Woodwind Instruments

by

Albert R. Rice

Introduction

Western woodwind instruments are wind instruments (aerophanes) made of wood or metal and include the recorder, flute, flageolet, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, bagpipe, and their family members. The orchestral and band instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone) were developed in Europe during the 17th through the 19th centuries, although ancient examples of related instruments were played in Egypt as early as 2700 BCE. Less evidence has been found for the use of the bagpipe in ancient Greece, and the earliest clear depictions in pictures and carvings appear during the 1200s in England. The earliest extant recorders date from the 1300s, found in Germany and the Netherlands. Bagpipes and recorders were dispersed to various areas of the world from the 1300s, as were flutes, flageolets, oboes, and bassoons from the late 1600s; clarinets from the early 1800s; and saxophones from the late 1800s. Bagpipes have the greatest variety of forms developed in many different countries and regions. Other European woodwinds developed during the 18th and 19th centuries are the piccolo, alto flute, bass flute, English horn, bass oboe, Heckelphone, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contra bass clarinet, and contra bassoon. Woodwinds developed after 1500 and extinct instruments include flute d’amour, csakan, oboe d’amour, oboe da caccia, bass oboe, shawm, crumhorn, sarrusophone, rothphone, reed contrabass, contrabassophone, chalumeau, clarinet d’amour, fagottino, and curtal. This annotated bibliography addresses a range of woodwind-related subjects.

General Overviews

These sources provide definitions of most types of instruments, overviews of instrument families, and extended articles on specific instruments and instrument makers. A useful general dictionary by instrument name is Baines 1992. When the name of an instrument is not known, a useful guide by shape arranged in general categories is Musical Instruments of the World. For more specific topics, some of the most useful sources are found in specific articles on instruments, makers, or cities found in the three-volume encyclopedia in the New Grove series: Sadie 1984. Oxford Music Online includes Grove Music Online, an expansion of the printed New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. This is a very useful and up-to-date online source including extensive articles on instruments, makers, manufacturers, cities, and historical periods. Photos and commentary about a variety of instruments can be found in Čížek 2003. Explanations of woodwind mechanisms and schematic drawings of various types of woodwinds are available in Voorhees 2003. Students will benefit from the detailed discussion in Nettl, et al. 1998–2002, which is arranged by countries.

• Baines, Anthony. The Oxford Companion to Musical Instruments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

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  A useful alphabetical listing of all types of instruments including many photos, line drawings, and musical examples. Baines’s informative definitions include detailed drawings of mechanisms and fingering charts.

• Čížek, Bohuslav. Instruments de Musique. Translated by C. Boiffin. Encyclopédie Illustrée. Paris: Gründ, 2003.

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  A French translation of an illustrated Czech encyclopedia with vivid color photos, drawings, and reproductions from artwork. Each chapter begins with a short introduction. Most instruments photographed are from the Narodni Museum in Prague; many are rare or highly decorated.

• Diagram Group, ed. Musical Instruments of the World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Sterling, 1997.

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  A useful and comprehensive encyclopedia with more than four thousand drawings organized according to the Hornbostel and Sachs classification system. It is particularly helpful in identifying instruments from various countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Indonesia, and Oceania.

• Finscher, L., ed. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik. 2d ed. 27 vols. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1994–2007.

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  A comprehensive German encyclopedia with entries on instruments and prominent makers. The first ten volumes are arranged by subject (Sachteil); the next seventeen are biographical (Personenteil).

• Grove Music Online.

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  An expanded version of S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., 29 vols. (London: Macmillan, 2001). A comprehensive dictionary including instruments and prominent makers. The online version allows for later corrections and additions by the authors.

• Nettl, B., R.M. Stone, J. Porter, and T. Rice, eds. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. 10 vols. New York: Garland, 1998–2002.

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  An extensive source covering music and musical instruments worldwide. Includes CDs. It is also available online by subscription.

• Sadie, S., ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. 3 vols. London: Macmillan, 1984.

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  A comprehensive dictionary of all types of musical instruments and many makers.

• Voorhees, Jerry L. The Development of Woodwind Fingering Systems in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Hammond, LA: Jerry L. Voorhees, 2003.

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  Arranged in three parts: Acoustics and Keys, Specific Mechanisms, and Diagrams. The diagrams are of various examples of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone. They are extremely helpful in explaining how many complicated mechanisms operate.