Taille (instrument)

This article is about the instrument. For the voice part, see baritenore.

The taille, also called the taille de hautbois or the alto oboe, was a Baroque alto oboe pitched in F. It had a straight body, an open bell, and two keys.^[1]

A model of the classical taille

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 sound 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.^[2][1][3][4]

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.^[4]

The term was also later applied to any instrument that played the tenor part in an orchestra, e.g. the tenor viol or viola.^[1]