Marcel Moyse Couesnon Flute

Marcel Moyse with his Couesnon Flute

Marcel Moyse designed his own flute together with the firm Couesnon in the mid-1930s. The Couesnon company was founded in 1827, in Château Thierry, a small city on the Marne River, 50 miles east of Paris, an area traditionally associated with the making of high-quality brass instruments. The well-known French flute of Louis Lot did not satisfy Moyse, neither in design with open holes nor in sturdity. (The English flute maker Albert Cooper has pointed out that a closed-hole flute gives a far stabler tone production and pitch). Marcel Moyse flute design is more like a traditional German Boehm flute, e.g. Aug.Rich. Hammig, Bernhard Hammig, Uebel or Lederer. French flute players avoid the B-foot joint because it darkens the tone. Jean-Pierre Rampal, "Real flutes have C-foot joints and those other B-foot joints are some kind of American contraption". The Marcel Moyse Couesnon Flute is a nickel silverplated flute with off-set G, closed hols, extended G# cleff, C# trill, C-foot joint., specialdesign of tone holes and thumb key - Nagahara Flute uses this thumb key for his flutes. See the design of a post Couesnon Flute made by The Williams Flute co., Sankyo Flutes and Muramatsu flutes.

The Couesnon Company - Couesnon History.pdf - Couesnon Catalogue 1934.pdf - Couesnon Flute Catalogue 1930-31.pdf