The Woodwind Family

 The normal orchestra will have two (2) of each of the following: Flutes, oboes, Bb clarinets and bassoons. However, sometime a small orchestra such as a school or community band might have an unusual combination of the above.

I personally have conducted orchestras with no oboes or bassoons, but many flutes and clarinets. The bass clarinet is common and often used to replace the bassoon. The baritone saxophone is another instrument that might be used to replace or augment a bass part.

The French horn is often thought of as a part of the woodwind family, though it is really part of the brass. In a small orchestra there may be no horns but saxophones replacing the horn part, and these latter instruments are more easily thought of as part of the woodwind group, but we will come to them later.

The Flute

Within the flute group there is the piccolo, the ‘C’ flute, and the alto flute in G. There is a bass flute but we will not be discussing it in this unit of study.

The most common is the concert flute or ‘C’ flute. It has the following range:

The very top few notes are difficult to play and should only be used as part of the conclusion to a loud ascending scale.

The lower six notes of the flute, from middle C to A are very sonorous and beautiful.

 This area of the flute is good for solos but lacks penetrating power and thus should always have only the minimum accompaniment because it is easily smothered the timbre of other instruments when in this range.

From the A to the A above the stave the flute is most suitable for subtle melodies, as long as the accompanying background allows the flute to sing through.

From the A above the stave and upwards the flute moves into its most distinctive, silver, clear and penetrating timbre. In this range it is most suitable for doubling (at the octave higher) other parts such as the violins, other woodwinds and even the trumpet. The instrument is capable of great dexterity and can perform scales, arpeggios, fast staccatos and smooth legato passages. It can trill on any two notes except those of the semitones beside its lowest two notes.

It can do much more besides this such as multiphonics, key clicks and flutter-tonguing, but these are outside the scope of this document.

The Piccolo is a mini flute with the following range, however it sounds an octave higher than written, thus it is technically a transposing instrument.

This instrument can sound piercingly shrill in its upper register and will need a lot of supporting accompaniment to warrant its use in this register. Mostly it is used to double other instruments an octave higher, thus giving them a silver edge. Combined piccolos on a melody or obbligato can sound very happy and whistle-like. This is how they are often used in marching military bands and arrangements. Like the flute it is very nimble.

The Oboe

The oboe has a written range of Bb below middle C to a high G above the stave.

It is a hard instrument to play and the performer will appreciate some rests in their part. As a double-reed instrument it can have a rather biting, nasal timbre when played by a beginner, however, a good player is capable of great sensitivity and expression. Notes above the A above the stave begin to sound uncomfortable and must be used with care. Mostly it is used to play melodies, especially across the range of the treble clef stave and reaching up to the A above the stave.

Like the flute it can be very nimble and it is often used by composers to throw fragments of motif from it to the flute and clarinet in interplay of exchanged ideas, such as birdcalls and bird-like twitterings.

Because of its strength of tone, it is to be used with care in a block harmony unless it is part of a much larger ensemble. Better to use the clarinet for chords.

The Clarinet

The Bb clarinet is the most common, though most professional players will have an A clarinet (as well as a bass clarinet and a few saxophones). The clarinet is a transposing instrument and the written C of a Bb clarinet sounds as Bb (a whole tone lower then). Therefore you will have to write their entire parts one (1) note higher than the one you want to hear. The A clarinet transposes up a minor 3^rd.

Why the two different clarinets? Simply put, write for the Bb in all flat keys and for the A in all sharp keys. The written range for the clarinet is from E below middle C (sounding a note higher – F#) up to very high C (Bb).

The lowest octave can sound very sonorous, dark and dire. It is very effect for scary passages and accented sf notes as well as long notes that rise and fall in dynamics. The clarinet is an excellent instrument for solos as long as you do not venture into its upper-most register above high E above the stave. When writing solos try to avoid repetitive turning phrases in the lower half of the stave, F through to Bb as this part of the instrument is difficult and lacks interest.

The clarinet is very good for arpeggios and scales and melodies that move through the whole stave are fine; it is –like the flute- most agile and nimble, it can cover large intervallic leaps easily and is often used by arrangers for accompanying broken-chords and harmonization in 3rds and 6ths. Stay away from using trills on the lower two F#s and the C# above middle C.

The Bass Clarinet

The Bass clarinet is a larger instrument and sounds an octave and a tone (a 9^th) lower than written – this is the same transposition as the tenor saxophone. It can do most things that a normal clarinet can do, but is mostly used as a bass.

The Bassoon

The bassoon is a concert-pitch double-reed instrument with a written range of 

You will notice that the bassoon uses both bass and tenor clefs, the latter being employed for the higher register passages in which the bassoon can sound very lyrical. The bassoon can be a most effective melodic instrument when doubled by another woodwind instrument an octave or two above, however, but the usual work for the bassoon is to be a bass instrument.

The bassoons when blended with the clarinets can have a quality similar to French horns when used in a soft harmonic passage. Like other woodwind instruments it is very flexible and nimble and can sound quite comic when given staccato lines.

Other instruments that are part of the woodwind group are the Alto flute in G, The high Eb Clarinet, the Cor Anglais (which is a large oboe sounding a 5^th lower than written) and the Contra-bassoon. These are beyond the scope of this document but there is a great deal of good information about these available from the Internet.