Introducing the Cor Anglais
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ย. 2024
- Is the Cor Anglais actually English?* OAE oboe Leo Duarte explores the origins of this dark-toned oboe that steals your heart every time it appears - best known for its solo in the Largo from Dvorak’s New World Symphony - in our latest instrument video.
*Spoiler alert: It is not.
Photo of 2 oboe da caccia at 2:42 - credit: www.oboefiles....
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I love using the Cor Anglais in my pieces because it sounds warm and somewhat melancholic.
And shows emotional colors, and is a excelent solo voice, and can blend or stick out very well from a ensemble.
I have plans to (hopefully) someday write a four movement Quintet for English Horn and Strings in F major. There's not enough chamber music for the instrument IMHO
@@FictionWriter95 why in F?
@@Pogouldangeliwitz firstly because it's the natural key of the English Horn, and secondly because I like F major
@@FictionWriter95 So you're choosing the easy way. I'd write it in B Major... 😇
Because of people like YOU, who spent countless hours struggling to play a magnificent orchestral instrument for so many years, WE have the MAGIC of the sound of the symphony orchestra, which is the most beautiful sound ever invented by humans. There are countless examples that thrill us. Thank you SO much for what you do and the very hard work that put you there.
"Without you, it is impossible."
Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)
That's such a magnificent instrument. It has a personality of it's own. Extremely beautiful.
It’s amazing how this one, little-known instrument has one of the most beautiful, well-known melodies written for it, courtesy of our pal Antonin!
An angelic sound indeed. I've always loved it. Thanks for the education.
Even though I'm a classical musician, I didn't really knew much about the English Horn.
Until I did... 😊
Thanks for this vid Leo and OAE.
So good right
@@OboeFiles Yeah, obviously!
Thanks for sharing this. I play English horn and always thought that is was misinterpreted from French "angled horn". Never heard about the German name. I enjoyed hearing you play 18th century style Cor. I am glad my horn has all the modern keys! Next video, why is "French horn" French?
And why is the Irish harp Irish?
@@democraticpatriot2657from Ireland
My introduction to oboe and Cor Anglais was in the King Crimson album Lizard played by a gentleman named Robin Miller. He also performed on the album Red. But it is in Lizard where the instruments really shine. If you have never listened to it you should check it out. It is played in the “bolero” and “battle of glass tears” sections of the song Lizard which takes up the entirety of the second side of the album of the same name.
Every video in this series is so good. Thank you so much OAE for producing these!
Interesting historical information! As a college graduate in music, I appreciate the scholarship that goes into these videos.
"It isn't English, and it isn't a horn." The Orchestra cassette tape I listened to when I was little 😊
Maestro Duarte always explains things with such clarity. What a legend.
To Leo... Thank you for this history. I have loved the double reeds since a summer at music camp. The top oboe teacher played for us on the first day.it was incredibly beautiful: tears of the heart or like warm honey. Always wanted to learn it. My music was sacrificed to go and survive medical school and practice for years. Just picking up the piano again.
My first thought when the name is mentioned is the opening of the second movement of Concierto de Aranjuez where it steals the concerto from the guitar.
I'm just starting the English Horn (transitioning from oboe) and the air pressure I'm trying to put into this thing is a very mild nightmare. It's cool to see this video in my recommended just weeks after beginning.
Thanks for your hard work!
Shouldnt it be easier? I mean, bigger saxophones are easier to sound than smaller ones (I played the bari but tried others). I'm now learning oboe and finding it the hardest in terms of air pressure. And I tried bassoon years ago, found it quite easy to sound. It should be somewhere in between
In terms of absolute pitch ranges, the cor anglais is an alto instrument. The bass oboe is a tenor instrument. The Dutch are the most correct in calling it “Althobo.”
Vielen Dank! Das ist also wie beim "Englischen Gruß" (z.B. des Veit Stoß in St.Lorenz zu Nürnberg) von Engel (Angel) und nicht von England (England) abgeleitet.
Thank you for your thorough and delightful explanation of this lovely instrument. I learned something new today!
6:20 - I too had heard the story that it was originally called the “Cor Anglé” (bent horn), and that had morphed into “Cor Anglais” (English Horn) - essentially the same pronunciation but different spelling. My understanding, however, is that there known records of it being called “Cor Anglé,” so that’s probably a red herring.
I'm a bagpiper. I've heard it said that the famous "Piobaireachd" piece, Mackintosh's Lament, was used by Dvorak in his Largo movement of the New World Symphony. This is the first time I've heard that part of the piece, while I've heard the piobaireachd several times. It's very fascinating discovering the links between regular classical music and Scottish piobaireachd.
Oh! I was wondering why I was expecting a bunch of bagpipes to kick in after that phrase. Dvorak I haven't heard a great deal, but pipe bands, yes.
