Howarth, and the American firm Fox Products. Lorée, Marigaux, and Rigoutat, the British firm of T. Perhaps the best-known makers of modern cors anglais are the French firms of F. This wire serves to hold the two blades of cane together and stabilize tone and pitch. Unlike American-style oboe reeds, cor anglais reeds typically have some wire at the base, approximately 5 mm (0.20 in) from the top of the string used to attach the cane to the staple. The cane part of the reed is wider and longer than that of the oboe. While the cane on an oboe reed is mounted on a small metal tube (the staple) partially covered in cork, there is no such cork on a cor anglais reed, which fits directly on the bocal. Reeds used to play the cor anglais are similar to those used for an oboe, consisting of a piece of cane folded in two.

Antonín Dvořák, in his Scherzo capriccioso, even writes for the cor anglais down to low A, though it seems unlikely that such an extension ever existed. Examples of works requiring this note (while acknowledging its exceptional nature) include Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Heitor Villa-Lobos's Chôros No. Īlthough the instrument usually descends only to (written) low B ♮, continental instruments with an extension to low B ♭ (sounding E ♭) have existed since early in the 19th century. French operatic composers up to Fromental Halévy notated the instrument at sounding pitch in the mezzo-soprano clef, which enabled the player to read the part as if it were in the treble clef. In late-18th- and early-19th-century Italy, where the instrument was often played by bassoonists instead of oboists, it was notated in the bass clef an octave below sounding pitch (as found in Rossini's Overture to William Tell). Alto clef written at sounding pitch is occasionally used, even by as late a composer as Sergei Prokofiev. The cor anglais is usually notated in the treble clef, a perfect fifth higher than sounding pitch, and several other options were employed. Its appearance differs from the oboe in that the instrument is notably longer, the reed is attached to a slightly bent metal tube called the bocal, or crook, and the bell has a bulbous shape (' Liebesfuß'). The difference in sound results primarily from a wider reed and a conical bore that expands over a greater distance than the oboe's although darker in tone and lower in pitch than the oboe, its sound is distinct from (though naturally blends with) the sound of the bassoon family. The cor anglais is perceived to have a more mellow and plaintive tone than the oboe. Whereas the oboe is the soprano instrument of the oboe family, the cor anglais is generally regarded as the alto member of the family, and the oboe d'amore-pitched between the two in the key of A-as the mezzo-soprano member. The pear-shaped bell (called Liebesfuß) of the cor anglais gives it a more covered timbre than the oboe, closer in tonal quality to the oboe d'amore. The cor anglais normally lacks the lowest B ♭ key found on most oboes, and so its sounding range stretches from E 3 (written B ♮) below middle C to C 6 two octaves above middle C. The fingering and playing technique used for the cor anglais are essentially the same as those of the oboe, and oboists typically double on the cor anglais when required.

This means that music for the cor anglais is written a perfect fifth higher than the instrument sounds. The cor anglais is a transposing instrument pitched in F, a perfect fifth lower than the oboe (a C instrument). It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto oboe in F. The cor anglais ( UK: / ˌ k ɔːr ˈ ɒ ŋ ɡ l eɪ/, US: /- ɑː ŋ ˈ ɡ l eɪ/ or original French: plural: cors anglais), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family.

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