Editor's Note: Laila Storch, oboist with the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet and Professor of Oboe at the University of Washington in Seattle, graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Marcel Tabuteau.
She has been 1st oboe in the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg and the Puerto Rico Symphony, playing under conductors Efrem Kurtz, Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Ferenc Fricsay, Sir Thomas Beecham and Zubin Mehta.
From 1950 to 1953, she participated in the first four Casals Festivals in Prades and Perpignan both as soloist and orchestra member.
During two years in Austria on a Fulbright grant, she played quintet and baroque trio concerts and did research on 18th-century oboe literature. In 1962 she toured the Soviet Union as oboe d'amore soloist with the Robert Shaw Chorale and in 1964 was soloist for the Chicago Little Symphony tour under Thor Johnson.
She has played in the Bach Festivals of Carmel, Bethlehem and Barcelona and has also taken part in the Marlboro Music Festivals, the Casals Festivals in Puerto Rico and the Alaska Festival.
With Soni Ventorum she has toured the United States, Canada, South and Central America and Europe.
In 1977 Laila Storch was the guest of honor at the International Double Reed Society annual convention and in March 1979 she took part in the commemorative program for Marcel Tabuteau at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
She has published numerous articles pertaining to oboists and oboe history and has recorded for Columbia, Crystal and Musical Heritage.
A letter arrives from Paris concerning the order of an oboe and some reedmaking accessories. At the top of the stationary in solid black letters one reads: INSTRUMENTS DE MUSIQUE, Etablissements DE GOURDON. A little to the left in smaller lighter print, one will see: F. LOREE, Maison Fondée en 1881.
Several years ago while I was in France searching for details on the life of one of the oboe world's most renowned figures, the great teacher and performing artist, Georges Gillet, I became aware of the significance of the approaching centenary of the firm of F. Lorée. I realized that in my own lifetime, I had been holding a Lorée oboe in my hands almost every day for well over 35 years, more than a third of the total period of the company's existence. I thought of all my colleagues in the United States the great majority of whom play Lorée oboes. I remembered the insistence of my teacher, Marcel Tabuteau, that we all play Lorées, and now I saw my own students using Lorée oboes and English Horns almost exclusively. Clearly the Lorée oboe plays a very important part in many oboists' lives and it seemed that some recognition of the 100th birthday of this eminent maison would be due.
With thoughts of this anniversary date in my mind, I felt it was a logical step to continue on to France after attending the International Double Reed Society convention in Edinburgh in August of last year. And so it was that on a warm Saturday afternoon in mid-September of 1980, I decided to take a walking tour of historic spots in Paris, not the usual monuments, cathedrals and statues, but rather an oboist's "pilgrimage" to the addresses occupied by the Lorée firm throughout the last century.
I had three former addresses to search for, and suddenly again realized that in the perspective of a century, the spot at which I had been visiting Lorée since 1948, 4 rue du Vert-Bois, had been the site of their operations for well over a third of the total time of their existence. Compared with the over thirty changes of residence made by Beethoven in roughly the same number of years that he lived in Vienna, these four moves by the Lorée company seemed decidedly modest and well within the scope of an afternoon walk. On starting out, as I had no mental picture of the relation of one address to the other, I decided to begin with the earliest address known to me at that time, 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. From the Place de l'Opéra, I followed the Grands Boulevards, the Boulevard des Italiens, the Boulevard Montmartre and the Boulevard Poissonière, until I arrived at the Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle where I turned left into the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Marking the entrance to this street is the Porte St. Denis, a rather flamboyant triumphal arch after the manner of the Romans, built in 1672 to celebrate the victories of Louis XIV on the Rhine. Before the construction of Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe at the Place de l'Etoile, it counted as the highest arch in Paris. On this particular Saturday afternoon, the narrow rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis was congested with automobile traffic and filled with the debris from the aftermath of a street market. Crates and produce boxes clogged the sidewalks, and it was with some difficulty that I made my way to number 29 which is now a "Hall des Vins."
