the.com/english horn
Neither English nor a horn, just an oboe that grew taller and moodier.
means A woodwind instrument in the oboe family, larger and pitched lower than the standard oboe, with a warm, melancholy tone and a distinctive bulb-shaped bell.
from The name is a tangle of mistranslation. The instrument was likely called 'cor anglé' in French — 'angled horn,' for the bent shape of early versions — which got misheard or misread as 'cor anglais,' meaning 'English horn,' though it has nothing to do with England. Another theory points to the German 'engellisches Horn,' 'angelic horn,' which sounds nearly identical to 'englisches Horn,' 'English horn.' Either way, the 'English' is almost certainly an accident, and 'horn' is generous for what is really an oboe.
- name lie
- Likely a mistranslation of French cor anglais
- the bend
- Earliest versions were curved like a hunting horn
- bulb finish
- Its pear-shaped bell mellows the sound
- famous solo
- Dvorak's New World Symphony made it weep
- lower pitch
- Sounds a fifth below the oboe