e oboe
of the same pitch was called _haute-contre de hautbois_. The bending
of the tube and the development of the cor anglais as solo instrument
originated in Germany, unless the _oboe da caccia_ was identical with
the cor anglais, in which case Italy would be the country of origin.
Thomas Stanesby, junior, made an oboe da caccia in 1740 of straight
pattern in four pieces, having a bent metal crook for the insertion of
the reed and two saddle keys; but the bell was like the bell of the
oboe, not globular like that of the cor anglais, a form to which the
veiled quality of its _timbre_ is due. It is interesting in this
connexion to recall some experiments in bending the cor anglais, which
do not appear to have led to any practical result. A French broadside
(c. 1650), "La Musique," preserved in the British Museum, contains
drawings of many musical instruments in use in the 17th century; among
them are an oboe with keys in a perforated case, and two other wood
wind instruments of the same family, which may be taken to represent
attempts to dispose of the inconvenient length of the _haute-contre_
(1) by bending the tube at right angles for about one quarter of its
length from the mouthpiece, which contains a large double reed, (2)
by bending the tube in the elongated "S" shape of the _corno torto_ or
bass Zinke, for which the drawing in question might be mistaken but
for the bent crook inserted in the end for the reception of the reed,
which, however, is missing. The other hypothesis is that when the cor
anglais was given a bend in order to facilitate the handling, the name
was adopted to mark its resemblance to a kind of hunting-horn said to
be in use in England at the time. This suggestion does not seem to be
a happy one; for if the reference be to the crescent-shaped horn, that
instrument was in use in all countries at various periods before the
17th century, while if it be to the angular form, then a reproduction
of such a horn should be forthcoming to support the statement.

The idea of bending the instrument is attributed to Giovanni or
Giuseppe Ferlendis of Bergamo,[3] brothers and virtuosi on the oboe.
One of these had settled in Salzburg, and both were equally renowned
as performers on the English horn. They visited Venice, Brescia,
Trieste, Vienna, London (in 1795) and Lisbon, where Giuseppe died. In
this case we might expect the name to have be