English Horn in F
A tenor oboe with a bulb-shaped bell. The English horn has a bent, angular, and-since the middle of the nineteenth century-straight form. The bulb bell emerged in straight tenors around 1700, the sickle shape around 1720, while the angular form came into fashion after the middle of the eighteenth century. The name, rather than indicating an English origin, derived from words meaning "angelically sounding" and "angularly shaped horn." The angular variants on display appear to have been mostly used for Italian operas. Since the mid-1800s the English horn came into wider use; composers usually employed it to express melancholic feelings.
Artwork Details
- Title: English Horn in F
- Maker: Andrea Fornari (Italian, Venice 1753–1841 Venice)
- Date: 1832
- Geography: Venice, Italy
- Culture: Italian (Venice)
- Medium: Wood, ivory, leather, horn
- Dimensions: L. +/- 780 mm, Diam. of bell 50 mm, Upper section +/-333 mm, Lower section +/-352 mm, Foot 144 mm.
- Classification: Aerophone-Reed Vibrated-double reed
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 89.4.889
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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