View source for Engineering:Contrabass oboe

{{Short description|Musical instrument lower than an oboe}}
{{Infobox instrument
|name                  = Contrabass Oboe
|image                 =   
|background            = woodwind
|classification        = 
*[[Engineering:Woodwind instrument|Woodwind]]
*[[Engineering:Wind instrument|Wind]]
*Double reed
|hornbostel_sachs      = 422.112
|hornbostel_sachs_desc = Double-reeded aerophone with [[Engineering:Key (instrument)|keys]]
|developed             = 
|range                 =[[File:Contrabass oboe's range.png|center|thumb]]
|related               = 
* Piccolo oboe
* Piccolo heckelphone
* Oboe
* Oboe d’amore
* [[Engineering:Cor anglais|Cor anglais (English horn)]]
* Oboe da caccia
* Heckelphone
* Lupophon
}}
The '''contrabass oboe''' is a double reed [[Engineering:Woodwind instrument|woodwind instrument]] in the key of F, sounding an octave and a fifth 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 [[Engineering:Shawm|shawm]]. There was an instrument referred to by H. de Garsault in 1761 as the basse de [[Engineering:Cromorne|cromorne]] or basse de hautbois {{harv|Finkelman|2001}} which was used by Lully, Charpentier, and other French Baroque composers. This apparently was an oboe-type instrument in the [[Engineering:Bassoon|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}}}}.
[[File:Cb Oboe.png|thumb|An original 3D model of the instrument]]

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. London: Macmillan Publishers.}}

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


[[Category:Contrabass instruments]]

{{Sourceattribution|Contrabass oboe}}