According to Lyndesay Langwill, Lorée was at 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis in 1899, and although I was unable to ascertain exactly how long he remained there, it is possible to have some clue by means of the narrow silver address plaques which used to be inserted along the inner rim of the instrument cases. I have seen an old ring system English Horn, Y-74, belonging to Randall Wolfgang of New York, which has remained in its original box and has the address of 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis engraved on the silver strip. By consulting the handwritten notebook in which Lorée entered the number of each instrument, as well as the date and the name of the person to whom it was sold, it is possible to learn that this English Horn was made in 1909 and was sold to a M. Fachaux, and that therefore at this time Lorée was still in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. He must have moved not too long afterward however, as by 1913 the official catalogue of Lorée instruments shows the address of 70 rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin.
Returning to the boulevards, it was only a short walk to the Porte Saint-Martin a smaller, more austere and somber monument than its sister arch. It opens to the rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, a wide and impressive street, dominated by the elaborate neo-Gothic structure of the town hall of the 10th arrondissement. Directly across from the mairie on the corner of the rue du Chateau d'Eau and the rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, stands number 70, a six-story gray stucco and cement block building, which is probably the same one in which Lorée worked. It is very close to the rue de Bergère where the Paris Conservatory was located at the time that Georges Gillet taught there. It is easy to imagine Gillet making the short walk to the atelier where he carried on continual discussions and experiments with both the Lorées, eventually bringing the oboe to almost the exact form in which it has remained to this day.
To reach the next address, it was necessary to take the Métro, changing at the Place de la République near Lorée's present location, and continuing to the 19th arrondissement to descend at the stop "Belleville." Left behind was the Paris of the cheerful sidewalk cafés with well dressed crowds strolling the boulevards lined by theatres and cinemas. Now I was abruptly plunged into a working-class district with its drab mix of bare modern functional apartment buildings on one side of the street, and on the other, crumbling shops and ateliers with nothing even picturesque about them. Cracking walls alternated with the impersonal white plaster of redone façades. A few old multistory house fronts in their original form still bore traces of the trades and artisans which formerly abounded in this area, such as a six-story building whose peeling paint announced, "Horlogerie Bijouterie, Petit Orfevrerie. Maison fondé en 1857"--Clocks and Watches, Jewelry, Goldsmith. A few doors further up the hill is number 53 rue de Belleville. A carved wooden escutcheon above the entryway which leads to an inner courtyard, is the only remaining indication of its former appearance. It is quite impossible to tell on which floor Lorée worked. 53 rue de Belleville was Dubois' place of business, and after he took over the enterprise from Lucien Lorée, the instrument manufacture moved there, where it remained until relocating at 4 rue du Vert-Bois in 1938.
At the conclusion of this September excursion into Lorée history, I felt that I had identified all of the four places in Paris in which Lorée oboes had been made during the past 100 years, and that they all lay within a fairly compact area one from the other, none of them very far from the Place de la République. But a couple of months later, I learned that Lorée had started out at yet another address. Alain de Gourdon sent me a rare document, Lorée's announcement of setting up his own shop at 5 rue du Dragon after his many years with the firm of Triébert. If the rue du Dragon has not moved, (and 100 years is a short time in the life of a Paris street!), then it appears that François Lorée began in business for himself on the Left Bank, not far from the historic church of St. Germaindes-Prés. The notice reads:
Monsieur,
I have the honor to inform you that after having worked for 14 years in the firm of Triébert, I am going into business for myself. Having made all models without exception under his personal direction during 11 years, I am now in a position to provide you with instruments of the same manufacture as Monsieur Triébert. In the hope, Monsieur, that you will be good enough to reserve your orders for me.
With my attentive salutations,
LOREE
At the present, there is no way of knowing how long Lorée stayed at 5 rue du Dragon, but it raises the number of documented working sites to five in this first 100 years of Maison Lorée.
In order to understand François Lorée's rather modest announcement and his tone of deference to the name of Triébert one must review briefly the position of the House of Triébert in the development of the oboe in the 19th century. Working closely together with the eminent professors of the Paris Conservatory and some of their most illustrious disciples, (a tradition which was to continue later on with the Lorées), the Triébert family played a decisive role in the evolution of the oboe into its French form.
