Cor anglais

As Printed on a Score

The French label for the English horn, abbreviated C. A. or Cor angl., plural Cors anglais; British scores use the French name too. It is written in treble clef a perfect fifth above the sound (in F). The second or third oboist often doubles, with the change printed in the oboe part.

Abbreviations: C. A., C.A., C. angl., Cor angl., Cor ang.

Also spelled: Cors anglais

How Composers Use It

French composers made the cor anglais an emblem of distance and melancholy: Berlioz’s Scène aux champs opens with its dialogue with an offstage oboe, and Franck, Debussy (“Nuages”) and Ravel gave it long, sinuous solos. Write it in F, a fifth above sounding, from written B3, and keep its solos in the low and middle registers, where its color is most distinctive.

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