@@LordJazzly Well, sometimes links don't work in comments but I'm going to try:
Other than the initial tuning phrase, for anyone interested here is the Piobaireachd called Mackintosh Lament played by the late Donald MacPherson. Hopefully y'all can hear the connection the "ground" theme has with the Largo movement.
th-cam.com/video/_l1PULVdoQo/w-d-xo.html
@@LordJazzly Well, sometimes links don't work in comments but I'm going to try: Other than the initial tuning phrase, for anyone interested here is the Piobaireachd called Mackintosh Lament played by the late Donald MacPherson. Hopefully y'all can hear the connection the "ground" theme has with the Largo movement. th-cam.com/video/_l1PULVdoQo/w-d-xo.html
@@LordJazzly So I HATE the fact TH-cam won't let you put links in comments (F.U. TH-cam!!!!) but just look up Mackintosh Lament played by the late Donald MacPherson. Hopefully y'all can hear the connection the "ground" theme has with the Largo movement. Of course, other than the initial tuning phrase of course, which professional pipers use all the time.
So I HATE the fact TH-cam won't let you put links in comments (F.U. TH-cam!!!!) but just look up Mackintosh Lament played by the late Donald MacPherson. Hopefully y'all can hear the connection the "ground" theme has with the Largo movement. Of course, other than the initial tuning phrase of course, which professional pipers use all the time.
Odd not to mention the extended Cor Anglais solo in the third act prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
I agree ; ) th-cam.com/video/gvOE-JNeydE/w-d-xo.html
Super odd. But... that's not music from the Age of Enlightenment, which might explain...
The great solos by Sibelius, Berlioz, Ravel, Shostakovich all deserved a mention too but there just wasn't time, sadly. And, by the way, all the above composers have been featured in OAE programmes!
What about Shostakovich Symphony no 8? 🎼
My opinion is the English Horn and oboe are the most beautiful instruments in the orchestra.
I've read that the oboe and french Horn are the most difficult to play.
I'm a classically trained flautist, and I've always loved the double reeds. Always wanted to learn. But I'm an old man, and I'm limited by finances to the flutes and recorder families
Superb documentary about the history and origin about the horn, I love playing Rite of Spring on this thing
It plays the theme of the Concerto for Group And Orchestra, by Deep Purple, in the first bars of the first movement
There is a beautiful cor Anglais Solo in the Nikki Holland song "on the stairs"from her debut album 1992
Great little documentary. Well done Leo, enjoyed this!
"Cor Anglais' kinky clarinet cousin basset horn" LOL!!! Good one. But also kinda true.
I'm a pro ob/eh player, never knew any of this and always wondered. Great video. Many thanks. Great period playing, also!
What about The Swan Of Tuonela? 🦢
My favourite Cor Anglais solo!
@@leoduarte1306 Mine also Mr Duarte, it's wonderful 👍🏼👍🏼
Just a couple days ago I finished orchestrating Chopin's Funeral March, and I gave the opening melancholic melody to the English Horn 😎
The drum rudiment Coup Anglais (English Stroke) is similarly confusing in its name. It is said by the French to be a corruption of Coup Lenglet (invented 1833), which is pronounced nearly the same way, and not actually English. Problem with this French theory is that the English most probably did invent the Coup Anglais, calling it the Flam and Stroke or Flam and Feint in 1815, (it was in use by 1780) and the French appropriately named their incarnation of the pattern after the English.
Fascinating, and entertaining. Bravo!
Interesting! Glad I came across this channel.
As a clarinetist who has performed Mozart's Serenade no. 10 in B-flat "Gran Partita" on basset horn, I do not know how to feel about the basset horn being called the "cor anglais's kinky clarinet cousin."
4:37 Imagine going up to Heaven only to be greeted by "Oi, wot's oll this then? Ye got right knackered, dintcha?"
Mozart's KV 580a is clearly written for clarinet in B flat and three basset horns in F. That's the only reasonable combination which fits the voicing. The strongest argument is the unnatural gap between the third and fourth voice if read in F/C. It becomes natural if the lowest voice is transposing upwards which the basset horn notated in bass clef does. Furthermore the dating of the piece matches the period where Mozart met Anton Stadler, one of the famous clarinet and basset horn players and instrument experimenters of this time. Nevertheless all members of the lower oboe family (d'amore, Taille, da caccia and modern Cor Anglais) are adorable instruments.
You're quite right in that that's the strongest argument. Such a shame that Mozart didn't complete the work.
Given the time period, Clarinets being the bright hip new thing around 1790, with a virtuoso player available being a personal friend and literally the next piece in the repertoire being the clarinet quintet kv581, there is no doubt in my mind that kv580 was meant for clarinet(s).
Why not mention The Wilhelm Tell overture? I think, that it’s the most famous English Horn solo
Great video! I wonder why he calls it "tenor oboe", while it seems that it is tuned in F, like the "alto" recorder. Shouldn't it be called "alto oboe"?
Cesar Franck featured a Cor Anglais in one of his orchestral works.
