Tuba Tuesday: Couesnon, E flat tuba, 3 pistons, ca. 1925

[bisontuba]

Happy Tuesday. The Museum features a Couesnon, E flat tuba, 3 pistons, ca. 1925.

Bell diameter: 14.5″

Bore size: .655″

Height: 29″

Comments: “UNIVERSELLE/EXPOSITION DE PARIS” with medal that has “1900” engraved inside it handing from “UNIVERSELLE”. “HORS CONCOURS/ MEMBRE DU JURY” “COUESNON & CIE/FOURNISSEIRS DE L’ARMEE/94 RUE D’ANGOULEME/PARIS/CHATEAU-THIERRY”. There is a symbol underneath all the text that represents the year of manufacture that has “25” within the symbol.



https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... s-ca-1925/

[humBell]

25?

I presume it wasn't made this year, nor would it have been made before 1850. Happy century!

I haven't made up my mind whether the finger button arrangement is akin to an offensive gesture or not, but when i do, i might rearrange mine sometime to see if anyone is offended, or it's just me (as i strongly suspect)

Anyway, some day i'll pronounce Couesnon right. Just counting myself lucky to spell it right without cutring and pasting it... though who's to know i didn't?

[arpthark]

Anyway, some day i'll pronounce Couesnon right. Just counting myself lucky to spell it right without cutring and pasting it... though who's to know i didn't?

It's out there in the Buescher stratosphere for me.

This unrelated Wikipedia article has a link to an audio pronunciation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couesnon

"Quee-nohn" is an approximate Americanization.

Of course, ever since I saw the word Couesnon as a kid 20-something years ago, and being ignorant of its origins, I've been saying it in my head as "kways-non."

[2nd tenor]

Happy Tuesday. The Museum features a Couesnon, E flat tuba, 3 pistons, ca. 1925.

Bell diameter: 14.5″

Bore size: .655″

Height: 29″

Comments: “UNIVERSELLE/EXPOSITION DE PARIS” with medal that has “1900” engraved inside it handing from “UNIVERSELLE”. “HORS CONCOURS/ MEMBRE DU JURY” “COUESNON & CIE/FOURNISSEIRS DE L’ARMEE/94 RUE D’ANGOULEME/PARIS/CHATEAU-THIERRY”. There is a symbol underneath all the text that represents the year of manufacture that has “25” within the symbol.

https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... s-ca-1925/

Maybe I’m a man of simple tastes but to me - other than the missing finger buttons - that’s what an Eb Bass should look like and be. It’s a lot like my Besson Regent 2 except that has the tuning slide and water key after the valve block - which is technically an advancement but in practice spreads the ‘water’ around more. My Sovereign is so much more capable than my smaller Regent, but in practise that additional capability doesn’t add much of value and the darn thing is double the weight, more unwieldy and a darn sight more expensive. Oh well, we’d be considered uncommitted and recognisable as amateurs if we didn’t play professional grade instruments.

Nice instrument, thanks for sharing.

[bloke]

semi-confident that fairly close to the correct pronunciation is "kooznaw(n)".

If I'm wrong, I'm still pretty damn sure it ain't "kwee-non"....I'M TALKING TO YOU, YOU IGNORANT-ASS FLUGELHORN OWNERS !!!

I'm not a French instrument historian, but I see a tie-in (as in "possibly/probably the same factory bought with a name-change") with Gautrot.

[bisontuba]

Paris, France

1827 A. G. Guichard establishes company outside Paris.

1835 Guichard is joined by brother-in-law Pierre Gautrot.

1845 Gautrot is now the proprietor of the business.

1881 The Triebert company is purchased by Gautrot.

1882 Gautrot, Durant et Cie. becomes Couesnon, Gautrot et Cie.
under the directorship of Amedee August Couesnon
(kwee-non), the son-in-law of Gautrot.

1888 Now Couesnon et Cie.; rue d’Angouleme 94, Paris.

1896 Workforce of 200 at factory in Chateau Thierry.

1911 Workforce of 1,000 at 8 factories, the largest maker in the
world at the time. Owner A. Couesnon visits NYC (MTR).

1927 Now down to workforce of 200.

1937 The office moves to rue Lafayette 105.

1960 A catalog shows new lower price “Lafayette” model brass.

1978 The contract with US importer Gretsch ends

1979 The main factory at Chateau Thierry is destroyed by an
arson fire. All the archives were destroyed.

1980s Former worker Ginette Planson starts a musical
instrument accessories business called PGM (Planson &
daughters Sophie Glace & Isabella Moret).

1999 PGM buys the Couesnon name in liquidation and
maintains a small factory in Chateau Theirry (PGM).

2014 Ginette Planson is the CEO of PGM Couesnon (PGM).

[bisontuba]

[Craig F]

semi-confident that fairly close to the correct pronunciation is "kooznaw(n)".

If I'm wrong, I'm still pretty damn sure it ain't "kwee-non"

It's probably closer to kway-non.
Cou = koo
es = ay (the 'e' is continental not English and the 's' is silent in typical French fashion.
non = as is, but if you really want to get frenchy, drop the final 'n' and make the 'o' nasal.

koo-ay-non

Run it together and a 'w' appears in the transition between 'oo' and 'ay' yielding kway-non.

[bloke]

maybe...
Knowing the "American trumpet-player" pronunciation HAD to be wrong, I asked me sister (who studied the French language at the Sorbonne University in Paris) how she would pronounce it - upon first glance, and what I typed is what she came up with...

...I studied French for three years (because my high school's French teacher was a really cool guy and played second trumpet in town on most all of the decent-paying gigs, back then...Hell, I SHOULD HAVE asked him, but - in 1971 - 1974, I'd not encountered the make), but/and I know nothing compared to my sister, and my French teacher (actually spoke MANY languages fluently, including Asian languages, and spent his summers visiting his pretty young girlfriends - all over the world) is now dead.

bloke "Insert shoulder-shrug here."

[Craig F]

bloke "Insert shoulder-shrug here."

Yeah, you're right. Not really worth arguing over. People will say what they want.

I checked the Forvo site. They often have pronunciations from native speakers. So, for what it's worth...

https://forvo.com/word/couesnon/

[bloke]

bloke "Insert shoulder-shrug here."

Yeah, you're right. Not really worth arguing over. People will say what they want.

I checked the Forvo site. They often have pronunciations from native speakers. So, for what it's worth...

https://forvo.com/word/couesnon/

That sounds like the trumpet player pronunciation !