Cor anglais
woodwind musical instrument / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The cor anglais, or English horn, is a double reed instrument in the woodwind family. It is very similar to an oboe, but as it is longer than an oboe it plays lower notes.
The lowest note of an oboe is B flat (just below Middle C). The lowest note of a cor anglais is an E natural, a diminished fifth (five notes of a scale, minus a semitone) lower than the oboe's lowest note.
The cor anglais is a transposing instrument pitched in F. This means that the music sounds a fifth lower than written. This has the advantage that the cor anglais player uses fingering as if he were playing an oboe, but it will sound a fifth lower.
The bell (the bit at the end of the instrument) is shaped like a pear. This gives it a less nasal sound (the sound of the cor anglais is less as if played through the nose). The reed is not fixed to a piece of cork like the oboe reed but it is put straight onto the short piece of metal (called a "bocal") at the top of the instrument.