Cor anglais
Alto oboe in F with a pear-shaped bell (bulb bell).
What it means
The cor anglais, or English horn, is an alto oboe in F, that is, a transposing instrument whose actual pitch sounds a perfect fifth lower than the written note. Its characteristic pear-shaped bell, known as the bulb bell, gives the instrument a warmer, darker, and more melancholic tone than the oboe.
Musical use
Despite its name, the cor anglais is neither English nor a horn, but a development of the Baroque oboe da caccia; the name likely arose from a folk reinterpretation of the French “cor anglé” (angled horn), referring to the instrument's formerly angled shape. In the orchestra, the cor anglais often takes expressive solo passages of a wistful character, as in Antonín Dvořák's symphony “From the New World” or Hector Berlioz's “Symphonie fantastique.”
The cor anglais should be distinguished from the ordinary oboe, which sounds higher, does not transpose, and has a brighter tone, and from the bassoon, which, despite also having a double reed, lies much lower and has an entirely different construction. It differs fundamentally from true horns, that is, brass instruments with a cup mouthpiece, since it is a woodwind instrument with a double reed.
Performance practice
On the cor anglais, practise controlling embouchure tension especially carefully, since its larger, softer reed requires somewhat different lip tension and breath support than the oboe. Use the instrument's characteristic warm tone deliberately for long, singing melodic lines, where its distinctive sound comes across most clearly.