F. Kalmus.}}
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Finkelman|2001}}|reference=Finkelman, Michael. 2001. "Bass Oboes and Larger Forms". § III: 5 of Janet K. Page, Geoffrey Burgess, Bruce Haynes, and Michael Finkelman, "Oboe (Fr. ''hautbois''; Ger. ''Oboe''; It. ''oboe'')". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]]. London: Macmillan Publishers.}}

==External links==
*[http://www.contrabass.com/pages/cboboe.html Contrabass oboe page] at contrabass.com

{{Double reed}}
{{Oboe family}}

[[Category:Single oboes with conical bore]]
[[Category:Contrabass instruments]]