Why Does the Oboe Tune the Orchestra?

This oboe thing is pretty important, but why?

A while back we explored why the orchestra generally tunes to an A at 440 Hz, sometimes 442 Hz, and, for the conspiracy theorists among us, 432 Hz. More often than not the oboe sounds that A. But there are several competing ideas as to why that is.

 

Searching for an answer yields some frustrating results, in part because, as Delta State University Professor and author Bret Pimentel wrote on his blog, you get a lot of inconclusive information about what makes the oboe so special. This short piece from Yamaha acknowledges that some believe the oboe’s pitch is so stable that it makes all the sense in the world to tune to it. But at the same time, some authors disagree and contend that it is so unstable that other musicians need to adjust for its shortcomings. They believe the oboe is subject to changes in atmospheric conditions (like temperature or humidity), meaning that as the room gets warmer, the instrument’s pitch will get sharper. Still others argue that its penetrating tone is what makes it the perfect candidate for head tuner. But Pimentel points out several flaws in these reasons: For example, if we’re trying to look for the most stable pitch in the orchestra, why not turn to a tuned percussion instrument like the glockenspiel? And if the oboe is the tuner-in-chief because its sound is so penetrating, why not choose the trumpet or piccolo? 

Tradition plays a role as well — the instrument has been a staple of the orchestra since the Baroque era, so the relative latecomers fell into line behind it. The Rockford Symphony Orchestra (Illinois) puts forth that explanation (although they also stand behind the “stable tone” theory): “The first orchestras (in the late 1600s) were mainly string instruments. A pair of oboes was sometimes used to strengthen the first and second violin parts … Other instruments drifted in and out of the orchestra … before its instrumentation became relatively standardized as we know it today. But oboes were almost always present, so they became the standard instrument for tuning.” The oboe has a kind of orchestral birthright — apparently, even when electronic tuners are involved, it’s up to the principal oboist to operate it.

There’s one more observation worth pointing out, and it's a throwback to the 19th century. In 1881, Dr. W.H. Stone delivered a lecture to what is now the Royal Academy of Music in which he attempted to explain the trend of “rises in orchestra pitch.” Rather than alterations in humidity or temperature, he believed changes in an oboe’s pitch were due to a weakening embouchure. “It is a most delicate and difficult instrument,” he argued. “The lip has to be most carefully maintained, otherwise the instrument is liable to go far away from the pitch to a degree not due to the physical [atmospheric] causes I am speaking of.” 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a universal orchestra rulebook that outlines exactly why the oboe gets this job, and if it is just a tradition after all, it’s a fair one. As Dr. Stone pointed out, it takes a lot of work to play the oboe in tune — and honestly, if your mouth were to become that uncomfortable after extended playing, we’d bet you’d want some leadership rights too.