Adam Carse believes that certain French and German national lines could already be traced from as early as the 18th century through the instruments of Delusse in Paris as opposed to those of Grundmann and Grenser of Dresden. Outstanding examples by these three makers were on display in the exhibition "The Look of Music" at the Centennial Museum in Vancouver, B. C. during the winter of 1980-81. Especially noteworthy was an oboe made by Christophe Delusse, probably before 1789, with three alternate upper joints for changes of pitch. This beautiful boxwood oboe was once owned and played by Auguste-Gustave Vogt who taught at the Paris Conservatory from 1816 to 1853. Phillip T. Young, in the excellent catalogue accompanying the exhibition, says in his note describing this oboe, ". . . Delusse's tools were eventually bought by young Henri Brod, thus directly linking the mid-18th century to the modern Lorée." This is what Brod himself says in a footnote to the second part of his Oboe Method published in the late 1830's:
Having become the possessor of the drills for the bore and tools of the former instrument maker, Delusse, who excelled in the intonation, evenness and beauty of sound of his oboes which are still in great demand, I have undertaken, together with my brother, the fabrication of this instrument, hoping to make it known as it deserves to be, that which one could call the first among the wind instruments.
Henri Brod and Apollon Marie-Rose Barret, two pupils of Vogt who collaborated with the Triéberts, were to exercise major influence on the evolving French oboe -- Brod, largely through his conception of a refined tone quality and the slim lines given to the instruments he made, and Barret through many mechanical innovations.
According to his grandson, Raoul Triébert, Guillaume Triébert, who was born February 24, 1770 in Horndorf, Hesse, came to Paris from Germany on foot. He worked as early as 1804 under the instrument maker, Nicolas Winnen, and had by 1811 become a maître-facteur and also a citizen of France. His instruments, oboes English Horns and baryton oboes, were shown for the first time at the Exposition of 1827. The jury remarked on the fine quality of the Triébert instruments and in 1834 Guillaume's oboes were judged to be superior to all others of the same type which were on display that year.
Both of Guillaume Triébert's two sons played the oboe. The elder, Charles-Louis, was born on October 31, 1810. At the age of 16 he was admitted to the Conservatoire where he studied with Vogt. He received his Premier Prix in 1829 and many years later, from 1863 to 1867, was himself the oboe professor at the Conservatoire. Frédéric, born on May 8, 1813, was apprenticed to an engraver, Lecoq, in 1826, but left four years later and in 1839 was playing second oboe in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique. In 1846 he gave up playing in order to devote himself completely to manufacture. Upon the death of his father in 1848, he became the successor to the Triébert name.
It was about the year 1840 that Frédéric Triébert established the oboe system known as No. 3 which served as the base for all the changes to follow. It included the half-hole two octave keys, the double effect of Eb for the left hand little finger and the same distribution of the right hand C, C# and Eb keys that we know now. System No. 4, with some improvements, was favored by Charles Triébert, and with the addition of a low Bb key, it was also adopted by Barret. System No. 5 which appeared about 1860, included the permanent addition of the low Bb key. The control of the Bb and C keys by the right forefinger replacing the older thumb plate action, was the main feature of System No. 6.
Following the death of Frédéric Triébert on March 19, 1878, the firm was directed for a few weeks by Madame C. Dehais. Then it was bought by one of Triébert's workers Félix Paris, known as a very good key maker. After he went bankrupt, the name, or marque Triébert, was purchased in 1881 by Gautrot, and finally in 1882, passed on to Cuesnon. A Cuesnon catalogue mentions that their instruments may carry the name Gautrot ainé, Gautrot, Marquet, Tulou, Triébert, or no name at all if the customer so wishes. Constant Pierre, in his invaluable book Les Facteurs d'Instruments de Musique published in Paris in 1893, tells us that it is in this way that an excellent marque may pass into the hands of those incapable of making an instrument worthy of its name and traditions. For example, the name of Triébert belongs to the above mentioned company, but according to Pierre:
in actuality the succession has passed by right of furnishing instruments to the Conservatoire and to the National Schools of Music, to M. François Lorée the ex-chef d'atelier at Triébert since 1867, who has established himself in business in 1881 and has had the good fortune through the quality of his careful work, to obtain the approval of M. Georges Gillet, the distinguished professor of the Conservatoire and also that of the Jury of the Exposition Universelle of 1889. In the words of the jury, 'The English Horn had an even, pleasing, engaging tone quality, and the hautbois d'amour and the baryton had a particularly agreeable timbre. Constructed with extreme care, they have a great purity of sound and irreproachable intonation. Awarded the Silver Medal.'
