You forced me to dig deep into the archives to unearth a similar beast! I
have a couple like the one that was auctioned but, unfortunately they're not in
good enough condition to play. I have one from the next generation that's not
too bad though. The "improved" design was patented in 1922, patent # 1,438,363
if you'd like to look it up. It has tunable valve slides and a very short
leadpipe that goes directly into the 1st valve after only about 8 inches. This
means that the bore at the valve section is very small, the taper continues
through the valve section and after. This later design has a bigger bell
throat than the earlier one. Each tube of the valve section is slightly bigger
when it returns than when it goes out. For instance the "outbound" tube of the
2nd valve is .358 and the "inbound" is .362.
Why wouldn't an "improvement" of this sort continue to be made? Money.
Manufacturers have learned to make acceptable instruments cheaply. There were
plenty of brass insturments built in the 20th century that had features that
really did make them play better, but they were more expensive to produce that
way. The Couturier brochure mentions that most piston valve brass instruments
required 2 different sizes of drills to drill all the holes in the valve
section. The Couturier instruments (everything from cornets to tubas) required
32 different drill sizes for the same operation.
So, why bother? Because it's there! Couturier wasn't just some random
nut. He was an amazing musician who could play things on the cornet that
nobody can play today. I'll extend a standing challenge - I have the music!
He built a company that produced the full range of brass instruments and also
saxophones. All the brass instruments were made on the "conical bore"
principal, even the trombone. He had a dream and he made it happen.
So, how does it play? Very nice! Ergonomically it's a little weird, the
piston valves aren't so easy to manipulate. The sound is unique, very dark and
woodsy, particularly rich when compared to "normal" horns. That richness of
sound is what I particularly like about it. It's different from anything else.
The pitch is very useable from low F# all the way up to high C, the E and D at
the bottom of the staff are nice, maybe a touch higher than usual which is not
so bad. D in the staff works just fine on open. It took a little while to
find the center above the staff, she's a bit leaky, but once I found it, it
rings out nicely.
As far as the earlier model with the non-tunable valve slides, I tend to
think that wouldn't really be a problem, other than water dumping! The cornets
and trumpets play well in tune in either Bb or A, using the same fixed valve
loops for both keys. How can that be? Let's just say that the acousticians
can't explain everything. Hmmm, now that I'm warming up to this thing I'm
liking it better and better. High range is really coming in, a little long
call, Konzertstueck etc. It opens up good for the louder stuff. Mendelssohn
Nocturne, very easy, relaxed, less taxing than on a double horn! I imagine
this would be a really nice horn if it wasn't quite so old, beat up and leaky!
- Steve Mumford
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