h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank you, Elly & Gnomon, for an informative and highly readable piece. I liked your selection of examples of music. My younger daughter played the oboe for a while ... I would have to agree with your descriptions of insanity, fainting and reed stress! .

Than you again - a lovely read!

You're welcome. Elly did all the work. I just tidied it up a bit and provided a few sentences.

New to H2G2 today and am slowly finding my way around. I guess it is fair to say I stumbled my way here, but thought it was a thoroughly good 'reed' when I arrived.

I played the oboe in my youth and now I look back on it - your player description is probably not far from how I would describe me at the time! Scary. Perhaps things have changed since my youth but I think things like the fainting thing should be pointed out to beginners. Another problem is not paying attention and missing your mouth (childhood coordination thing perhaps) - dang those reeds were painfull and dangerous.

Thanks for the interesting read though.

thanks for a very interesting and easy to understand article.

I play the Oboe myself, and i have always thought it a shame that many people have no idea what the Oboe is. I have to explain what the oboe is to many people who after telling them what instrument i play say, "What's that?". In future i will just refer them to this article, as it explains the oboe alot better than i ever can.

I have never had the experiance of fainting when playing (or trying to play the oboe) as i would stop if i started to get light headed, which was usually only in a room that had no verntilation, like a basement where i had oboe lessons at one stage.

thanks again

P.S i agree with Cimorosa being a brilliant Oboe piece, though i also think that Romance and Humouresque (cant remember spelling) by Carl Neilson are brilliant too.