A woodwind quartet is a musical group made up of four woodwind players. Common instruments in a woodwind quartet include a bassoon and a clarinet. as well as a flute and an oboe. A quartet may also involve other instruments, like saxophones and brass instruments. Woodwind quartets are sometimes simply called wind quartets.
Less common than its slightly more populous cousin, the woodwind quintet, the woodwind quartet usually has four woodwind instruments, but lacks a French horn. Though it may seem confusing, a French horn usually makes up the fifth member of a woodwind quintet, even though it is not a woodwind instrument. More musical compositions have been designed for a woodwind quintet than a woodwind quartet.
Woodwinds are essentially instruments that get their sound from wood. In clarinets, oboes, and bassoons, a piece of wood called a reed makes a sound. Flutes, though metal, are categorized as woodwinds because they were originally fabricated from wood.
The instruments in a woodwind quartet usually have different ranges that allow for rich harmonies with high and low tones. The highest-pitched instrument in a woodwind quartet is usually a piccolo, which is a tiny, shrill flute with a high register that can reach more than four octaves above middle C. Some quartets use a flute instead of a piccolo, which has high limits at least an octave lower than the piercing piccolo.
Middle and low tones are an important part of the rich harmonies that come from a wind quartet. The instruments that hold down the middle and low ends of this type of group are generally the clarinet, the oboe, and the bassoon. An oboe uses breath vibrations over a hollow reed to produce its sound.
The useful range of an oboe in a woodwind quartet tops out about two octaves above middle C. Clarinets sound from a few notes below middle C to two octaves above it. On the bassy end of the harmonies, the low parts of a woodwind quartet are usually handled by a bassoon, which can sound notes as deep as two octaves below middle C.
Middle C is the C note located at the center of an 88-key piano. Since it is at the center of the range used in most music, it is a common reference point employed by musicians and composers describing range, or which notes an instrument is capable of playing. Though an instrument's range is relatively set, the range of an instrument is incluenced by the skill of the musician playing the instrument. A highly skilled musician might be able to extend the range of an instrument beyond its normal capability, while a beginning instrumentalist may have difficulty hitting notes within the common range of the instrument.