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Webster 1913 Edition
Oboe
O′boe
,Noun.
[It., fr. F.
hautbois
. See Hautboy
.] (Mus.)
One of the higher wind instruments in the modern orchestra, yet of great antiquity, having a penetrating pastoral quality of tone, somewhat like the clarinet in form, but more slender, and sounded by means of a double reed; a hautboy.
Oboe d’amore
[It., lit., oboe of love]
, and
Oboe di caccia
[It., lit., oboe of the chase]
, are names of obsolete modifications of the oboe, often found in the scores of
Bach
and Handel
.