Continuing our series of blog posts about the Western Classical Orchestra, this month we explore the woodwind family.
A typical woodwind section in an orchestra is made up of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, but different pieces of music require a different combination of woodwind instruments. Sometimes, the extended instrumental families are needed, from piccolo to contra bassoon or even the saxophone.
Woodwind instruments are aerophones – instruments that create sounds by making air vibrate.
Flute
The flute (pictured above) is believed to be one of the earliest musical instruments, with examples dating back approximately 45,000 to 53,000 years. These first examples were made from bone or ivory with hand-bored holes. Although the earliest examples were found in Germany, there is also a long history of flutes in China, Peru and India.
These early flutes developed over time, and instead of being made from bone began to be made from bamboo. Flutes have been played vertically and horizontally, with air either blown into the instrument, or across a hole in the mouthpiece.
The name “flute” or “floute” is first found in English in the medieval period. However, the flute that would be recognisable as a direct ancestor of the modern flute first appeared in the early 1700s in Europe. It was known as the transverse flute – now called the Baroque flute – and was made of wood, held horizontally with sound produced by blowing across the mouthpiece hole.
The “modern” flute was developed by Theobald Boehm between 1832–1847. Flutes today are made of a variety of materials. Professional instruments are usually made of silver, gold or occasionally platinum. Beginners usually learn on instruments made of nickel, silver or brass. Some players use wooden flutes, particularly if recreating the original sound of the Baroque Era.
The flute family also includes the piccolo which, as its name suggests, is a smaller version of the standard flute. There is also an alto flute, which is a bit larger than the flute, and a bass flute, which is much larger. Although the piccolo can be found in orchestral music written from the Romantic period onwards, alto and bass flutes are quite rare in orchestral music.
Debussy’s ‘Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune’ (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) begins with a haunting flute melody.
Oboe
The oboe creates a sound using a double reed made of two thin pieces of bamboo tied together. Double reed instruments were used in ancient Greece and Rome, but were lost to Western Civilisation for hundreds of years. They were re-introduced from the Arabic zuma, gradually evolving into the French “hautbois” or high wood in the 1600s.
The Baroque oboe looked very much like a recorder with open holes and only three keys. As the oboe developed, more and more keys were added to make the instrument easier to play and to help with tuning.
Modern oboes are usually made of grenadilla, often called African blackwood, while student models are often made of plastic resin.
The oboe has a very important role in the orchestra. Before the orchestra plays any pieces, the musicians “tune” to ensure they are all playing at the same pitch. All the players tune to the oboe – the principal oboe plays the note A and the rest of the orchestra matches their pitch to this A.
The oboe family encompasses a range of instruments including the cor anglais (English horn), which became more popular in orchestras from the Romantic period onwards. The cor anglais is also included in some Baroque pieces along with the oboe d’amore, which is in between the oboe and cor anglais in terms of size and pitch. There is also a bass oboe which is heard very rarely in Modern orchestral music.
The oboe has a beautiful solo in the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony”.
Clarinet
Photo by Auckland Museum Collections, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, used under Creative Commons licence
The clarinet makes a sound using a single bamboo reed vibrating against a mouthpiece. It was developed from the chalumeau around the year 1700. Mozart was one of the first composers to popularise the clarinet. The instrument of this period only had five keys, but as with the oboe, as the instrument was developed more keys were added. Unlike the fairly standard development of the oboe, different instrument makers made modifications to the clarinet, and so there are now several different types of clarinet.
Like the oboe, clarinets are usually made of grenadilla, or African blackwood, while student models are often made of plastic or a composite made of African blackwood and resin. In the late 19th century some clarinets were made from metal.
Clarinet mouthpieces are usually made from hard rubber or plastic, but can also be made from glass, wood, ivory or metal. The reed is held against the mouthpiece using a ligature which is usually made of metal or leather.
Unlike the flute and oboe which are pitched in C, the standard clarinet is pitched in Bb (B flat). This means when a clarinettist plays the note C, it sounds a tone lower – Bb. Orchestral music is generally written for either a Bb clarinet or an A clarinet, depending what key signature the music has, although some orchestral players also have a C clarinet.
As with the flute family, the clarinet family has instruments both smaller and larger than the standard instrument. The smallest clarinet that is commonly used is known as the Eb clarinet, while the larger instruments are the alto clarinet and the bass clarinet.
The basset horn is also part of the clarinet family. This was used in Mozart’s time, but isn’t widely used in orchestras today.
The clarinet has a beautiful solo in Puccini’s opera “Tosca”, accompanying a tenor solo.
Bassoon
The bassoon creates a sound using a double reed, like the oboe, but it uses a much bigger reed. Whereas the oboe reed is fitted directly into the oboe, the bassoon reed fits on the end of a crook, a curved metal tube which fits into the bassoon.
The bassoon has similarities to the dulcian, which was used in the 1500s and was a family of instruments of different sizes. It is believed the bassoon was developed by Martin Hotteterre, who is also credited with developing the flute and oboe. The bassoon was utilised by Vivaldi and Telemann in the Baroque period.
As with the other woodwind instruments, the bassoon was gradually improved and two different types of bassoon became common – the French Buffet system and the German Heckel system.
The bassoon family includes the contrabassoon, or double bassoon, which sounds an octave (eight notes) lower than the standard bassoon.
After a magical opening featuring the clarinet, oboe and flute, the main theme of “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” by Dukas is played by the bassoon section (about two minutes in).
Orchestral woodwind family
Woodwind instruments were added to string ensembles during the Baroque period (approximately 1600–1750), both as solo instruments and as part of the main orchestra. Flutes, oboes and bassoons started to appear in orchestras individually and in pairs.
In the Classical period (approximately 1750–1820), the clarinet was added to the core choice of instruments, although for much of this period, there was not a regular grouping of instruments. In many of Mozart’s early symphonies (written in the early 1770s) the only woodwind instruments were oboes, with occasional use of flutes instead, perhaps responding to the instrumentalists who were available for performance at the time. Beethoven (b 1770 – d 1827) used what became the core woodwind instrumentation in many of his symphonies: this was 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets and 2 bassoons.
In the early Romantic period (which began to emerge around 1800 and lasted until about 1910), many orchestral works kept this core of 8 players. But as the period developed, composers started to utilise the wider instrumental families such as piccolo, cor anglais and contrabassoon.
In the later Romantic period and into the 20th century, the core woodwind section continued to develop and change, with some composers including the saxophone as well as a wide range of instruments such as the Eb clarinet.
Explore the orchestral woodwind section in Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”. Watch on YouTube or listen to our playlist on Spotify.
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