English Horn
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The English Horn, or cor anglais is a large oboe with a distinctive, bulging bell. This odd-shaped bell gives the instrument a rich, warm sound that is well suited to long, slow melodies. It has the same keywork as the oboe but plays notes of a lower pitch. The low notes of the English horn are often featured in solo orchestral passages.
| Family |
| Woodwinds |
| Pitch range |
| Two-and-a-half octaves. |
| Material |
| African blackwood (a hard, dense wood from Central Africa or Madagascar), with a metal bocal. |
| Size |
| 32 in (81 cm) long. |
| Origins |
| The English horn was developed from the tenor oboe, which played in military bands and other music. |
| Classification |
| Aerophone: an instrument that produces its sound by the vibration of a column of air. |
| And also... |
| The English horn, or cor anglais, is unusually named since it is neither English nor a horn. "Anglais" (the French word for "English") probably derives from "anglé" (French for "bent") because the early instruments were curved. |
