Oboe d'Amore Italian Oboe d'Amour English/French Hautbois d'Amour French

Irwin lists this stop with the following description:

A soft imitative Reed stop of 8' on the manuals, resembling the Oboe or Orchestral Oboe in tonality, although this stop has a delicate, piquant timbre not heard in other Oboe varieties. Its plaintive, thin tone is useful in solo playing and for soft ensembles of light Reed stops.

Audsley describes it thus:

The orchestral instrument of this name ... has a “tone more veiled and pathetic than that of the ordinary orchestral Oboe.” This tone is due to the different form of its bell, which is globular with a somewhat contracted opening, contrasting with the flaring bell of the ordinary Oboe. This fact leads to the construction of an organ-stop, having resonators formed with the slender tubes of the Oboe surmounted by small bells, in the shape of two truncated cones soldered together at their bases, after the fashion of those of the Corno di Bassetto.

Wedgwood lists it as a synonym for Echo Oboe

Examples

Oboe d'Amore 8', Choir; St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA; Austin 1925.

Oboe d'Amour 8', Main Swell; Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA; Kilgen 1930.

Sound Clips

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Bibliography