COR ANGLAIS, or ENGLISH HORN (Ger. _englisches Horn_ or _alt Hoboe_; Ital. _corno inglese_), a wood-wind double-reed instrument of the oboe family, of which it is the tenor. It is not a horn, but bears the same relation to the oboe as the basset horn does to the clarinet. The cor anglais differs slightly in construction from the oboe; the conical bore of the wooden tube is wider and slightly longer, and there is a larger globular bell and a bent metal crook to which the double reed mouthpiece is attached. The fingering and method of producing the sound are so similar in both instruments that the player of the one can in a short time master the other, but as the cor anglais is pitched a fifth lower, the music must be transposed for it into a key a fifth higher than the real sounds produced. The compass of the cor anglais extends over two octaves and a fifth:
The true quality of the cor anglais is penetrating like that of the oboe, but mellower and more melancholy.
The cor anglais is the alto Pommer (q.v.) or _haute-contre de hautbois_ (see OBOE), gradually developed, improved and provided with key-work. It is not known exactly when the change took place, but it was probably during the 17th century, after the Schalmey or Shawm had been transformed into the oboe. In a 17th century MS. (Add. 30,342, f. 145) in the British Museum, written in French, giving pen and ink sketches of many instruments, is an "accord de hautbois" which comprises a _pédalle_ (bass oboe or Pommer), a _sacquebute_ (sackbut) as _basse-contre_, a _taille_ (tenor) with a note that the _haute-contre_ (the cor anglais) _est de mesme sinon plus petite_. The tubes of all the members of the hautbois family are straight in this drawing. Before 1688 the French hoboy, made in four parts and having two keys, was known in England.[1] It is probable that in France, where the hautbois played such an important part in court music, the cor anglais, under the name of _haute-contre de hautbois_, was also provided with keys. At the end of the 17th century there were two players of the _haute-contre de hautbois_ among the musicians of the Grande Écurie du Roi.[2]
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Modern Cor anglais. (Besson & Co.)]