Today, the oboe is commonly used as orchestral or solo instrument in symphony orchestras, concert bands and chamber ensembles.

In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the soprano oboe is sometimes referred to as having a "bright and penetrating" voice.

[4][5] The Sprightly Companion, an instruction book published by Henry Playford in 1695, describes the oboe as "Majestical and Stately, and not much Inferior to the Trumpet".

Variations in cane and other construction materials, the age of the reed, and differences in scrape and length all affect the pitch.

Centuries before the Spanish and Portuguese conquests in the New World, the early version of the chirimía arrived in Europe from the Middle East due to cultural exchanges.

However, the oboe’s roots go back even further, linked to ancient reed instruments like those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as the Greek aulos and Roman tibia.

This was borrowed from the French name, hautbois [obwɑ], which is a compound word made up of haut ("high", "loud") and bois ("wood", "woodwind").

Circumstantial evidence, such as the statement by the flautist composer Michel de la Barre in his Memoire, points to members of the Philidor (Filidor) and Hotteterre families.

[20] The hautbois quickly spread throughout Europe, including Great Britain, where it was called hautboy, hoboy, hautboit, howboye, and similar variants of the French name.

In order to produce higher pitches, the player has to "overblow", or increase the air stream to reach the next harmonic.

In the mid-20th century, with the resurgence of interest in early music, a few makers began producing copies to specifications taken from surviving historical instruments.

The Classical period brought a regular oboe whose bore was gradually narrowed, and the instrument became outfitted with several keys, among them those for the notes D♯, F, and G♯.

The narrower bore allows the higher notes to be more easily played, and composers began to use the oboe's upper register more often in their works.

Beethoven wrote the F major concerto, Hess 12, of which only sketches survive, though the second movement was reconstructed in the late 20th century).

The Akademiemodel Wiener Oboe, first developed in the late 19th century by Josef Hajek from earlier instruments by C. T. Golde of Dresden (1803–73), is now made by several makers such as André Constantinides, Karl Rado, Guntram Wolf, Christian Rauch and Yamaha.

A variant form using large tone holes, the Boehm system oboe, was never in common use, though it was used in some military bands in Europe into the 20th century.

Minor improvements to the bore and key work have continued through the 20th century, but there has been no fundamental change to the general characteristics of the instrument for several decades.

Professional oboes used in the UK and Iceland frequently feature conservatoire system combined with a thumb plate.

This produces alternate options which eliminate the necessity for most of the common cross-intervals (intervals where two or more keys need to be released and pressed down simultaneously), as cross-intervals are much more difficult to execute in such a way that the sound remains clear and continuous throughout the frequency change (a quality also called legato and often called for in the oboe repertoire).

These include the musette (France) and the piston oboe and bombarde (Brittany), the piffero and ciaramella (Italy), and the xirimia (also spelled chirimia) (Spain).

David Stock's concerto "Oborama" features the Oboe and its other members as a soloist, the instrument changing in each movement.

Most often in this era it was used for dance band music, but occasionally oboists may be heard used in a similar manner to a saxophone for solos.

The multi-instrumentalist Garvin Bushell (1902–1991) played the oboe in jazz bands as early as 1924 and used the instrument throughout his career, eventually recording with John Coltrane in 1961.

[32] Gil Evans featured oboe in sections of his famous Sketches of Spain collaboration with trumpeter Miles Davis.

Though primarily a tenor saxophone and flute player, Yusef Lateef was among the first (in 1961) to use the oboe as a solo instrument in modern jazz performances and recordings.

Composer and double bassist Charles Mingus gave the oboe a brief but prominent role (played by Dick Hafer) in his composition "I.X.

With the birth of jazz fusion in the late 1960s, and its continuous development through the following decade, the oboe became somewhat more prominent, replacing on some occasions the saxophone as the focal point.

The 1980s saw an increasing number of oboists try their hand at non-classical work, and many players of note have recorded and performed alternative music on oboe.

Some present-day jazz groups influenced by classical music, such as the Maria Schneider Orchestra, feature the oboe.