The oboe is both a family of instruments and a single instrument and member of the double reed group of woodwinds, which also includes bagpipes, baritone oboe, bassoon, contrabassoon, English horn in F, heckelphone, and oboe d’amore. The double reeds that are members of the oboe family are as follows, arranged from lowest to highest.

• Baritone oboe, also called the bass oboe. This instrument is an octave lower than the oboe. English composer Gustav Holst used it in The Planets, but it is little used recently. Today, the heckelphone, an instrument about four feet long and also pitched an octave lower than the oboe, is often substituted. The heckelphone was developed in response to Richard Wagner’s request when he visited the Heckel factory, a German bassoon manufacturer, in the late nineteenth century.

• English horn or cor anglais is a fifth lower than the oboe.

• Oboe d’amore is a minor third lower than the oboe.

• Oboe, a non-transposing instrument, played by an oboist.

The oboe was developed from its predecessor, a one-piece instrument called the shawm, by Frenchmen Jean Hotteterre and Michel Philidor in the seventeenth century. The shawm was a double-reed of the Medieval–Renaissance period. It made up part of the military band of the Saracens during the Crusades, along with trumpet and drums. The shawm came in six sizes, from sopranino to great bass. Larger shawms were known as bombardes. In early days of the oboe, the English called it an hautbois or hoboy, which suggests how the name developed.

An oboe has three parts: the upper joint, the lower joint, and the bell. Tenons are used to connect these parts. There are two main systems of oboe construction: the French conservatoire system, which Frédéric Triébert developed in the late nineteenth century, and an English system referred to as the thumbplate system. There are also dual system oboes.

Oboe is used in orchestral as well as band ensembles. German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s first two Brandenburg Concertos include oboe. The oboe is cast as the duck in Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. Oboes are also included in jazz repertoire. Charlie Parker’s Bird with Strings album also features oboe.