Piccolos: The piccolo is the highest pitched woodwind instrument of orchestras and military bands. It is a small transverse (horizontally played) flute of conical or cylindrical bore, fitted with Boehm-system keywork and pitched an octave higher than the ordinary concert flute. The piccolo's compass extends three octaves upward from the second D above middle C. Its orchestral use dates from the late 18th century, when it replaced the flageolet (also called flauto piccolo). A six-keyed piccolo in D was formerly used in military bands to facilitate playing in flat keys.
 

Flutes: The Flute is a tubular musical instrument enclosing air that is set in vibration when the player's breath is directed against the sharp edge of the hole. Additional holes in the flute wall can be opened or closed to produce different pitches. In
horizontally held flutes, the mouth hole is cut into the side of the tube. In vertically held flutes the hole may be at the end of
the tube. In duct flutes, a mouthpiece channels the breath against the edge of a sound hole. The transverse flute, or horizontally held, was known in China by about 900 BC. By about AD 1100 it reached Europe, where it became a widely used flute in German-speaking areas. Families of flutes from soprano to bass were played in 16th- and 17th- century chamber music. These flutes had a cylindrical bore and six fingerholes. The flute was redesigned in the late 1600s by the Hotteterre family of French woodwind makers. They built it in three sections, with one key and a conical bore tapering away from the player. This flute displaced the recorder as the typical orchestral flute in the late 1700s. Gradually, more keys were added to improve the intonation of certain tones. In 1832 the German flute maker Theobald Boehm created an improved conical-bore flute, which is the model in widest use in the 20th century. The cylindrical Boehm flute is made of metal or wood and has thirteen or more tone holes controlled by a system of padded keys. Its range extends three octaves, from middle C upward. Other orchestral flutes include the piccolo, alto, and bass flutes.
 

Oboe: The Oboe is a double-reed wind instrument with a wood body and narrow conical bore. The oboe was invented in the 17th century by Jean Hotteterre and Michel Philidor. By 1700, most orchestras included a pair of oboes. Early oboes had seven finger-holes and two keys; by the 1700s four-keyed models were also in use. In the 1800s additional keys were added, reaching 15 or more, and the bore and sound holes were redesigned. The range of the modern oboe extends two and one-half octaves upward from the B below middle C. Composers of solo works for the oboe include George Frideric Handel, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Carl Nielsen.
 

Clarinet: The Clarinet is a woodwind instrument. It is a cylindrical-bore pipe sounded by a single beating reed that is clipped over a slot in a mouthpiece set in the upper end of the pipe. The lower end flares out into a bell. Modern clarinets are made of ebony and have 20 or more side holes to produce different pitches. The most common size of clarinet is the B-flat soprano. It has a range of about three-and-one-half octaves. Other common sizes of clarinet are the A soprano; the E-flat alto; the bass and the contrabass. Music for all clarinets is written as if for a C clarinet; on a B-flat clarinet the written note C sounds as B-flat. Players can thus switch instruments without learning new fingerings. The term B-flat clarinet refers to the notation, and not to the acoustic fundamental note of the instrument. The clarinet was invented sometime in the 1700's by Johann Christoph Denner. By about 1840 two complex systems of keywork had evolved: the Boehm system, used in most countries; and the narrower-bore, darker-sounding system developed in 1860 by the Belgian maker Eugène Albert. Clarinets were common in orchestras by 1780.
 

