Interesting instruments

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One of Mostly Baroque's important musical pursuits is the presentation and support of less well-known composers and orchestral instruments.  One of the instrumental families that we seek to present, largely due to the wonderful musical abilities of our principal woodwind performer, Peggy Hartman, is the oboe family.

For this concert, we highlight the oboe d'amore in a beautiful concerto from the high Baroque era by GP Telemann.

"Like the oboe and English horn, the oboe d'amore (hautbois d'ambour/oboe of love) is a double-reed woodwind instrument, covering the mezzo soprano register.  The term "d'amore" dates from the Renaissance period and is based on the instrument's warm, lyrical and mellow sound character that is more comparable with the French horn than the oboe.  The instrument is slightly longer than the oboe and has a distinctive, pear-shaped bell."- Vienna Symphonic Library, July 6, 2022

The instrument was invented in the early 18th century in Germany and was first used by Christopher Graupner in a concerto in 1717.  (Musicalexpert.org, July 6, 2022) The warmth of its sound attracted the most significant Baroque composers including GP Telemann and JS Bach. They composed both solo concerti and Church Cantatas and Passions for the instrument (JS Bach famously used it extensively in his titanic St. Matthew Passion).  

Mostly Baroque, when it commissioned the Sacred Cantata "In the Light of Angels" by the American composer Thomas Pasatieri in 2012 requested that the oboe d'amore be included in the orchestration of this work. To our delight, Maestro Pasatieri wrote a beautiful Interlude which prominently features this instrument.