A double-reed woodwind instrument similar to but larger than the oboe and pitched lower by a fifth. a long wooden musical instrument which is like an oboe but with a lower sound British Equivalent: cor anglais. Orchestral woodwind instrument, a large oboe pitched a 5th below the ordinary oboe. It has a bent metal crook, to hold the double reed, and a bulbous bell. It is a transposing instrument (its music written in a different tone than it actually sounds) in F. It is neither English nor a horn; in its original name, cor anglais, cor ("horn") referred to its original hornlike curved shape, but the source of anglais ("English") is a mystery. It has remained a basically orchestral instrument since its first appearance 1750