A woodwind instrument formerly much in use it had evolved from the Shawm into the hautboy and then the oboe.

Family of Instruments: The Oboe belongs to the family of Woodwind instruments.

Medieval Musical Instruments - Oboe
Medieval Musical instruments, including the Oboe, would be used by the musicians of the period including the Waits, Minstrels or Troubadours. There were three categories of musical instruments in the Middle Ages - wind, string and percussion. Terms of description were Bas instruments and Haut instruments. Bas referred to soft instruments (literally, "low," but referring to volume, not pitch) which were suitable for the chamber which included the vielle, rebec and other bowed strings, the lute and other plucked strings. Haut referred to loud instruments (literally "high" but referring to volume, not to pitch) which were suitable for outdoors which included the shawm, sackbut, pipe and tabor.