Oboe c. 1780 - 1800

Here stands an oboe crafted by Christoph Delusse. Consider the oboe as a symbolic vessel—a mediator between the musician’s breath and the air that carries the music. This reminds me of the ancient Greek aulos. Like the oboe, the aulos was not merely an instrument but a conduit, believed to invoke powerful emotional and psychological responses. In both instruments, the breath becomes sound, linking the personal and the universal. The keys and carefully crafted holes of this oboe resemble the precision of mathematical instruments, tools of navigation used to map the stars and traverse the seas. They give order to chaos, transforming a simple wooden tube into a device capable of producing complex melodies. Perhaps it is the desire to give order to the world that has driven musicians and instrument makers to create tools of such profound expressive capability, reminding us of humanity's ability to transform the mundane into something transcendent.