Comments on: Remembering Jean Cros – guest post from Jean-Yves Bénichou

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:15:00 +0000

You phoned my mother some days ago and I found your "blog" on Internet.
My mother and I would like to thank you for the homage to my Grandfather. He would probably have appreciate.
He came once at home and I showed him the Website concerning Edouard Nanny. My mother and I have sent all the documents concerning my Grandfather that you can see on this Website.
I remember when you sometimes came at home to play with my Grandfather... I was young and angry because I was mostly listening to "Rock" such as "The Who" or "The Police", which made my Grandfather... "nervous" !!!
Please forgive my English as there is a lot of time I did not write in English !!!
I send you below the poem I wrote for my Grandfather when he died (French version of course !!)
Merci et bonne contiunation !!!
Marcelle, fille de Jean Cros et Anne-Marie, petite-fille.

Mon grand-père avait pour habitude de donner des prénoms de femmes à ses contrebasses….
Celle qui l'a accompagnée, jusqu'au bout, s'appelle Désirée.

DÉSIRÉE
Désirée ce soir, se tait,
Dans son coin, inerte, sans vie,
L'archet sur la commode est posé,
Mon Pépé est parti aujourd'hui.

Désirée ce soir est triste,
C'en est fini, de la magie de l'Artiste,
Qui caressait ses cordes en douceur,
En nous apportant la joie, ou les pleurs…

Désirée on le sait, a une âme,
Celle de Pépé est montée dans les Cieux,
Que va devenir cette Vieille Dame,
Sans l'amour de ce vieux Monsieur ?

Désirée ce soir est songeuse,
Elle garde espoir malgré tout,
Car ce que Pépé voulait surtout,
C'est qu'elle soit toujours heureuse…

Songez alors, Monsieur le Musicien,
Vous qui caresserez cette Dame,
Que sans Pépé, elle n'était rien…
Jouez pour lui, avec toute votre âme.

Et c'est alors, qu'entre vos mains,
Elle retrouvera le goût de vivre,
Pour que ses cordes, à nouveau, vibrent,
Et que Pépé l'entende…. au loin.

Mais Désirée ce soir, se tait,
Dans son coin, inerte, sans vie,
L'archet sur la commode est posé,
Mon Pépé est parti aujourd'hui.

(Anne-Marie - Septembre 2005)

By: Benjy

Benjy — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Thanks for your enthusiastic commentary Rainer. When Nanny talks about tuning in fifths being a real problem for the bass, it was only in the context of developing the instrument further. This page on the Nanny website:
http://perso.orange.fr/paris.plus/framnanny.htm

shows him playing a 3,4, and 5 string bass. He used the 3 stringer for concertizing, preferred the 4 string bass above all, and developed the 5 string with a luthier in Mirecourt.

To answer your question as to whether he used gut or steel, it was most likely steel. In my high resolution pic here at home, the bass strings on the right side shine. Your research into the Thomastik company’s production may be correct.

By: rainer.lewalter

rainer.lewalter — Tue, 15 May 2007 21:29:00 +0000

*Hehe* This is beautiful! Much as I respect the great Nanny, he, too, wasn’t infallible: l’accord de la contrebasse par quintes est injouable (roughly: “It’s impossible to play a double bass tuned in fifths”). That brings up one of those silly bassists’ questions: Does anybody know what strings they played back then? On the photo of the 1922 Conservatoire class, they don’t really look like gut strings, but I remember visiting the Thomastik factory in Vienna a couple of years ago, where they told me they were the first ones to come up with steel strings, and that must have been around 1920. Although modern fifth-tuned “Spiros” are quite an attractive affair, I guess that Nanny was probably referring to gut or silk strings, right?