Lorée's first baryton referred to above by the jury, was constructed in rosewood and by following closer to the form of the English Horn with its pear-shaped bell, turned out to be a more harmonious appearing instrument than some of the bass oboes by earlier makers which featured the bore doubled back inside of a "boot." There exists a certain confusion of terms in referring to the bass oboe in C. I have chosen to call it the baryton oboe, which is the way it is described in all Lorée catalogues, both in French and in English.
François Lorée, the founder of this respected firm, and the originator of the stamp F. Lorée which appears on every Lorée oboe to this day, was born in 1835 at La Couture-Boussey in the department of L'Eure, an area of Normandy long known for its specialization in the fabrication of woodwind instruments. This craft may have begun at La Couture as early as the 16th century, but it is sure that by the end of the 17th century, the Hotteterres who were from this region, were making instruments there. Constant Pierre reports that in 1893, of 780 inhabitants at La Couture, 300 worked either in the ateliers or at home, for ten different manufacturers. More than 60 were key makers alone and about 15 made accessories.
François Lorée grew up in an era which saw not only the development and the refinement of the construction of the oboe, but also an expansion in the general interest and popularity of woodwind instruments. Among the different categories of instrument manufacturers in 19th-century Paris, only wind, both woodwind and brass, saw an increase in production. The number of piano makers, for instance, dropped from 180 in 1847 to 55 in 1893. Constant Pierre credits the widespread popularity of both civil and military bands for the growth in demand for wind instruments. To meet this demand, many companies began to use steam and hydraulic power in order to produce mass quantities of instruments while employing fewer workers.
In the last decade of the 19th century, Pierre is already deploring the disappearance of the maiitre-facteur, the person who concentrates on only one family of instruments, fashioning every piece himself, his approach more that of an artist than of a man of commerce. Pierre refers to the great care which used to be taken to maintain a reputation "nobly acquired," and gives as examples, Delusse, Louis Lot, the Buffets and the Triéberts. Writing in 1893, he continues to reflect that there are now but very few people who continue this tradition and do the actual fabrication themselves, Lorée for oboes being one of this rare company. It was a tradition which was to be carried well into the 20th century by François' son, Lucien, and even today, in comparison with the production methods of many firms, the Lorée company under the guidance of the de Gourdon family, maintains a degree of personal involvement and care for their products that no doubt in large part accounts for their international renown.
François Lorée probably began to work for Triébert at a very early age, becoming first, chef de fabrication and then chef d'atelier in 1867. By the time he began to produce oboes under his own name, he was 46 years old. An early example of his work now in the possession of Alain de Gourdon, is the boxwood oboe A-5, a No. 6 system which was made for Weiss, probably Albert Weiss, a student in Gillet's class at the Conservatoire who received his Premier Prix in July 1882. Lorée kept a small notebook in which he carefully entered the name of each person to whom he sold an oboe--a description of the instrument (system and type of wood) and the number It is interesting to note that when A-6 was sold to Georges Longy, he would have been but 13 years old. The most frequently used wood in these first two years of Lorée's activity, seems to be boxwood, with palissandre (rosewood) in second place. It was at this time, 1882, that Lorée's System 6A was adopted by Georges Gillet as the official oboe for use at the Conservatoire. Other young Gillet pupils from the classes at the Conservatoire who acquired Lorée oboes or English Horns in 1881 and 1882, were Cesar-Paulin Aubert, Jean-Baptiste Chassaing, Alfred-François Robert, Jules-Victor Bertain, Henri Gunstoett, Désiré-Alfred Lalande, Maxime-Léon Maury and Louis Bas. An interesting customer in 1885 listed for two oboes, B-70, B-72 and a Barret system English Horn B-78, is entered in the book simply as "Reine d'Angleterre." None other than Queen Victoria of England was already patronizing Lorée! By 1885, a number of instruments were being made of ébène (ebony), the African blackwood from Mozambique which is now usually referred to as Grenadilla. The systems which Lorée sold varied between Nos. 4, 5, 6, Militaire, Barret or Boehm. With B-99 in 1885, François Lorée had completed 200 instruments. The numbering pattern was to continue through the alphabet, 1 through 99 for each letter, and then to recommence with double letters, AA-1 through AA-99, AB-1 through AB-99, until reaching AZ After that, except for one interlude, it progressed to BA, BB, BC, until in 1981 we have reached the series FP.
