Oboe d'amore

Oboe d'amore
Modern and baroque oboe d'amore, Denner copy
Woodwind instrument
Classification
Hornbostel–Sachs classification422.112-71
(Double-reeded aerophone with keys)
DevelopedEighteenth century
Related instruments

The oboe d'amore (Italian for 'love oboe'; (pronounced [ˈɔːboe daˈmoːre]), less commonly hautbois d'amour (French: [obwɑ damuʁ]), is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family.[1] Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, between the oboe (soprano) and the cor anglais or English horn (alto).[2] It is a transposing instrument, sounding a minor third lower than it is notated, i.e. in A, so it can also be known as a Mezzo-Soprano Oboe. The bell (called Liebesfuß) is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a crook or bocal, similar to but shorter than that of the cor anglais, also known as the English horn.

  1. ^ Virginia Snodgrass Gifford: Music for oboe, oboe d'amore, and English horn. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 1983, ISBN 0-313-23762-X.
  2. ^ Norman Del Mar, Anatomy of the Orchestra (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981): 143. ISBN 0-520-04500-9 (cloth); ISBN 0-520-05062-2.