Actually Bret Newton renamed it as an Alto Oboe
Hello! An important part of your argument rests on a false translation of "corne d'Anglois". "Corne d'Anglois" cannot be translated "Corno d'Angelico". Indeed, the noun "anglois" is Old French for "Anglais" which mean "English", not "Ange", or "Angel(ico)". (The term "Français" -- French -- was also written "François" untill the firdt reform of French grammar and spelling in the 18th Century (if my memory is correct on this specific historical point). Therefore, "Corne d'Anglois" is best translated by "English cor (or horn)".
He's probably wrong on the old French, but he's correct in the old (and modern) German, so the resulting conclusion is still linguistically valid.
@@ThomasDawkins88 As we logicians say: e falso sequitur ad quodlibet. Cheers!
That was exactly my thought. But, then I was wondering if they made an editing mistake, because he says that in the manuscript it's called "corne d'Anglois or corno angelico", yet we only see the French term. Is there a part of the score where it also says 'corno angelico' in Italian...?
Hi Jean, you're quite right to pull me up on that, and thank you Henrik for the benefit of the doubt. Sorry that statement is unclear - I hadn't meant to imply that "angelico" was a translation of "anglois", though there is indeed a manuscript [Milling's Concerto in E-flat c.1770], albeit not the one shown in the video, where the title page reads: "Concerto. / á / Cornu Angelico. / Due Violini. / Viola obligato. / Col. / Baßo" but the solo part from the same set reads: "Cornu Anglois. Conc:".
There is also another possible explanation for "Anglois" which time constraints made it impossible to mention. It is possible that "Anglois" was a general term used to describe more unusual instruments with possible parallels for instruments like "viole inglese"which were exotic types of viola d'amore or viola da gamba used in Italy. In this case the qualifier could be translated as English but the meaning might be closer to "outlandish"!
What's up with the screaming kids in the background???
It's an Alto Oboe pitched in the Key of F
Tenor member of the oboe family? I've always known it to be the alto member.
The modern straight version of the instrument appears to be fairly uncomfortable to play. Ergonomics could certainly be improved.
As for the name - dear me, aren't instruments' names utterly confusing! - I have a further theory.
Anglois - which is a word I've never heard of in all of my language studies - is clearly an obscure word (pun intended). It wouldn't surprise me if it was reinterpreted as Anglais, which means English. No need for the German translation. Just a small typo to do the trick.
Or, there's another possibility but a French philologist should confirm this. The French word ""français"", meaning ""French"" used to be ""françois"". It might be reasonable to think that ""anglois"" might have been the old form of ""anglais"". Thus, the score you show in the video, might already be showing the new name of the instrument.
"Anglois" is ancient French for "english".
Great video!! I love your content and music, but Um excuse me! You guys lifted the photo I took in 2019 of my beloved teacher’s instrument from my website! Could you please site your source in the description, thx!
Dear Oboe Files, So sorry, please could you provide us with the credit info and we will get that added to the description right away. Many thanks, OAE
Most interesting
Now I finally know what Mrs. puff was playing in SpongeBob
4:44 the german word for english is Englisch and angelic I'd moreso translate to engelhaft
Interesting.
What a shame it's not still called "Angelic Horn"
I’m going to start calling it that henceforth. I suggest you and others do likewise. 😜
''angle' is also an archaic root word for 'english'
The soprano saxophone sounds like the anglish horn. I am not sure why engineers felt the need to re-invent it.
What clef does this use?
Composers usually write for it in the treble clef (G2 clef) as a transposing instrument, so a written C would actually sound F, a perfect fifth lower. However, in some early manuscripts (eg JS Bach, though not always), composers used to write for the instrument in the alto clef (C3 clef).
@@leoduarte1306 Thank you, this clears up confusion
Aha! Fork fingerings a la the recorder before all those modern keys!
As a recorder player, these altissimo (2 octaves above lowest notes) are painful
@@CheukTheGreatestOfEverything If you can hit 'em and hold 'em at will you're way ahead of the game!
Because the English often had blond hair and were generally fair, they were often described as Angels. Even one of the Popes said these are not Angles but Angels. So this becomes even more convoluted.
Angle (math) and Angel.
The question is - can it play Careless Whisper?
We can see now why English horn is called like that, but why French horn? Then again, we call pizza with sausages pepperoni today.
English is actually Englisch in German, still very close especially when speaking quickly
Doesn't the name from corps anglées (broken body or sth) and then an embarassing mistranslation to cor anglais because some dude thought he understood French but didn't at all?
Love Feet? Strange...
NO double LL nowadays !! The German word for ENGLISH ist Englisch. We have sch instead of SH .
We also can say for example Englischer Kuchen. Or English cake. BUT NO LL now
I think they simply took the spelling with double L and an extra E from some old manuscript, without consulting the Duden... ;)
yeah, but the point is that it was at the time.
I prefer the soprano sax...=)
Ängelisch angelic or.... english
Like most double reeds....irritating to real musicians 🤣
Ridiculously expensive