In 1908, the same year that he joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra to play under Arturo Toscanini and Alfred Hertz, the name of Tabuteau appears in Lorée's book for two oboes of the 1906 model, X-96 and X-97, and an English Horn, X-98. My first Lorée oboe, a ring system acquired in 1938, was AJ-37, while the instrument made for me by Dubois ten years later on the occasion of my first trip to Paris, was AN-59. English Horns and oboe d'amores are all included in the same numbering system. I feel extremely fortunate to have a beautiful rosewood oboe, A-92, made by François Lorée in 1883 which was originally sold to M. Dufour of the Bordeaux Conservatory. It is interesting to note that certain dimensions have remained so similar, that a 1981 reed made on a 47 mm. tube fits perfectly into the socket and plays in tune at A-440. It is a very light weight instrument, but has a warm and mellow tone, especially in the low register.
Upon the death of François Lorée in 1902, the succession passed to his son, Lucien. Lucien Adolphe Lorée was born in 1867 in La Couture, the same village as his father. At the age of 14, he began to work in his father's newly opened Paris shop. At that time it was the practice for very young boys to enter a trade, art or profession, and through learning every detail of the chosen craft, to eventually attain the most highly refined level of skill. In 1980, I heard Madame Decize of the Maison Decize, who have for years furnished the elegant Morocco leather cases for Lorée oboes, bewail the passing of the apprentice system. "The boys have to stay in school. They send me someone who is 16. At 16 it is too late to learn a métier such as this!"
As Lucien Lorée worked together with his father from the inception of the Lorée name, it is almost impossible to separate the elements of their accomplishments. The collaboration with Georges Gillet also provided an ongoing interchange of ideas which led to the development between the years 1900 and 1906, of one of the major changes in the evolution of the modem oboe. We may tend to forget that until that time, all oboes were made with open key rings, except for the half-hole and the perforated plate for the middle finger of the right hand. Although now out of fashion and no longer even manufactured by Lorée, open ring models continued for years to be favored by many players. The first Lorée oboe which I acquired in 1938 was a ring system, chosen in that lean period however, purely from the economic standpoint of a saving of $24.00 over the price of the plateaux model! I remember that I still had it when I started to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1943, and that it made Marcel Tabuteau quite unhappy as it had an automatic octave key which had been recommended by my California teacher, Julien Shanis. The main source of objection was the impossibility of obtaining the harmonic notes. However, as there was absolutely no way to procure a new oboe during the years of World War II, Tabuteau was forced to tolerate my playing this instrument. I remember that on occasion he did try it, and always liked the tone quality, even going so far as to say he thought the ring system oboes had a better sound and that it was good to start on one as it engendered correct finger placement through the obvious necessity of carefully covering the holes. Perhaps it also reminded him of the instruments which were current in his own youth.
The plateaux model which was finally introduced in 1906, added perforated plates to the three remaining open holes and a solid plate for the right hand first finger to match the other keys. According to Baines, one of the principal reasons for the covered keys was to obtain some better trills, but they also made possible more even finger action, especially in rapid passages.
This instrument, which was to become known as modified Conservatory System 1906 (No. 6 bis) or in England, more often simply "the Gillet system," is essentially the same instrument favored by most oboists in the United States today. Later additions were the forked F resonance key, the F key for the little finger of the left hand and the low B-C# combination. A fairly recent innovation is the low Bb resonance key on the bell.
The 1913 Lorée catalogue lists 11 different major key systems, each with several possible variants. Prices for the models offered at that time ranged from 240 francs to 790 francs, which at the rate of exchange then current, would be $46.00 to $152.00 for an oboe without the case. All prices were given with a choice of either nickel silver or solid silver for the keywork. The Conservatory System No. 6 bis cost $110.00 with German silver keys or $139.00 with solid silver keys. An English Horn with keys in silver listed at $159.00. An oboe d'amore could be ordered for $14.50 more than an oboe in any system up to No. 6, and could be made in either blackwood or rosewood. All barytons were made in rosewood, the price depending on the key system chosen by the customer.
