Oboe da caccia

Oboe da caccia (It.: oboe of the hunt), 18th-c. woodwind instr. concerning which little is known. The term itself seems to be an Italianization of the Ger. “Jagd-Hautbois,” of which Zedler's Universal-Lexicon (1735) writes that it was used during the hunt, and in the mornings and evenings to play for the chief master of the hunt. Strangely enough, the instr. is not mentioned in the literature of the hunt. The terms Wald-Hautbois, hautbois de chasse, hautbois de forêt presumably apply to the…