“Its tone,” says Lavignac, “is essentially sad, melancholy, sorrowful. The cor anglais exactly suits the expression of mental suffering, which is, therefore, especially characteristic of it.” “Its quality of tone,” says Berlioz, “less piercing, more veiled and deeper than that of the oboe, does not so well as the latter lend itself to the gayety of rustic strains. Nor could it give utterance to anguished complainings. Accents of keen grief are almost beyond its powers. It is a melancholy, dreamy, and rather noble voice, of which the sonorousness has something vague and remote about it which renders it superior to all others in exciting regret and reviving images and sentiments of the past when the composer desires to awaken the secret echo of tender memories. In compositions where the prevailing impression is that of melancholy the frequent use of the cor anglais hidden in the midst of the great mass of instruments is perfectly suited.”
The cor anglais has been called “an oboe in mourning.” Perhaps that will give the best idea of its sorrowful voice.
The cor anglais came directly from the alto pommer of the Schalmey-Pommer family.[22] Most probably the oboe di caccia, or hunting oboe, was its immediate ancestor. A very good reason for thinking this the case is because in Rossini’s Overture to William Tell the “Ranz des vaches” (calling the cows) was originally given to the oboe di caccia, which was still in use in Rossini’s time; and when the oboe di caccia became obsolete, the part was taken by the newer cor anglais.
The cor anglais and the oboe assumed their modern appearance about the same time. Both instruments were much changed in construction and mechanism during the last hundred years; but both instruments kept the old family voice, which has a curious harsh quality combined with plaintiveness.
Beethoven wrote a Trio for two oboes and cor anglais, op. 29. The French composers made it popular. Meyerbeer has it play an obbligato to the aria “Robert, toi que j’aime,” in Robert le Diable; Berlioz made it important in his Symphonie Fantastique; and it appears in Dvořák’s New World Symphony, having a melody in the Largo with accompaniment of strings con sordini. Strauss gives it prominence in Heldenleben.
COR ANGLAIS, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
Attilio Bianco
Of its famous solos none is so haunting as the plaintive part in Act III of Tristan and Isolde. Here the long, sad melody heard on the Shepherd’s pipe is entrusted to the saddest voice in the orchestra,—the cor anglais.