The Woodwind Family

"Woodwind" is a looser grouping than the string family - these four instruments don't share one common mechanism so much as a common history (most were originally made of wood) and orchestral role. Each produces sound differently, which is exactly why the family offers such a wide range of distinct tone colors rather than four variations on one sound.

How each one makes its sound

The flute makes sound by splitting a stream of air across an edge, the same basic principle as blowing across the top of a bottle, and has no reed at all. (Modern flutes are usually made of metal, but the flute is still a woodwind because of how it works.) The oboe and bassoon use a double reed - two thin pieces of cane vibrating against each other - producing a more pointed, nasal tone. The clarinet uses a single reed vibrating against a fixed mouthpiece, giving it a smoother, more rounded sound than its double-reed relatives.

On all of them, the player changes pitch by opening and closing holes along the body, mostly through a system of metal keys - which make it possible to play quickly and in tune across the whole range.

The extended family

Each main woodwind has relatives, and a larger orchestra often includes some of them:

• Piccolo - a half-size flute, the highest instrument in the orchestra, bright enough to cut through everything.
• English horn (cor anglais) - a lower, mellower oboe; despite the name, it's neither English nor a horn.
• E-flat and bass clarinets - a shrill little clarinet and a deep, velvety big one.
• Contrabassoon - the bassoon's giant cousin, reaching some of the lowest notes in the orchestra.

The saxophone, invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s, is a woodwind too (it uses a single reed), but it never became a regular orchestra member - though it has some famous moments, including a solo in Ravel's Boléro.

In the orchestra

The woodwinds sit in rows behind the strings, usually in pairs or threes of each instrument. Each section has a principal player, who takes most of the solos - and woodwinds get many of the orchestra's most exposed, characterful solos. Before every concert, it's the oboe that sounds the "A" the whole orchestra tunes to, because its clear, steady tone is easy to hear.

Because of their variety, woodwind writing tends to exploit contrast: composers frequently pass a melody between flute, oboe, and clarinet in turn specifically to hear how the same musical line changes character across the different timbres.

How the section grew

Baroque orchestras commonly used oboes and bassoons, often doubling the strings, with flutes and recorders for special color. The clarinet was the latecomer, arriving in the orchestra in the Classical era - Mozart was one of its first great champions. In the 19th century, improved key systems made the instruments far more agile and reliable, and Romantic composers expanded the section with piccolo, English horn, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon. The wind quintet - flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn, as in the photo above - became the standard woodwind chamber group.

Famous woodwind moments

• Oboe - the main theme of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
• Flute - the opening of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.
• Clarinet - the swooping opening of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
• Bassoon - the eerie, high opening of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.
• English horn - the slow-movement melody of Dvořák's "New World" Symphony.

Where to start listening: Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf assigns each character a different instrument - the bird a flute, the duck an oboe, the cat a clarinet, the grandfather a bassoon - making it one of the clearest, most direct introductions to telling the family's voices apart.