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The woodwind section of the modern
orchestra includes flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons and related instruments,
although flutes are generally no longer made of wood. These instruments
are all aerophones, blowing instruments, the sound produced by blowing
across an aperture in the case of the flute, by the vibration of a single
reed in the case of the clarinet and by the vibration of double reeds in
the case of the oboe and the bassoon.
Flute
The word flute may indicate
a variety of wind instruments without reeds. The modern orchestra makes use of
transverse flutes, augmented as necessary by a smaller transverse flute known as
a piccolo and very occasionally by a larger instrument, the alto or bass flute,
pitched a fourth lower. The straight flute is known in English as a recorder (=
French: flute à bec; German: Blockflöte; Italian: flauto dolce) but was not used
in the orchestra after the later Baroque period.
Clarinet
A clarinet is a woodwind
instrument with a single reed, as opposed to the oboe, which has a double reed.
The clarinet was developed from the year 1800 onwards from the earlier
chalumeau, which played notes only in the lower register. The new instrument
added notes in the higher register. Clarinets are built in different keys, most
commonly in B flat and in A.
Saxophone
Adolphe Sax
invented the saxophone, a single-reed instrument, in the middle of the 19th
century. It is used widely in jazz, and has never been a permanent member of the
symphony orchestra. Notable use is made of the saxophone by
Ravel in his Boléro and in his
orchestration of
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and
other composers have used the instrument for special effects.
Oboe
The oboe is a
double-reed instrument, an important part of the woodwind section of the modern
orchestra. The mechanism of its keys underwent considerable development in the
19th century. In earlier times it formed an important part of the outdoor
military band, but the Western symphony orchestra normally uses a pair of
instruments. The oboe d’amore is the alto of the oboe family, used in the
baroque period, and the tenor is found in the cor anglais or, in the mid-18th
century, in the oboe da caccia. The tone of the instrument, much affected by
different methods of cutting the reeds, can impart a characteristic sound to a
whole orchestra.
English horn
The English horn is more
generally known in England as the cor anglais. It is the tenor oboe.
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