What is "oboe d'amore"

Oboe \O"boe\, n. [It., fr. F. hautbois. See Hautboy.] (Mus.) One of the higher wind instruments in the modern orchestra, yet of great antiquity, having a penetrating pastoral quality of tone, somewhat like the clarinet in form, but more slender, and sounded by means of a double reed; a hautboy.

Oboe d'amore [It., lit., oboe of love], and Oboe di caccia [It., lit., oboe of the chase], are names of obsolete modifications of the oboe, often found in the scores of Bach and Handel.

n. An instrument in the oboe family, pitched in A below middle C.

n. a oboe pitched a minor third lower than the ordinary oboe; used to perform baroque music

The (; Italian for "oboe of love"), less commonly , is a double reed woodwind musical instrument in the oboe family. Slightly larger than the oboe, it has a less assertive and a more tranquil and serene tone, and is considered the mezzo-soprano of the oboe family, between the oboe ( soprano) and the cor anglais, or English horn ( alto). It is a transposing instrument, sounding a minor third lower than it is notated, i.e. in A. The bell is pear-shaped and the instrument uses a bocal, similar to the larger cor anglais, whose bocal is larger.