There is a distinction between the families of double-reed and single- reed instruments. The first has five members: oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, tenoroon and contrabassoon.
the oboe
The oboe’s range is two octaves and a sixth from b chromatically up to f. It is written on the treble clef. The two highest notes, eand f, must be used with great caution, the f especially being risky when approached abruptly. Some oboes have a low b, but since this note has not been widely adopted, it is as well to avoid it. The Boehm system will overcome all the fingering problems in the present-day oboe, including rapid passages be- tween c and d (or d and e) and between fand g. Trills using these intervals, and some others, are therefore impossible, or very diffi- cult and ineffective; those in Ex. 88a are difficult, those in Ex. 88b are impossible, including all trills higher than the last of Ex. 88b.
Ex. 88
(a)
(b)
The oboe, like any other instrument, is much happier in keys without too many sharps or flats. It should not be given melodies outside the range from gup to e. Notes below or above this range are either flabby and thin or harsh and shrill, and all of poor quality. Rapid figures, whether chro- matic or diatonic, can be played well enough on the oboe, but they are
Wind with reeds 103 awkward in effect and can be almost comic; arpeggios are the same. The need for such writing must be exceedingly rare, and we have never expe- rienced it, we admit. Whatever virtuosi may attempt in their fantasias and variations scarcely proves the contrary. The oboe is above all a melodic in- strument; it has a rustic character, full of tenderness, of bashfulness even. In a tutti the oboe is always employed without regard for its special timbre, since it is lost in the overall sound and its distinctive expressive quality cannot be heard. The same applies, it must be said at once, to most other wind instruments, the only exceptions being those which are too noisy or whose timbre is strikingly unusual. Such instruments cannot simply be treated as ordinary members of a wind band without riding roughshod over art and common sense. I refer to trombones, ophicleides, contrabassoons and, often, trumpets and cornets.
Berlioz used the oboe’s full range from b to f in his scores, although there were occasions when he avoided the extremes. In Le roi Lear (NBE 20: 92) the second oboe avoids c even in a fortissimo, although bottom b is freely used in his later works. In adapting Cl´eopˆatre for the Chœur d’ombres in L´elio Berlioz added a low b for the oboe where little else was changed (NBE 6: 167 and 7: 11). His normal top note is e, although fis occasionally found, sometimes ‘approached abruptly’, as in the Fˆete in Rom´eo et Juliette (NBE 18: 119, 123), or in a hectic series of high figurations in the Marche marocaine.
The instrument’s mechanism was undergoing such rapid development at the time he wrote the Treatise that many of the trills he designated as ‘difficult’ or ‘impossible’ became possible almost immediately. But he had already asked for the ‘difficult’ c–dtrill in the Symphonie fantastique (NBE 16: 156–7) and the ‘dif- ficult’ e– ftrill in Benvenuto Cellini (NBE 1a: 121) and Rom´eo et Juliette (NBE 18: 12–14). A very exposed example of this latter trill is found in the Chasse royale et orage in Les Troyens (NBE 2b: 444), suggesting that by 1857 it no longer carried any risks. An expressive phrase dwelling on f–g in Act III of Les Troyens (NBE 2b: 367) suggests that that interval held no more terrors either. Trills above c (‘impossible’) are found in Rom´eo et Juliette (NBE 18: 12), Le chasseur danois (NBE 13: 93) and the Marche marocaine.
Following his precept, Berlioz is more likely to give arpeggios and rapid figures to flutes and clarinets than to oboes; good examples are the opening section of La tempˆete in L´elio (NBE 7: 70–86) and the Chant des chemins de fer (NBE 12b: 48–9). On the other hand the Te deum has the oboes playing arpeggios with the rest of the wind (NBE 10: 28), and the ´Evocation in La damnation de Faust (NBE 12b: 277–9) requires angular figuration for its burlesque effect. A curious case is L’ˆıle inconnu (NBE 13: 87), where flute, oboe and bassoon take turns to assist the second clarinet in a series of arpeggios.
A glissando is required of the oboe in the last movement of the Symphonie fantastique (NBE 16: 116–17, 119), descending from cto c.