A back page of the 1913 catalogue contains an interesting list of prices for cane reeds and accessories. Difficult to believe but cane for oboe or English Horn gouged only, was 5 francs (about $1.00) the hundred pieces. (Gouged and folded cost double that, $2.00 the hundred!) A section entitled "Remontage d'anches" offers the possibility of having new reeds made for any of the four instruments of the oboe family on used tubes. I like the footnote which admonishes, "Tubes to be remounted with reeds which are not reclaimed after the delay of a month from the time of their deposit, will be considered as abandoned." By the time of the 1922 catalogue, the prices in French francs had roughly doubled, but due to the rate of exchange, the cost of an instrument in dollars would have been only about 30% more. Prices were now quoted for keys in maillechort only, postwar currency fluctuation reflected in the column for silver which was left blank except for the notation, "according to the rate of exchange."
Lucien Lorée was more than willing to take the time to experiment or to make a special design according to the wishes or requirements of each individual client, almost like an order for custom-made clothing from a maison of haute couture. He would, with great care, draw up a set of precise plans with all the dimensions for the various systems and would also make working models of a proposed combination of keys or for a special mechanism. I remember Monsieur Dubois once showing me drawers filled with Lorée's meticulously executed drawings, patterns and specifications, resembling the plans of an architect. There survive until today, little boxes, all labeled by Lorée, containing a jumble of hundreds of sample devices. One I saw, is marked, "peu pratique à usage" -- no practical application.
Lucien Lorée continued the close relationship with the pupils of Gillet which had been established by his father. There are still in existence many pictures signed with testimonials of gratitude to Lorée from these young oboists, many of whom were to make brilliant careers -- among them, Alfred Barthel, Fernand Gillet, Michel Nazzi and Gillet's one woman student, Odette Rey. A photograph of Gillet with his whole class of 12 young men from about the year 1912 is autographed by each one. By now, there are probably only two or three of those students still living whose memories include visits to the Lorée shop. One of them, Albert Debondue, now 86, who lives in the Loire Valley, wrote to me recently about Lorée. "He was a good man, always even tempered; all the pupils of the class were very fond of him and could ask him for any kind of help with our instruments, he was always ready to be of service. He was a master in his specialty--sometimes we even took a little advantage of his good nature, but it didn't make any difference to him. He was always happy and considered us more or less like his children."
Other people who have shared with me their personal impressions of Lucien Lorée, are all in agreement on one subject--his unfailing amiable disposition. Madame Decize remembers Lorée as "a round and smiling man," and said that he liked to joke. As a small child, she would accompany her father when he delivered the instrument cases and Lorée would play with her. She followed him around the floor when he got down on his hands and knees to look for a tiny pin which had fallen from his workbench. Mrs. Fernand Gillet's memories of Lorée date from the early 1930's when she and her husband were guests of the Lorée family at "sumptuous dinners." She recalls that Lucien was of a stocky build and not very tall with a kind and jovial expression.
Lorée had a large family of two sons and three daughters. The elder son who was very capable and adept, had already started to do some work with his father. Unfortunately, he was killed in the War of 1914-18. Whether it was disappointment over the loss of this talented son who was destined to carry on the firm, or whether it was the financial difficulties of the postwar period, in 1925 Lorée decided to sell his company to Raymond Dubois, a colleague with whom he had cordial relations. In this way, he was able to provide an equal sum for each of his remaining children to get a start in life, rather than leaving an inheritance over which there could later be a dispute. Also, in 1925 Lorée was 58, and perhaps by that time he was indeed glad to leave the business details in the hands of Dubois, while he continued to occupy himself solely with working on oboes. It could have been a difficult position for Lorée to be employed by someone else in the company of which he had been the owner, but one has the impression that it was a satisfactory solution. Dubois was above all, a clever businessman, and he left Lorée to continue producing quality oboes, always according to the wishes of each client. Madame Raymonde de Gourdon, Dubois' daughter recalls that Lorée maintained an almost obsequious and very deferential manner toward her father. "He stayed in his corner; he had his place. He did nothing to oppose Monsieur Dubois. He was very diplomatic. He would say, 'Oui, Monsieur Dubois.' Monsieur Lorée was very smart -- he would do exactly what he wanted to, while at the same time giving Monsieur Dubois the impression that he was carrying out his wishes." Surely a familiar tactic to any solo oboist who is constrained to show complete agreement to the ideas presented by the conductor during rehearsals, but then in the concert, plays his own way!
