orchestral woodwind instrument, a large oboe pitched a fifth below the ordinary oboe, with a bulbous bell and, at the top end, a bent metal crook on which the double reed is placed. It is pitched in F, being written a fifth higher than it sounds. Its compass is from the E below middle C to the second E above. The name first appeared in Vienna about 1760; “cor” refers to the curved or hornlike shape it then had, but the origin of “anglais” (“English”) remains a mystery. The curved form, which survived locally to 1900, was nearly identical to the 18th-century oboe da caccia and is now sometimes used for J.S. Bach's (Bach, Johann Sebastian) parts for that instrument. The English horn was also built in an angular form.