Music Composition DUMmIES

member of the viola de gamba family of instruments. Where members of the

violin family have their strings tuned a fifth apart from one another, each

string of the double bass is tuned to a fourth apart from the next.

The shape of the instrument itself is different than the violin/viola/cello — its

“shoulders” are pinched in, rather than rounded out, and its body is longer

and narrower overall than the other three instruments. As with the bass guitar

in rock music, the double bass is the fulcrum of the orchestra, and the basic

purpose of the contrabass is to hold down the bottom end of the composition.

The range of the double bass is E2 to G5 (Figure 14-13).

Oboe .....................................................................................................

The double reed oboe family is considered to be the oldest family of wood-

wind instruments. Double reed instruments that looked a lot like the modern

oboe were in use in Greece nearly 3,000 years ago, brought over by Egyptians

who had used double reed instruments as much as a thousand years earlier

than that. The direct ancestor of the oboe is credited as the shawm, which

was probably introduced into Europe during the Crusades when the Saracen

armies invaded and used this instrument in war as well as for dancing. The

bore of the shawm is conical and wide, as is the double reed. The body is

constructed from a single piece of wood with finger holes.

The oboe is considered a very special instrument by many composers, who

relish its deep, rich, distinctive musical flavor and the way it mixes in with

the rest of the woodwinds of the orchestra. The entire orchestra tunes to the

A of the oboe, possibly because there isn’t any practical way to tune an oboe.

Modern oboes are still made from African blackwood (grenadilla) and are

made in three parts. Oboes are still handmade by expert craftsmen who are

very secretive about the dimensions and the size of the apertures used in the

construction. The double reed is made especially for oboes from cane which

is grown on the east coast of Spain or the south of France and dried and aged

for several years before being shipped to your local music store. There are, of

course, synthetic reeds made for oboes today that most likely work just as

well and are much cheaper, but many perfectionists still swear by the hand-

made ones from Europe.

?

w

double bass

sounds an octave lower than written

E string

w

A string

w

D string

w

G string

w

Figure 14-13: w
Range for
the double
bass.

Chapter 14: Composing for the Standard Orchestra 177