Madame de Gourdon was also of the opinion that Lorée had a amiable and pleasant personality. She, too, used the word "jovial" to describe his general character. She added that he was very punctilious and extremely orderly, even in such small matters as winding his watch and that he would do exactly the same things at the same hour every day. Nothing unforeseen. He was fastidious in matters of dress and she can still see him going out to walk carrying his cane.
Lorée had a house at Le Perreux-sur-Marne in the Val de Marne about 13 kilometers to the east of Paris. It was there that he was living with his wife, Pauline in the winter of 1944-45 during the last months of World War II. Because there was no fuel for heating and it was very cold at the country villa, one of his daughters suggested that her parents come into a small apartment in Paris. There was a gas radiator which did not, function well and while asleep, the Lorées were both overcome by fumes. His wife died first and he followed on January 4, 1945, without ever regaining consciousness. The asphyxiation of this incomparable artisan and his wife, was a tragedy which shocked relatives and friends in all parts of the world, and to think of it saddens one to this day.
Raymond Dubois, although never primarily an oboe maker, shared a similar background in woodwinds, so that it was as a friend and a colleague that he added the Lorée name to his already flourishing instrument enterprises. Born on November 5, 1887, just 20 years after Lucien Lorée, in the same part of the country at Ezy near La Couture, he began working for the firm of Cuesnon at the age of 14, eventually attaining the rank of contre-maître. He played the clarinet, and in the 1920's he manufactured clarinets as well as saxophones under his own-name in the rue de Belleville. When he acquired the Lorée firm, he moved the whole enterprise to the rue de Belleville at that time a thriving quarter of artisans and craftsmen. Later in 1938, he established the Maison Lorée at 4 rue du Vert-Bois where it remains to this day.
Dubois had a home in La Varenne St. Hilaire in Val de Marne, the same suburb to the east of Paris where Lorée lived. Photographs taken there in the mid-1930's reflect happy gatherings in the garden on summer afternoons, shared with the Lorées, Tabuteau and the young de Gourdons.
In 1939, with the worsening of the general political situation in Europe and the beginnings of the war, Dubois foreseeing still greater difficulties to come, moved the Lorée operations out of Paris to a factory which he had in the department of L'Eure. He worked there together with Lorée continuing to make a few oboes until 1945. For awhile they had to set themselves up in a country house which Dubois owned about two kilometers from La Couture making oboes at an improvised workbench in the kitchen. The record book shows the diminishing number of instruments turned out per year -- 35 in 1941; 19 in 1942, 8 in 1943. One can easily imagine that both materials and skilled workers were lacking during this period of deprivation. Just as the war was ending, the sudden death of Lorée left Dubois, who had never been technically concerned with oboe production itself, facing the problem of rebuilding the firm. With the aid of a few workers, Dubois started again at 4 rue du Vert-Bois, but the prestige of the Lorée name was beginning to wane. One remembers the great demand for the almost legendary AK series, the last oboes made before the war.
It was in 1948 that I met Monsieur Dubois for the first time. In retrospect, I realize that this was not long after the years of which I now write as "history," but at the time, they seemed very distant to me. My understanding was that I was not to "order" an oboe from Monsieur Dubois, but rather to find a diplomatic way to ask if he would consider making one for me. I remember sitting in the back office struggling to converse in French and to comprehend Dubois as he spoke in a very low voice, partly swallowing his words, a cigarette constantly dangling from the corner of his mouth. He always seemed to have time to chat or to go out for a glass of Pernod, but when it came to the question of the oboe, he would not promise anything. He complained about the difficulties with the customs and the taxes and would ask what day I'd be leaving France. To my inquiries as to whether the instrument would be ready, the response was always, "perhaps" or "it all depends." Four days before my departure, the keys were not yet on the oboe, but by some miracle AN-59 was completed and later declared by Tabuteau to be the best oboe he had seen in some time. Despite his evasive manner, I felt that Dubois had taken a good deal of care with that oboe and I played it for several years including in the 1950 Casals Bach Festival in Prades.
Throughout the early 1950's, Dubois continued to produce a limited number of oboes and English Horns with the small crew of workers he had assembled. There were, however, many problems with the instruments, and as Dubois' health began to fail, he came to depend more and more on his son-in-law, Robert de Gourdon. In March 1954 Dubois wrote to me from the hospital where he had undergone an operation, to tell me that Monsieur de Gourdon would be glad to see me on my forthcoming visit to Paris in April. Although Dubois partially recuperated, eventually he was no longer able to come in to work, and after his death on February 4, 1957, the succession of the House of Lorée passed to Robert de Gourdon.
