Instruments - Part 26

 Oboe

The ancestor of the oboe was the shawm, a double-reed woodwind instrument that was popular in the medieval and Renaissance periods.  We've previously seen the painting above, part of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1500, in which the guy in the center has a recorder stuck up his ass.  The large instrument on his back running diagonally across the picture is a shawm.

This is Nude Study of a Seated Youth with Shawm by Julies Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1822.

This is Nude Shepherd Boy Playing a Shawm by Hans Thoma, 1897.  By this time, the shawm had long been obsolete.  In the 17th century, the modern oboe appeared, but it was called the hautbois (French for "high wood").  In French, hautbois is pronounced OH-BWAH, and in English the name got corrupted into oboe.

Above is a modern oboe.  The principal difference between the shawm and the oboe is that in the oboe, the two reeds that produce the sound are completely outside the instrument.  The reeds are in direct contact with the player's lips.  The position of the player's lips and tongue, called embouchure, is extremely important and has a huge effect on the sound of the instrument.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find any other photos of nude oboe players.  However, the phrase "pink oboe" is a slang term for the penis, and I found a couple of pink-oboe-related videos that I think you'll like.  The video above was described as a concerto for pink oboe.  I added the accompanying music from the three movements of Mozart's oboe concerto.

We close with a video demonstrating the critical importance of embouchure, or the position of the lips and tongue, when playing the oboe.  In this video, a guy named Tony is playing the pink oboe of Dan Fisk.  This video shows closeup views of Tony's embouchure.  Pay attention, and you, too, can become an expert oboe player.

I added the accompanying music from the slow movement of the violin concerto by Samuel Barber.  Although it's a violin concerto, the slow movement starts with this gorgeous passage for oboe, in my opinion among the most beautiful music ever written.  So, ravishing music by a great American gay composer for a scene of gay ravishment.

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If you're an unashamed male and you have nude photos of yourself or your male buddies playing a musical instrument (not necessarily the pink oboe) that you would allow me to use in my blog, please email them to unashamedmale@gmail.com. I'll keep you anonymous if you want. Don't send photos that you found on the Internet. It's you I'm interested in! Thanks. -Larry