Saxophone: The saxophone belongs any of a family of single-reed wind instruments ranging from soprano to bass and characterized by a conical metal tube and finger keys. The first saxophone was patented by Antoine-Joseph Sax in Paris 1846. A saxophone has a conical metal (originally brass) tube with about 24 openings controlled by padded keys; the mouthpiece is similar to that of a clarinet. Two octave key vents allow the instrument to overblow to a higher register at the octave. Except for the sopranino and one form of the B soprano saxophone, built straight like a clarinet, saxophones have an upturned lower end and a detachable crook, or neck, at the upper end. The normal compass originally extended from B (B below middle C) to f (the third F above middle C), but it soon was expanded downward one half step to include B. The compass of the most commonly used members of the saxophone family has been further increased: the alto and tenor can sound one half step above f, and the baritone can sound one half step below B. The compass is pitched differently for each member of the family: the B soprano, a tone lower than written; the E alto, a sixth lower; the B tenor (made with an undulating crook), a ninth lower; the E baritone (with a looped crook), an octave below the alto; and the B bass (similar in shape to the baritone), an octave below the tenor. Rare forms, representing the extreme ranges of the instrument, include the sopranino, contrabass, and subcontrabass saxophones. All of the common forms were originally pitched in C or in F; the C melody saxophone, a tenor in C, is occasionally used for playing vocal music without transposition.  Sax left no historical account of his invention, which was intended for both military bands and orchestras and which may have stemmed from experiments with reed mouthpieces on brass instruments. He quickly procured its official adoption by the French army, and it soon spread to other countries. The saxophone was a popular solo instrument in the United States about World War I and was subsequently adopted in dance bands, becoming one of the most important solo instruments in the development of swing and other forms of jazz. Its use in big bands brought changes in mouthpiece design to produce a brighter, more penetrating sound. Modern instruments are also wider in bore than early ones.  The saxophone has great flexibility, blending well with both brasses and woodwinds. It is not widely used as a concert instrument but is quite prominent in jazz, in which it is a principal vehicle for melodic improvisation. Among the greatest jazz saxophonists
 have been Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane.

Bassoons: French Bassoon, German Faggot, the principal tenor and bass instrument of the orchestral woodwind family. Its narrow conical bore leads from the curved metal crook, onto which the double reed is placed, downward through the wing joint (on which are the left-hand finger holes) to the butt joint (on which are the right-hand holes). The bore then doubles back, ascending through the butt to the long joint and bell, where the holes are controlled by keywork for the left thumb. The bassoon is held on a sling aslant across the body. Its classical compass is three octaves upward from the B below the bass staff, the most-used melodic range coinciding with that of the tenor voice. Since the mid-19th century, the range has been extended up to treble E. The bassoon is exceptionally difficult to play because the traditional placing of the finger holes is scientifically irrational; yet this is essential to the production of a tone quality that has been one of the primary orchestral colours from George Frideric Handel's time. The reed is made by bending double a shaped strip of cane. The bassoon is a 17th-century development of the earlier fagotto, or dulzian, known in England as the curtal. It was first mentioned about 1540 in Italy, with the descending and ascending bores contained in a single piece of maple or pear wood. Many examples survive in museums at Brussels, Berlin, Vienna, and elsewhere. The present construction in four separate joints is thought to have been developed in France by 1636, closely following the reconstruction of the shawm, which produced the oboe, to which the bassoon served as bass. During the 18th century the individuality of the bassoon became recognized not only in the orchestra (in which two have normally been since employed) but also as a solo instrument for concerti. Well into Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's time in the late 18th century, no mechanism was required beyond four keys, most of the semitones outside the natural scale of C having been well obtained by cross-fingerings opening the holes nonconsecutively. Leisurely addition of keys from about 1780 led to Jean-Nicolas Savary's Paris models of about 1840, which, with further improvements in bore and mechanism, became the 20-keyed French bassoon, made by the firm of Buffet-Crampon, that is used in France, Italy, and Spain and by some British players. Although it has preserved and developed the sympathetic vocal sonority of the classical instrument, the French bassoon remains difficult to control, owing to inherent unevenness in the quality and steadiness of many notes. Alterations to minimize these defects were initiated in Germany in 1825 by Carl Almenräder. A reformed model was developed by the firm of Johann Adam Heckel and perfected in the German bassoon that is now standard everywhere except in France, Italy, and Spain. It is of European maple, with its own positions and sizes of the holes to give a more even and positive response throughout the compass. It can be more quickly learned, is easier to choose reeds for, and is in many respects more telling in a large orchestra. Research on old bassoons suggests that its tone quality, different from the French and considered by some to have sacrificed eloquence for expediency, may not represent as gross a deviation from classical tone as was hitherto believed. The first useful contrabassoon, or double bassoon, sounding an octave lower than the bassoon and much employed in large scores, was developed in Vienna and used occasionally by the classical composers. The modern contrabassoon follows Heckel's design of about 1870, with the tubing doubled back four times and often with a metal bell, pointing downward.