English Horn

As Printed on a Score

The usual American label for the cor anglais, abbreviated E. Hn. or Eng. Hn.; British scores mostly keep the French Cor anglais. It is written in treble clef a perfect fifth above the sound (in F). The second or third oboist often doubles, so the change appears in the oboe part. In a German timpani part, E. H. means the notes E and B, not English horn.

Abbreviations: E. Hn., Eng. Hn., E.H.

How Composers Use It

Neither English nor a horn: an alto oboe in F, sounding down to E3, with a darker, more veiled tone than the oboe and a natural gift for slow, melancholy or pastoral solos over soft strings — Dvořák’s Largo, Sibelius’s The Swan of Tuonela. It is weaker at the top than the oboe. Write it a fifth above sounding, keep its important lines in the low and middle registers, and allow a doubling oboist time to change.

Related Terms