to C sharp in the treble clef are produced by the normal blowing, and
simply shortening the tube by opening the sound holes. Beyond that
note, increased pressure, or overblowing, assisted by a harmonic
"speaker" key, produces the first harmonic, that of the octave, and so
on. The lowest notes are rough and the highest shrill; from A to D
above the treble clef, the tone quality of the oboe is of a tender
charm in melody. Although not loud, its tone is penetrating and
prominent. Its staccato has an agreeable effect. The place of the oboe
in the wood wind band between the flute and the clarinet, with the
bassoon for a bass, is beyond the possibility of improvement by any
change.

Like the flute, there was a complete family of oboes in the sixteenth
and early in the seventeenth century; the little schalmey, the discant
schalmey, from which the present oboe is derived; the alto, tenor,
pommer, and bass pommers, and the double quint or contrabass pommer.

In all these old finger hole instruments the scale begins with the
first hole, a note in the bagpipe with which the drones agree, and not
the entire tube. From the bass and double quint pommers came
ultimately the bassoon and contra-bassoon, and from the alto pommer,
an obsolete instrument for which Bach wrote, called the oboe di
caccia, or hunting oboe, an appellation unexplained, unless it had
originally a horn-like tone, and was, as it has been suggested to me
by Mr. Blaikley, used by those who could not make a real hunting horn
sound. It was bent to a knee shape to facilitate performance. It was
not exactly the cor Anglais or English horn, a modern instrument of
the same pitch which is bent like it, and of similar compass, a fifth
below the usual oboe. The tenoroon, with which the oboe di caccia has
been compared, was a high bassoon really on octave and a fifth below.