Contrabass oboe Contrabass oboe The contrabass oboe is a double reed woodwind instrument in the key of C or F, sounding two octaves or an octave and a fourth (respectively) lower than the standard oboe. Current research, in particular that by hautboy specialist Bruce Haynes, suggests that such instruments may have been developed in France as part of an original attempt to maintain the complete family of double reed instruments when the oboe was created from the shawm. There was an instrument referred to as the basse de cromorne or basse de hautbois which was used by Lully, Charpentier, and other French
Oboe rather than other instruments of the family, such as the "bass oboe", the "cor anglais" (English horn), or oboe "d'amore" In English, prior to 1770, the standard instrument was called a "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy" ( ; borrowed from the French name, a compound word made of "haut" ["high", "loud"] and "bois" ["wood", "woodwind"]). The spelling of "oboe" was adopted into English c. 1770 from the Italian "oboè", a transliteration of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French name. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. Today, the oboe is commonly used in concert bands, orchestras, chamber