The oboe’s special characteristics convey candour, naive grace, senti- mental delight, or the suffering of weaker creatures. It expresses this mar- vellously well in cantabile. It has the capacity to express agitation to a certain degree, but one should be careful not to stretch it as far as cries of passion or the splutter of rage or threats or heroics, since its little bitter- sweet voice becomes quite ineffective and absurd. Some great composers, including Mozart, have made this mistake. Their scores contain passages whose passionate and martial character contrasts strangely with the sound of the oboes that play them, and the result is not just a misjudged effect but a shocking misalliance between stage and orchestra and between melody and instrumentation. A march melody, however direct, however beautiful, however noble, loses its nobility, its directness and its beauty when given to the oboes. It would lose a little less if given to the flutes and would lose almost nothing if played by clarinets. If it is absolutely unavoidable to use oboes in such a piece as I have described, to give more body to the wind section and more strength to the group of wind instruments already play- ing, they must at least be written for in such a way that their timbre, which is at odds with this kind of style, is completely covered by that of other in- struments and is indistinguishable in the ensemble. The oboe’s low notes, which are most unpleasant when exposed, can be appropriate in strange, mournful harmonies, coupled with the bottom notes of the clarinet and the low d, e, fand gof flutes and cors anglais.
Gluck and Beethoven had a wonderful understanding of this precious instrument; both owe the profound emotion generated by some of their finest pages to the oboe. For Gluck I need only mention the oboe solo in Agamemnon’s air in Iphig´enie en Aulide, ‘Peuvent-ils ordonner qu’un p`ere’ (Ex. 89a). Could those innocent cries, those endless pleas, growing ever more intense, belong to any other instrument but the oboe?. . . And the famous ritornello to the air in Iphig´enie en Tauride, ‘O malheureuse Iphig´enie!’ (Ex. 89b). And the childlike cry of the orchestra when Alceste, in the middle of her outpouring of heroic devotion, is suddenly seized by the memory of her young sons and breaks in with the phrase ‘Eh! pourrai- je vivre sans toi?’ The heartrending exclamation ‘O mes enfants!’ is her response to this touching instrumental plea (Ex. 89c). Then the dissonance of a minor second in Armide’s air, to the words ‘Sauvez-moi de l’amour’ (Ex. 89d). All these are sublime, not just for the dramatic conception, the profundity of expression or the grandeur and beauty of the melody, but also for the instrumentation and for the composer’s unerring choice of the oboes from among a crowd of other instruments quite incapable of producing such effects.
Berlioz printed only two of these examples in his Treatise, namely Exx. 89a and 89d. Of Ex. 89a he asks: ‘Could this be played by anything other than an oboe?’
Wind with reeds 105
Ex. 89
tir dans mon sein le cri plain tif de la na tu re
( )
(Bassoon) pizz.(
(Strings))
J en tends reten (Andante) GAMEMNON A Oboe(
(
)
)
sol o (a) Strings OboeAndante moderato sol o
O mes en fants! O re grets superflus!
Moderato
( )
( )
ALCESTE
( )
Eh! pourrais je vi vre sans toi? Oboe
(Andante)
( )
(c)
Sauvez moi de l a mour, sauvez moi de l a mour,
(Moderato) ( ( ( ( ) ) ) ) Oboes RMIDE A (d)
Yet all the Gluck sources give these entries to a flute and an oboe in unison.1
Similarly Berlioz recalled the passage from Alceste (Ex. 89c) as an oboe entry, even though many sources give it to oboes and clarinets in unison.2
Beethoven preferred the oboe’s joyful sound: witness the solo in the scherzo of the Pastoral Symphony, the one in the scherzo of the Ninth Symphony, the one in the first movement of the Fourth Symphony, and so on. But he was just as successful when he gave it sad or desolate music. This can be observed of the solo in the minor in the second reprise of the finale of the ‘Eroica’, and above all in the aria in Fidelio where Florestan,
Wind with reeds 107 dying of starvation and delirious with suffering, believes he has his weeping family around him; his cries of pain mingle with the broken wailing of the oboe (Ex. 90). Ex. 90 cresc. Oboe Poco allegro cresc. Strings, Horns dim. dim.
Berlioz accepted a pair of oboes wholeheartedly as a part of the modern or- chestra, although he felt free to omit them on occasions, most strikingly in the cantata Le cinq mai, and also in the M´editation religieuse and the Chanson de brigands (in L´elio). A number of orchestral songs require only one oboe, as does Un bal, the second movement of the Symphonie fantastique.
