Oboe Resources: Oboe Books

This revised edition lists over 10,000 works for the oboe, English horn, oboe da caccia, and all of their variants for the period up to ca. 1800. Each entry includes the title, opus or register number, date, exact instrumentation, location of the original work, existing modern editions(s), and historical notes of interest.

Performers and schools will find this volume useful to identify music written for the sometimes odd instrumental combinations that require music to perform. In addition, Gifford provides access to many difficult-to-find arrangements of famous works for oboe, oboe d'amore, and English horn. Indexes of publishers, instruments, and composers make it possible to attempt to purchase or locate the listed items. Library of Congress call numbers are provided for each entry. Also listed are method books and books about these instruments at the Library of Congress. Gifford's book is unique in its coverage of a large, specialized collection and is recommended for purchase by high school, conservatory, and college libraries supporting active performing programs. Choice

This is the first in-depth survey of the oboe during its Golden Age, tracing the history of the instrument from its invention through its many mutations as it adapted to the changing demands of composers. The author describes in detail the instruments, players, makers, and composers, as well as how and where it was played, and who listened to it.

The oboe, including its earlier forms the shawm and the hautboy, is an instrument with a long and rich history. In this book two distinguished oboist-musicologists trace that history from its beginnings to the present time, discussing how and why the oboe evolved, what music was written for it, and which players were prominent. Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes begin by describing the oboe’s prehistory and subsequent development out of the shawm in the mid-seventeenth century. They then examine later stages of the instrument, from the classical hautboy to the transition to a keyed oboe and eventually the Conservatoire-system oboe. The authors consider the instrument’s place in Romantic and Modernist music and analyze traditional and avant-garde developments after World War II. Noting the oboe’s appearance in paintings and other iconography, as well as in distinctive musical contexts, they examine what this reveals about the instrument’s social function in different eras. Throughout the book they discuss the great performers, from the pioneers of the seventeenth century to the traveling virtuosi of the eighteenth, the masters of the romantic period and the legends of the twentieth century such as Gillet, Goossens, Tabuteau, and Holliger. With its extensive illustrations, useful technical appendices, and discography, this is a comprehensive and authoritative volume that will be the essential companion for every woodwind student and performer.