Hi Wol,
Out of curiosity, and speaking as a Brit! what on earth is an "English
Horn"? Is the instrument the English call a Cor Anglais?
Yes.
The etymology seems to be a bit involved here - although it seems
certain that the name has nothing to do with England. :-) Two standard
explanations essentially amount to a derivation either from "angelic"
(referring to instruments held by angels in Christian imagery) or
"angled" (referring to some of the various forms of the instrument) in
some language.
On a semi-related note: Surprising as, for example, a connection between
"English", "Anglais", "Angelic" may seem, there is a funny matter in
German that, coming from the 19th century Wunderhorn poetry collection,
survives in Mahler's fourth symphony: "Wir führen ein englisches Leben",
which a modern-day German speaker would naively interpret as "We live an
English life" (and maybe think of tea time and fish and chips), but
which undoubtedly actually means "We lead an angelic life": Engel =
Angel, Eng(e)lisch = Angelic.
Lukas