The Treatise suggests a number of characterisations which Berlioz’s scores illus- trate. The rustic quality of the oboe is found in Paysans sous les tilleuls in the Huit sc`enes de Faust (altered in La damnation de Faust), in the Sc`ene aux champs in the Symphonie fantastique, and in the music of the Abruzzi peasants in Harold en Italie. The on-stage ‘flˆutes antiques’ in Act I of Les Troyens, being both rustic and ancient, are represented by oboes. Tenderness and shyness may be attributed to some of Berlioz’s heroines depicted by oboe solos: Teresa’s cavatina in Benvenuto Cellini, H´ero’s air in B´eatrice et B´en´edict, and perhaps Cordelia (if it is she) in the introduc- tion of Le roi Lear. Both rusticity and tenderness are expressed by the oboe in the stable scene in L’enfance du Christ and for the arrival of the Holy Family in Sa¨ıs in the same work. ‘Weaker creatures’ depicted by the oboe include lambs and birds in Les Troyens (NBE 2a: 70) and insects in B´eatrice et B´en´edict (NBE 3: 175).
The heartrending pathos of the oboe in Iphig´enie en Aulide, as shown in Ex. 89a, was perhaps the model for two passages in Les Troyens: one where Chorebus sup- ports the fainting Cassandra, ‘Pauvre ˆame ´egar´ee!’ (NBE 2a: 62–5); the other where Andromache walks slowly away from the silent onlookers (NBE 2a: 122). The close of the Rex tremendæ in the Requiem, ‘Salva me’ (NBE 9: 64–5), is of the same order.
The nearest Berlioz came to using the oboe for agitation was in the Course `a l’abˆıme in La damnation de Faust (NBE 8a: 401), where the oboe line slightly resembles that in the Fidelio scene he cites as Ex. 90, even though the image is horror, not joy. A type of use for which he seems to make no allowance in the Treatise is in a noble, expressive melody for a solo oboe such as that found in the first movement of the Symphonie fantastique (NBE 16: 30), in Le roi Lear (NBE 20: 54), in the overture to Benvenuto Cellini (NBE 1a: 36, 94) and in the Fˆete of Rom´eo et Juliette (NBE 18: 67).
Evil is suggested by the frequent use of a low oboe to accompany Mephistophe- les in La damnation de Faust. Frivolity is the tone of Anna’s response to Narbal, supported by an oboe, in Act IV of Les Troyens. And the caricature of comic figures is entrusted to the oboe, first for the Cabaretier in Benvenuto Cellini, and second for Somarone in B´eatrice et B´en´edict, with his excruciating agr´ements for the oboe, a scene which recalls Berlioz’s scorn of a Dresden oboist in 1843 who ornamented his part despite Berlioz’s vigorous instructions not to.3
Berlioz was not particularly close to the three notable French oboists of his time, Vogt, Brod and Tri´ebert, although they played in his concerts and taught at the Conservatoire. He wrote a theme from Rom´eo et Juliette in Vogt’s autograph album,4 and told an anecdote about Brod in Les grotesques de la musique.5 The oboist he probably knew best was Barret, a French player who was principal oboe at Covent Garden at the time of Berlioz’s visits to London.
In the Journal des d´ebats of 28 May 1839 Berlioz wrote about the ‘harmoniphon or keyboard-oboe’, made by M. Paris, which was
destined to replace oboes and cors anglais in provincial orchestras where these instruments are very little and very badly studied. For this reason it is a most useful invention. The harmoniphon’s keyboard has thirty keys rather smaller than piano keys set out in the same way. Its range is from middle cup to e. It is played by blowing down an elastic tube with the mouthpiece held between the teeth, while the fingers play the keyboard. Pressing the keys simply allows the sound to come out; expression is done with the mouth, so that the player’s breathing controls nuances of piano, forte and crescendo, not normally possible on instruments of this kind.
the cor anglais
This instrument is an alto oboe, as it were, with the same range. It is written on the treble clef as if it were an oboe in F, in other words a fifth higher than its actual sound. Its range is written on the treble clef from b chromatically up to f, sounding e up to b. Some cors anglais have a low b also. If the orchestra is playing in C, the cor anglais must be written in G; if it is in D, the cor anglais will be written in A, and so on. What we said above about
3Memoirs, ‘Travels in Germany’, I/5. 4Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. 5Les grotesques de la musique, p. 271.
Wind with reeds 109 fingering difficulties on the oboe for certain successions of sharps and flats also applies to the cor anglais, with even greater problems in rapid passagework.
