English Horn
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English Horn Lessons
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The cor anglais, or English horn, is a
double reed
woodwind
musical instrument in the
oboe
family.
It is a
transposing instrument pitched in F, a fifth lower than the oboe
(a C instrument), and is consequently approximately one-third longer.
The fingering and playing technique used for the cor anglais are
essentially the same as those of the oboe. Its sounding range
stretches from the E (or, rarely, E flat) below
middle C to the C two octaves above middle C.
Its pear-shaped bell gives it a somewhat more nasal, covered
timbre
than that of the oboe, being closer in tone quality to the
oboe d'amore. Whereas the oboe is the soprano instrument of the
oboe family, the cor anglais is generally regarded as the alto member
of the family, and the
oboe d'amore, pitched between the two in the key of A, is the
mezzo-soprano member. It is perceived to have a more mellow and
more plaintive tone than the oboe. Its appearance differs from the
oboe in that the reed is attached to a slightly bent metal tube called
the bocal,
or crook, and the bell has a bulbous shape.
Reeds used to play the cor anglais are similar to those used for an
oboe, comprising a piece of cane folded in two. Although the
instrument itself is longer, a cor anglais reed is shorter than that
of an oboe reed, and also slightly wider. Where the cane on an oboe
reed is connected to a small metal tube (the staple) partially covered
in cork, there is no such cork on a cor anglais reed, which fits metal
against metal onto the bocal, in a manner not dissimilar to the
bassoon.
The instrument can range in price from about US$1500 to $9000.[1]
The term "cor anglais" literally means "English horn", but the cor
anglais is neither
English
nor a
horn. The instrument's name is sometimes supposed to derive from
the circumstance that at some point a standard cor anglais resembled
an
oboe da caccia, a baroque alto instrument of the oboe family,
which tended to be either bent or curved in shape, and was thus called
a cor anglé, meaning "bent horn" (it has a flaring brass bell
similar to that of a horn and looks quite horn-like), this epithet
later to be corrupted to cor anglais. The cor anglais and the
oboe da caccia are otherwise quite unlike, however, and there is no
clear connection between them. It has alternatively been suggested
that the name of "anglehorn" developed as a reference to the the
English horn bocal, a part which is not present in most of the smaller
members of the oboe family. However, the name seems to have appeared
first in German and Austrian scores of the 1760s/70s, always in
Italian form as "corno inglese." Prior to this, in the late Baroque
period
Johann Sebastian Bach referred to a similar double reed instrument
pitched in F as taille.
There are few solo pieces for the instrument, although its timbre
makes it well suited to the performance of expressive, melancholic
solos in
orchestral works (particularly slow movements) as well as operas.
In film scores, the cor anglais is heard as a solo instrument as
frequently (if not more) than the oboe, most likely because of its
rounder
tone quality. In addition to classical music, the cor anglais has
also been used by a few musicians as a jazz instrument; most prominent
among these are
Paul McCandless,
Sonny Simmons,
Vinny Golia, and
Tom Christensen. Also Nancy Rumbel of Grammy winning Tingstad and
Rumbel. The cor anglais also figures in the instrumental arrangements
of several
Carpenters songs, most notably "For All We Know" (1971). It has
also made some appearances in pop music, such as in Lindisfarne's "Run
For Home" and Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away".
