Cor Anglais (English Horn): The Plaintive Tenor of the Oboe Family

Overview

The cor anglais (plural: cors anglais), or English horn (the more common name in North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially a tenor oboe in F. The instrument is a transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the oboe (which is in C); music for the cor anglais is therefore written a perfect fifth higher than it sounds.

The fingering and playing technique used for the cor anglais are essentially the same as those of the oboe, and oboists typically double on the cor anglais when required. The cor anglais normally lacks the lowest B key found on most oboes, so its sounding range stretches from E₃ (written B below middle C) to C₆ two octaves above middle C. Some versions include a Low B key that extends the range one note further down to sounding E₃.

The cor anglais is generally regarded as the alto member of the oboe family, with the oboe occupying the soprano role and the oboe d’amore (in A) the mezzo-soprano position between them. Its sound is perceived as more mellow and plaintive than the oboe’s — a difference that arises primarily from a wider reed and a conical bore that expands over a greater distance.

Origin and History

Despite its French name, which translates literally as “English horn,” the instrument is neither English in origin nor related to the brass horns (the French horn, the natural horn, the post horn or the tenor horn). It originated in Silesia about 1720, when a bulb-shaped bell was fitted to a curved oboe da caccia-type body by the Weigel family of Breslau. The two-keyed, open-belled, straight tenor oboe (French taille de hautbois, “tenor oboe”), and especially the flare-belled oboe da caccia, resembled the horns played by angels in medieval religious images. This gave rise in German-speaking central Europe to the Middle High German name engellisches Horn, meaning “angelic horn.” Because engellisch also meant “English” in the vernacular of the time, the “angelic horn” became the “English horn.” Even after the oboe da caccia fell into disuse around 1760, the curved, bulb-belled tenor oboe retained the name. The Italian form corno inglese and the French cor anglais are direct translations.

The earliest known orchestral part specifically for the instrument appears in the Vienna version of Niccolò Jommelli’s opera Ezio, dating from 1749. Gluck and Haydn followed suit in the 1750s, and the first English horn concertos were written in the 1770s. The Schwarzenberg Wind Harmonie of 1771 employed two cors anglais alongside two oboes, two bassoons and two horns; Johan Went was the first cor anglais and Ignaz Teimer the second. The first oboe trios were composed by Went for the Teimer brothers, and these original Bohemian/Viennese trios include some early examples of florid, virtuosic writing for the cor anglais. By the 19th century the instrument had become a standard member of the symphony orchestra, used principally for solo passages of pastoral, plaintive or melancholy character.

Construction and Materials

A modern cor anglais is built in much the same way as a modern oboe: a wooden body (typically grenadilla / African blackwood) with a system of silver-plated keys and a conical bore. Three features distinguish it visually and acoustically from the oboe. First, the instrument is notably longer. Second, the reed is attached not directly to the top joint but to a slightly curved metal tube called the bocal or crook, which adds the necessary length and angles the reed conveniently for the player. Third, the bell has a distinctive bulbous, pear shape known as the Liebesfuß (“love-foot”), shared with the related oboe d’amore. This bell is largely responsible for the instrument’s covered, veiled timbre.

The reed itself is similar in construction to an oboe reed but slightly larger, with a wider blade, and is mounted on a metal staple sized to fit the bocal. The wider reed and conical bore expansion give the instrument its darker, more melancholy tone.

Playing Technique

A modern cor anglais is fingered identically to the oboe, which is why oboists double on the instrument as a normal part of their professional skill set. The mouthpiece geometry is slightly different (the bocal positions the reed at a more comfortable angle), and the wider reed requires more air and a slightly more relaxed embouchure than an oboe.

The cor anglais is usually notated in the treble clef, a perfect fifth higher than sounding pitch. Alto clef written at sounding pitch is occasionally used, even by composers as late as Sergei Prokofiev. In late-18th- and early-19th-century Italy, where the instrument was often played by bassoonists rather than oboists, it was notated in the bass clef an octave below sounding pitch — a convention seen in Rossini’s overture to William Tell. French operatic composers up to Fromental Halévy notated the instrument at sounding pitch in the mezzo-soprano clef, which let the player read the part as if it were in the treble clef.

Although the standard instrument descends only to written low B, continental instruments with an extension to low B (sounding E) have existed since early in the 19th century. Examples of works requiring this note include Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Chôros No. 6, and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Zeitmaße. Antonín Dvořák, in his Scherzo capriccioso, even writes for the cor anglais down to low A, although it seems unlikely that such an extension ever existed.

Cultural Context

The cor anglais occupies a very specific expressive niche in Western orchestral music. Its tone — covered, slightly nasal, with a vocal “speaking” quality — has made it the orchestra’s instrument of choice for solos of pastoral nostalgia, distant melancholy, or solitary lament. Composers from Berlioz onward have used it for shepherd’s pipe scenes, for evocations of nature, and for moments where the orchestra needs an unmistakably individual, slightly melancholy voice that is neither as bright as the oboe nor as warm as the clarinet.

In the modern orchestra the player is normally a doubling oboist; many large orchestras designate one full-time member of the oboe section as principal cor anglais. The instrument is also used in concert bands and occasionally in chamber music and contemporary solo writing.

Notable Players and Examples

Famous orchestral solos for the cor anglais are among the most recognised orchestral colour passages in the repertoire. They include the opening of the Largo of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”), Sibelius’s The Swan of Tuonela (1893), the long shepherd’s solo at the opening of Act III of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the central solo in the slow movement of Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, and the prominent passages in Rossini’s William Tell overture and Franck’s Symphony in D minor.

Concertante works specifically for the instrument, although fewer than for many other woodwinds, include William Alwyn’s Autumn Legend for English horn and string orchestra (1954), Emmanuel Chabrier’s Lamento (1875), Aaron Copland’s Quiet City for trumpet, English horn and strings (1940), Gaetano Donizetti’s Concertino in G major (1816), Arthur Honegger’s Concerto da camera for flute, English horn and strings (1948), Gordon Jacob’s Rhapsody (1948), Aaron Jay Kernis’s Colored Field (1994), James MacMillan’s The World’s Ransoming (1995–96), Walter Piston’s Fantasy (1952), Ned Rorem’s Concerto (1992), Pēteris Vasks’s Concerto (1989), and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s Concertino in A, Op. 34 (1947). Important chamber works include Beethoven’s Trio for two oboes and English horn, Op. 87 (1795), Hindemith’s Sonata for English Horn and Piano (1941), and Elliott Carter’s Pastoral (1940).

Comparison with Related Instruments

In the oboe family the cor anglais sits between the oboe (soprano, in C) and the bass oboe / heckelphone (bass), with the oboe d’amore (in A) as a closely related mezzo-soprano. All four share fundamentally the same fingering system, the same conical bore principle, and the same double-reed mechanism, but they differ in pitch, bore profile and bell shape.

Compared with the bassoon, the cor anglais is brighter and more focused; the bassoon uses a different fingering system, a separate bocal-and-folded-tube layout, and produces a much weightier, less penetrating sound. Compared with the lower-pitched clarinet family members, the cor anglais is more nasal, more vocal in its phrasing, and more strongly identified with melancholy solo writing; the clarinet-family instruments cover a similar register but use a single reed and a cylindrical bore, producing a smoother, more even tone across the registers. The result is that, despite a crowded mid-low woodwind register, the cor anglais retains an unmistakable, irreplaceable orchestral identity.