20. The next four instruments to be described (oboe, bassoon, English horn, and contra bassoon) are often referred to as the oboe family since the principle of tone production and general manipulation is the same in all four. The tone in these instruments is produced by the vibration of two very thin pieces of cane, which are called together a double-reed.
The oboe is especially valuable in the orchestra as a solo instrument, and its thin, nasal tones are suggestive of rustic, pastoral simplicity, both oboe and English horn being often used by orchestral composers in passages intended to express the idea of rural out-of-door life. The English horn is also often used in passages where the idea of melancholy and suffering is to be conveyed to the audience. In a military band the oboe corresponds to the first violin of the orchestra.
The bassoon and contra-bassoon are used mostly to provide a bass part for the harmony of the wood-wind group, but they are also sometimes employed (especially the bassoon) to depict comic or grotesque effects.
21. The next two types of instruments to be described (clarinet and saxophone) are alike in that the tone is produced by the vibration of a single strip of cane (called single reed) which is held against the lower lip of the player. The clarinet and bass clarinet are made of wood and are used in both bands and orchestras, but the saxophone is usually made of metal, and, the tone being more strident and penetrating, the instrument is ordinarily used only in combination with other wind instruments, i.e., in bands.
Since the fingering of the clarinet is excessively difficult the performer can play in only certain keys on the same instrument, hence to play in different keys clarinets in several keys must be provided, there being usually three in all. The music is written as though it were to be played in the key of C, but the tones produced are actually in other keys. For this reason the clarinet is called a transposing instrument. The range of the clarinet is the greatest possessed by any of the wind instruments, that of the clarinet in C being from
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