Taille (instrument)


The taille, also called the taille de hautbois or the alto oboe, was a Baroque tenor oboe pitched in F. It had a straight body, an open bell, and two keys.
The instrument was first used in Alcidiane by Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1658 and in French ensembles known as the bandes de hautbois, in which it played the inner lines of polyphonic compositions. J.S. Bach employed it when a low-pitched oboe was needed to double the viola parts in several of his cantatas, but almost exclusively in movements of a jubilant or otherwise loud nature due to its having had a more piercing sound than that of the cor anglais.
Today, the instrument is rare outside period ensembles, and a cor anglais is commonly substituted. However, the period-instrument movement has seen a revival of the taille, with a number of makers now producing reproductions of classic examples.
The term was also later applied to any instrument that played the tenor part in an orchestra.