Dipl. Ing. Franz Groffy, proprietor and former director of the world-famous bassoon workshop of Heckel in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, W. Germany, died suddenly of heart failure on October 13, 1972.
With him died a man who for 20 years stood at the head of the Heckel firm, a family business founded in 1831 by J.A. Heckel and Carl Almenraeder.
Franz Groffy was born March 3rd, 1896, in Bacharach on the Rhine. He studied at the Darmstadt University where he acquired his M.Sc. as a physical engineer. He joined the Heckel firm in 1924, starting as an apprentice in the workshop. Beginning at the bottom by trying to cut and shape a piece of wood square, notwithstanding his degree in engineering - both he and his employer, Wilhelm Hermann Heckel, were of the opinion that in learning to make the best of bassoons, one had to commence at the very beginning.
In the course of time and after having learned how to make a complete bassoon himself, he joined the staff and from then on became increasingly occupied with theoretical and mathematical work. As a Darmstadt University graduate he was thoroughly acquainted with theoretical and practical acoustics. When in 1939 the a=440 Hz. was accepted as the international standard tuning pitch, he calculated the new-pitched bassoon and redesigned the instrument to comply with the new standard. In the course of the following years he was active both as an assistant to Wilhelm H. Heckel in directing the business and as a technical collaborator redesigning and improving minor details of the instrument, particularly the key mechanism. It was also Franz Groffy who calculated the then-new "parabolic" series of bocals, an extensive series based on intricate calculations, enabling the manufacture of over 200 different types. This series was designed to adjust older bassoons to the new pitch and in addition (proving in the course of time to be its most important use) to improve the tonal qualities and the pitch of various other makes of bassoons.
He occupied himself also with the manufacture and improvement of the Heckel Contrabassoon.
He married Wilhelm Heckel's only daughter, Elsa, a most lovely and clever woman, who was his never-failing assistant in handling the administration and correspondence of the firm. They had two daughters of which the eldest, Gisela, married Adolf Gebhard, a most able instrument-maker and technologist who grew into the business as workshop manager.
When in 1952 Wilhelm Heckel died, Franz Groffy took over, carrying on the old and famous family firm in the best of the Heckel tradition, assisted by his wife. One of the main features of this tradition was in keeping the firm small, making bassoons only in a workshop with a small number of employees, irrespective of the demand for instruments. Although on several occasions large sums were offered by banking firms for him to turn his modest workshop into a large factory, Franz Groffy, in the good Heckel tradition, always refused, pointing out that good bassoons have to be made in small series, not in masses; that such first-class instruments are the result of hand work and personal craftsmanship, not the outcome of a street length of automatic machines.
After the death of his father-in-law he made some slight changes in the management. He appointed his son-in-law, Adolf Gebhard, chief manager of the workshops and stopped the manufacture of smaller woodwind instruments (under Wilhelm Heckel's directorship they also manufactured flutes, oboes, clarinets and other smaller woodwinds. Franz Groffy limited the production to only bassoons, contrabassoons and Heckelphones) .
His youngest daughter, Edith, studied at the Wiesbaden instrument-makers' school and then started making bassoons in the Heckel workshop.
Besides heading the firm for 20 years, Franz Groffy was interested in practical music and in the history and development of woodwind instruments, of which he had an extensive knowledge.
Now that he has gone, the Heckel business will be carried on by Mr. Adolf Gebhard as director and co-proprietor. Particularly during the last 10 years, when Franz Groffy had to retire slowly and increasingly from the business as a result of heart disease, Adolf Gebhard has been shown already able to carry on the firm in the right way and in the Heckel tradition.
Under his directorship and management of the workshop, excellent bassoons and contras are turned out, and it is with full confidence that the world of music can look in Mr. Gebhard's direction. A master himself in the art of making the best of bassoons, he will carry on unerringly the long way, trodden since 1831 by Johann Adam Heckel (1812- 1877), Carl Almenraeder (1786-1843), Wilhelm Heckel (1856-1909), Wilhelm Hermann Heckel (1879-1952) and Franz Groffy (1896-1972). Assisted by his wife, Gisela, his sister-in-law Edith and her husband, Mr. Reiter, the family tradition goes on.
Will Jansen