At that time, de Gourdon continued to employ Lucien Lorée's surviving son, Marcel. Marcel Lorée worked for the firm as a key finisher until his retirement in 1964. He died in the late 1970's; his only son is now occupied in a totally different line of work.
[Picture of Robert de Gourdon]
Robert de Gourdon was born on June 11, 1912. As a young man, he was always interested in mechanics and at one time his main wish was to work on automobiles. In 1935, however, he married Mademoiselle Dubois, and immediately began to work for his father-in-law. At first he was concerned mainly with clarinets and did very little with oboes, as Lucien Lorée was always there. It was nevertheless inevitable that he would observe Lorée at work and absorb much of his approach and his methods. Later on, after the war, when Dubois became ill and much of the responsibility fell to de Gourdon, he had to search for solutions by himself and try to remember what he had seen Lorée do.
Speaking in the Fall of 1980 about his early days in the métier, de Gourdon explained that it was not easy to learn from the older workers. He said there was usually a certain element of secrecy and almost jealous guarding of working techniques. A co-worker would say, "This the way it is finished," but would not show how he had done it. As de Gourdon recalled, the machinery itself was there, and with his facility for mechanical matters, he set about to search and analyze, constantly making changes and corrections. In the early 1950's, de Gourdon had worked primarily with the operation of the bore of the oboes, but subsequently he had to learn every other process.
It was about at this same period that Marcel Tabuteau again began to make frequent visits to the Lorée shop, spending long days working together with de Gourdon. This close relationship continued after Tabuteau retired from the Philadelphia Orchestra and returned to live in France in 1954. It had a decisive influence in assuring that the Lorée oboe continued to develop and reflect the characteristics that were in demand by players in the United States, many of whom were students of Tabuteau.
Through Robert de Gourdon's untiring efforts and dedication to quality, the Lorée oboe had by the 1960's again achieved a distinguished reputation. Just as the first two Lorées, father and son, worked in close association with Georges Gillet and his pupils, so was this tradition to be continued many decades later by another father and son. For Robert's son Alain, entered very early into the oboe-making craft. He literally grew up in the factory. As a small child, he attended a nearby school and after classes, as his father worked late into the night, he would come and play on the floor of the shop instead of going home. In place of a child's building blocks, his toys were pieces of cork, scraps of metal and instrument keys. Alain did his homework in the Lorée office. He watched his father working on oboes and gradually he was also given little bits of work to do. At age twelve he began to study the oboe with Gaston Longatte at the Conservatoire de Versailles, eventually earning the Premier Prix at that school. That he would enter any other profession than that of oboe-making, never even came in question.
Although it has been necessary for the Lorée firm to "go with the times" and modernize in certain areas, (no longer the leisurely two hour Parisian lunchtime of yesteryear), still the personal attention to the wishes of each client, and the control of every instrument that leaves the shop has not been sacrificed. Today Alain sits at his workbench putting the finishing touches with care on each oboe, far from the contemporary assembly line mentality. Even if not the profusion of models that were available in earlier years, the de Gourdons are proud that they can again offer many types of oboes. The hautbois d'amour is much in demand and 1980 has seen the restitution of the baryton oboe to the Lorée catalogue.
Conscious of the tradition and the heritage of the Lorée name, Alain cherishes the historic boxwood oboe number A-5 from François Lorée's first year of production. The walls of his workroom are covered with photographs signed with appreciative words from the world's oboists. Key figures in the firm's history, François Lorée, Lucien Lorée and Georges Gillet, look serenely down from their places of honor.
In the same back office where I used to talk with Dubois, Alain's sister Anne carries on the international correspondence for the firm. An occasional visit from Madame Raymonde de Gourdon completes the feeling of a family enterprise. In celebrating the 100th anniversary of F. Lorée, oboists the world over can be grateful that this most illustrious name in the history of their instrument is being carried forward under the aegis of the de Gourdon family, whose dedicated endeavors have brought the art of oboe-making to a new level of excellence.
Photo credits: Nos. 1, 3, 9, 12-17/Laila Storch; Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11/Collection Loré; courtesy Alain de Gourdon; No. 5/ Loaned by Hans Moennig.
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