 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2021-12-03 07:35
How common is it (was it) for boxwood to be used for oboes and cors? Are there any drawbacks to it? I notice it does not appear to be used today though. I saw that there was some kind of moth infestation in Europe that did a lot of them in, and wonder if that is why or if there is another reason.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2021-12-05 21:23
IIRC, boxwood was commonly used hundreds of years ago because it was easier to turn and bore than modern alternatives. Nowadays, I think it is a novelty because its sound doesn't have enough projection to play in a modern symphony orchestra, which makes boxwood oboes generally useful only for chamber music.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2021-12-07 00:25
Thanks. I was told a cor I was interested in was boxwood, but turns out it was actually rosewood. Makes more sense.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2021-12-11 00:59
For Baroque through to early Romantic era instruments which aren't overloaded with keywork, boxwood is better suited as it's less stable than grenadilla and having much simpler keywork means there's less to go wrong.
More modern instruments with far more keywork need more stability and as boxwood has the tendency to warp, that's only going to cause no end of trouble. If you look at photos of vintage oboes in books or go and see museum displays, you'll often see most of the boxwood ones are usually banana-shaped.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2022-05-21 01:26
I was wondering about the picture of whatever it is on the cover of my Vade Mecum, how they could possibly have bored that curved instrument back at that point in time (or even now.) If it is one that has warped, that answers my question.
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2022-05-21 20:08
Thanks so much for this information, Chris!
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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