Klarinet Archive - Posting 000488.txt from 2002/04

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Woodwind=sneezy
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 11:11:07 -0400

The "cor" story is pretty unlikely, as the words concerned are - officially,
at least - *not* homophones.
There is a notion that the name is really "Angel's horn" - commonly, in the
18th century, "englisches Horn" - in German, which would be confusible with the
term "englisches Horn" meaning "English horn", "cor anglais", "corno inglese".
Roger S.

In message <5.0.2.1.0.20020418062330.03701408@-----.org writes:
> At 11:01 PM 4/17/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >Natale ("Neptune's Vengeance"?!?) pondered:
> >
> ><<<So, just why IS there a french horn in a woodwind quintet?>>>
> >
> >If we're pondering . . . why do they call it a "French" horn? It's German!
>
> The Germans won't admit to it. They instead blamed the French, and it
> stuck. :-)
>
>
> >What's English about a cor anglais?
>
> As I understand it, early English Horns had a bend (or angle) in the middle
> of them, which allowed the right hand to be able to reach the holes in the
> lower portion. It was thus called in French a "cor angle" (accent over the
> "e" and pronounced "cor ang-LAY"). Cor Anglais is a corruption where a
> homophone was substituted for the original word. Of course, it really is
> not a HORN either, but that is another story. I guess the real question is
> why the English, like the French above, allowed their good name to be
> besmirched in this fashion. ;-)
>
>
>
> Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.net
> 451 Old Orchard Drive
> Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!
>
>
>
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>
>

--
...atque inter silvas academii quaerere verum.
--------- Horace ("Epistolae", II [somewhere])

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