Berlioz observed e as the cor anglais’s top note and b as its bottom note (reached twice in La damnation de Faust and twice in L’enfance du Christ). In the Pri`ere in Benvenuto Cellini he revised a very high passage for cor anglais and gave it to the flute (NBE 1c: 756). In the Requiem (NBE 9: 104) and Rom´eo et Juliette (NBE 18: 262) he seems to have avoided its lowest notes. The mention of a low b was added in the 1855 edition. The instrument is not normally given rapid figuration of any kind, but the ‘difficult’ c–dtrill is found in La damnation de Faust (NBE 8a: 172).
Its timbre, being less piercing but deeper and more veiled than that of the oboe, does not lend itself in the same way to merry rustic tunes. Nor can it convey the agony of wailing; the expression of sharp pain is almost beyond it. It is a melancholy, dreamy voice, dignified too, with a retiring, remote quality which makes it superior to every other instrument when it comes to arousing images and feelings of the past, or when the composer wants to pluck the secret string of memory. M. Hal´evy had a happy inspiration when he used two cors anglais in the refrain of El´eazar’s air in Act IV of La juive (Ex. 91).
Ex. 91 (Bassoon) 3 Cors anglais Andantino espressivo 3 3 (in F) Strings pizz.
Berlioz himself used two cors anglais as early as the Chants de la fˆete de Pˆaques in the Huit sc`enes de Faust, and did so again on three occasions: in the Requiem, in Benvenuto Cellini (Pri`ere), and in Dans le ciel in La damnation de Faust.
In the Adagio of one of my symphonies the cor anglais first repeats an oboe’s phrases an octave lower, like a young country boy in dialogue with his girl, then at the end of the movement recalls these fragments over a muffled accompaniment of four timpani against the rest of the orchestra’s silence. The feeling of absence, of oblivion, of bitter loneliness evoked in the hearts of some listeners by this desolate melody would not have a quarter of its impact were it sung by any other instrument but the cor anglais.
The symphony referred to is the Symphonie fantastique, whose third movement, the Sc`ene aux champs, features the off-stage oboe in dialogue with the cor anglais (NBE 16: 72, 89).
The blend of the cor anglais’s low notes with the bottom register of the clarinets and horns over a double bass tremolo produces an unusual and also novel effect appropriate for creating an atmosphere of fear and anxiety through its feeling of menace. This effect was unknown to Mozart, Weber and Beethoven, but there is a magnificent example in the duet in Act IV of Les huguenots. I believe M. Meyerbeer is the first to have used it in opera (Ex. 92). Ex. 92 Basses
( )
Cellos( )
Violas( )
Violins( )
RAOUL( )
Tu l as dit! Oui, tu m ai mes!
(in B)
( )
unis. Bassoons( )
(in A)( )
Clarinets (in B )( )
Cor anglais (Andante)( )
( )
(in F) Horns 8 dolcissimoWind with reeds 111 In a piece whose general mood is that of melancholy the frequent use of a cor anglais in the middle of an instrumental ensemble is exactly right. In such a case you write just one part for oboe and replace the second oboe with a cor anglais. Gluck used it in his Italian operas Telemaco and
Orfeo, but without any striking purpose and without making much of it.
He never used it in his French scores. Neither Mozart nor Beethoven nor Weber ever used it, I don’t know why.
The Rgm text here had, in addition: ‘Most cors anglais are made of leather, some are made of wood. The tone of the former seems better to me, its character is more definite.’ The following week he wrote: ‘Before going any further I must hasten to point out an ill-judged expression in my last article which could lead to error. Cors anglais which I indicated as being made of leather are only covered in leather; the body of the instrument is in fact of wood. These are cors anglais of curved shape.’ The modern design of cor anglais with the body of the instru- ment straight and a curved crook to carry the reed was first introduced by Brod in 1839.
In both Telemaco and Orfeo ed Euridice Gluck used two cors anglais, although the authenticity of their part in Telemaco has been questioned.6 There is also one in
the Italian Alceste. Berlioz knew all three operas well, although he was unaware that Haydn required a pair of cors anglais in a number of works in the 1760s including the Symphony no. 22 (‘The Philosopher’), that Mozart used a pair in La finta semplice and in Il r´e pastore, and that Beethoven had written a trio for two oboes and cor anglais op. 87 in 1795. In Gluck’s time the instrument was known in Vienna but not in Paris, where it came into use in the scores of Catel, Cherubini, Spontini and Reicha.7 Berlioz was later to complain that it was familiar in Paris but apparently rare in Germany; the lack of cors anglais is a constant lament in