Besson is a manufacturer of brass musical instruments. It is owned by

Buffet Crampon Buffet Crampon SAS is a French manufacturer of wind instruments based in Mantes-la-Ville, Yvelines department. The company is the world market leader in the production of clarinets of the Boehm system. Its subsidiary, Buffet Crampon Deutsc ...

, which bought Besson in 2006 from The Music Group. The company was formed in 1837 by

Gustave Auguste Besson Gustave-Auguste Besson (1820-1874) was a musical instrument manufacturer and innovator. He created the Besson brand in Paris, France, in 1837. Besson is credited with more than 50 original inventions. His alterations to the cornet were particula ...

, who at the age of 18 produced a revolutionary design of

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...

which surpassed all contemporary models. His products quickly gained a great reputation throughout Europe. In 1857, he moved to England where he built a large factory in London from which his instruments took a share of the English market and from where he exported to many countries including the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The modern company produces a range of

s, tenor horns,

euphonium The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" o ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

s and

baritone horn The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a piston-v ...

s. In its history, Besson also produced a number of other brass instruments, including a huge 'triple' B♭ tuba.

History

In 1837,

(1820–1874) created the Besson brand in Paris with his new cornet. His instruments became famous in Europe, and he has been credited with over fifty inventions. In 1858, following a long series of lawsuits with

Adolphe Sax Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (; 6 November 1814 – 4 February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the f ...

, Gustave-Auguste Besson left Paris to build a factory in London. Over the following years, Besson continued to manufacture in Paris and London, and also had warehouses for distribution in Brussels, Charleroi, Madrid and Barcelona. Following Gustave-Auguste Besson’s death in 1874, the company changed its name, becoming Fontaine-Besson in 1880 in France, and Besson in England. At the same time, another English manufacturer was becoming well-known: Henri Distin, born in London in 1819. Henry Distin and his new fluegel horn were active in the development of brass bands in England. He created a new line of instruments under his own name, and in 1872 the Distin brand was bought by Boosey (a music publisher since 1792, and a manufacturer of instruments since 1851). D.J. Blaikely, the inventor in 1878 of an automatically compensation tuning system for valves collaborated with Distin, and together they developed a new range and improved existing models. In the 1930s in Paris, Strasser Marigaux and Lemaire, SML, all produced instruments for Besson with Aubertin. In 1957, Couesnon bought the French company Fontaine Besson. In London, at the same time, Boosey & Co and Hawkes & Sons of England merged to create the group

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 thro ...

. At the end of the nineteenth century (1894), the Besson factory of London employed 131 workers, producing 100 brass instruments a week, and no less than 10,000 musical ensembles appeared on their contact lists. In 1925, Besson purchased Quilter, and Wheatstone & Co. in 1940. In 1948, the group

acquired the Besson London brand. In 2003,

separated from the cream of the crop in French wind instrument manufacturing, to join The Music Group. In 2006, at the initiative of its CEO, Paul Baronnat.

acquires two famous brass instrument brands,

Antoine Courtois The Antoine Courtois company, founded in Paris in 1789, is a renowned manufacturer of brass musical instruments. The company's name comes from the name of the founder's children who created the brand name in 1803. The company has been a leading ma ...

Paris (created in 1803) and Besson (created in 1837). The company became Groupe

, with two subsidiaries, in the United States and Japan, and in November 2007, it appointed Antoine Beaussant as new Chief Executive Officer. By joining the

Group, Besson has restructured and relaunched its production of professional instruments in Germany and France. The Besson student instruments continue to be manufactured in the factory near Delhi, in India, under the supervision of specialists from the

Group.

Models

*''Concertiste'' - Besson's most expensive model from the 1890s to the advent of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The bowed-out shape of the Concertiste's intervalve portings is the design favoured today. *''Desideratum'' - Besson's second most expensive model. The main difference in configuration between the Desideratum and the Concertiste models is the relationship of the leadpipe to the third valve slide.Brass Bulletin -2002 "À l'instar des cornets de Courtois (modèles "Koenig", "Arban", "Levy" et autres) qui sont abondamment copiés dès le milieu du XIXe siècle, la plupart des facteurs de cornets s'inspireront des modèles "Desideratum" et "Concertiste" de Besson, ..."

Counterfeit 'Bessons' instruments

A flood of very poor quality Indian-made instruments bearing the name ''Bessons'' entered the market in the late 1990s. They are unrelated to the Besson instruments manufactured by the company with that name. Many sales are made through

online auctions An online auction (also electronic auction, e-auction, virtual auction, or eAuction) is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with ...

. With cursory examination, any serious brass player would be able to recognise that these instruments are wholly inferior to real Besson instruments, and also of much poorer quality than even the cheapest of student instruments produced by reputable manufacturers. The fake instruments, particularly

pocket trumpet 250px, Pocket trumpet in B-flat, with a standard size bell and medium-large bore The pocket trumpet is a B♭ trumpet that is constructed with the tubing wound into a much smaller coil than a standard trumpet, generally with a smaller diameter ...

s, cornets, euphoniums, bugles and B♭ trumpets, are likely to feature a 'serial number' of H.75983 (or 84059) embossed on the top of the bell and

valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...

keys are often hexagonal in plan view. Similar counterfeit instruments, possibly made at the same factories, have been falsely branded with other reputable manufacturers' names, such as '' Getzen'' and ''Boosey''. These instruments are best described as novelty items since they are shoddily built from very thin metal and they are often unplayable (due to faults in the manufacturing) and untunable (the tuning slides are simply ornamentation - they do not work).

Guitars

Besson guitars were produced in the 1950s. They were badged as ''Besson Aristone''. These guitars were imported and often rebranded. Many of them were made by

Framus Framus is a German string instrument manufacturing company, that existed from 1946 until going bankrupt in 1975. The Framus brand was revived in 1995 as part of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG, in Markneukirchen, Germany. The company's cus ...

. There was also a model made by Framus in the Besson name designed by jazz guitarist Jack Durante.

References

External links