recorder, Mr. Henry Carte will play an air upon one.

The oboe takes the next place in the wood wind band. The principle of
sound excitement, that of the double reed, originating in the
flattening of the end of an oat or wheat straw, is of great antiquity,
but it could only be applied by insertion in tubes of very narrow
diameter, so that the column of air should not be wider than the
tongue straw or reed acting upon it. The little reed bound round and
contracted below the vibrating ends in this primitive form permitted
the adjustment of the lower open end in the tube, it might be another
longer reed or pipe which inclosed the air column; and thus a conical
pipe that gradually narrows to the diameter of the tongue reed must
have been early discovered, and was the original type of the pastoral
and beautiful oboe of the modern orchestra. Like the flute, the oboe
has only the soprano register, extending from B flat or natural below
middle C to F above the treble clef, two octaves and a fifth, which a
little exceeds the flute downward. The foundation of the scale is D
major, the same as the flute was before Boehm altered it. Triebert, a
skillful Parisian maker, tried to adapt Boehm's reform of the flute to
the oboe, but so far as the geometrical division of the scale was
concerned, he failed, because it altered the characteristic tone
quality of the instrument, so desirable for the balance of orchestral
coloration. But the fingering has been modified with considerable
success, although it is true by a much greater complication of means
than the more simple contrivances that preceded it, which are still
preferred by the players. The oboe reed has been much altered since
the earlier years of this century. It was formerly more like the reed
of the shawm, an instrument from which the oboe has been derived; and
that of the present bassoon. It is now made narrower, with much
advantage in the refinement of the tone. As in the flute, the notes up