Hi all

Havent been around for a while so dont know if this has been covered I apologise in advance if it has .

Recently took up the oboe (6mths) and am now part of a oboe trio. We could probably manage something of intermediate standard ie upto about grade 5/6 standard, we do not have a cor anglais unfortunately which seems to narrow the field down slightly. My understanding is that saxaphone music may also be a suitable alternative (but maybe the more experienced oboists can enlighten me further) as well as flute, but we have loads of flute trios already and most are to high or advanced for our level of playing. So any suggestions greatfully received

I have played mainly trios for two oboes + piano or cello - I assume by oboe trio, you mean 3 oboes.

There are some pieces for three oboes in E. Rothwell's Difficult passages from Bach book but I can't think of anything else that I have on my shelves for this combination.

Sax pieces can be played on oboe but my understanding is that sax trios will almost always include several different types of sax in the one piece so that they are no use to an oboe trio.

You could try looking on June Emerson's website - she has a search option for different numbers of oboes and she is also very helpful if you have questions about anything that the search option turns up.

Some small publishers who publish specifically for oboe ensembles of various sizes (including trios) are:
Wonderful winds
http://www.wonderfulwinds.com

Phylloscopus
http://www.phylloscopus.co.uk/

oops yes I did mean 3 oboes .

will have at look at your suggestions, the problem is knowing which ones are suitable as you cant view them online. Although wonderful winds is good for this and can also listen to them

June Emerson is very helpful. I was looking for oboe/clarinet duets for my daughter and her friend and the June Emerson website brought up a selection of titles but, as you say, I had no idea which were suitable. I sent her an e-mail explaining what I was looking for, the level of my daughter and her friend and she described in some detail the contents of the two books which she thought were most likely to be suitable and on the basis of this I chose one which has turned out to be exactly what we wanted.

Otherwise your teachers may have something. I do know that my teacher is not overkeen on oboe trios (ie three oboes and no cors) because of intonation problems and because the oboe doesn't have a particularly wide range so the three players are playing "one on top of the other" (compare the oboes range to that of a clarinet, or a French horn for example).

The June Emerson website is the most helpful I have found of the on-line music shops as it allows easy searches by instrument or group. It is easy to show "oboe trios" but each item then shows whether it is 2 oboes plus cor or 2 oboes plus flute or 3 oboes. The skill level can be found from the information link, but translates as A = grade 1/2, B = 3/4, C = 5, etc.

Personal assistance is even better, but I bet the staff are really adept at using the online system.

(I did try to post the link, but the Forum system doesn't want to show it for some reason, maybe because the full URL is rather long! )

I'd agree... and I imagine you won't find much oboe trio repertoire for that very reason, sjc.

You could try recorder trios, of which there are loads and loads, which can be played on three oboes.