[1] The first dated reference to the oboe da caccia is 1722, when composer Johann Friedrich Fasch ordered "Waldhautbois" from Leipzig for the court at Zerbst.

As Bach had arrived in Leipzig just a month before, it seems hardly possible that he had been involved in developing the new instrument, even if one were to question the identity of the Waldhautbois a year earlier.

[4] The oboe da caccia was used only in the late Baroque period, after which it fell out of use until interest in authentic performance in the 20th century caused it to be revived.

Innovation was the watchword of the day, and antiquated instruments such as the oboe da caccia stood little chance of surviving (cf.

[citation needed] A curious note: according to Cecil Forsyth in his famous book on orchestration, Beethoven was the last composer to write a part for the oboe da caccia until modern times.

The da caccia sounds like none of the other members of the oboe family, and no other instrument may legitimately substitute for it—although the English horn is routinely used for this purpose.

Curt Sachs, in his Real-Lexicon der Musikinstrumente (1913), for example, included a crude and rather speculative drawing of an oboe da caccia.

The taille, a straight two-key oboe pitched in F, had previously been used for the da caccia parts in period-instrument recordings, with mixed results.

Modern-day makers of oboes da caccia include Sand Dalton[5] of Lopez Island, Washington, United States; Richard Earle and Tony Millyard in the UK; Marcel Ponseele in Belgium; Henri Gohin in France; and Joel Robinson in New York City.