Louis Blache Anniversary
Is there anyone under the age of 30 who reveres Louis Blache's name, the 50th anniversary of whose death is later this year? If a special two-day event/conference/festival were planned around Blache's life and work to observe this anniversary, to include visiting speakers and special organ concerts and visits to places associated with his career, who would be interested in attending? I'd be grateful for your views.

Hello Jory Sounds interesting - I'd be up for it, I have always enjoyed listening to Louis Blache's arrangements on many organs, particularly 46/48 key and 87/89 key instruments. If an event were to be held, lets say at Amersham, I think this would go down a treat for lots of organ enthusiasts. It's a shame that apart from the recent A&R Marenghi C.D and the two C.D's of Jack Hutchinson's Bruder, there doesn't appear to be many recent recordings of some of Blache's music available. Regards David

If it wasn't so far for me, I'd gladly attend an event to honour one of the grea-*test*-('") arrangers of all times!

Jory, I agree with David. If you are looking to arrange an event at Teddy Reed's, I would certainly be interested. Regards, Aubrey

Hello everyone, I think that judging from the turn out & appreciation to the previous event at Amersham in April, it would be a success if advertised properly. Although you are only talking about a limited number of organ enthusiasts who would be interested or aware of the historical importance. It's about time music arrangers got this kind of recognition, particularly the uncredited ones. Rob.

I'm grateful for your thoughts on this topic. I think the special opening of the collection on the Sunday of the Heritage Weekend (9th Sep) will be the closest thing we do to a Blache "special". But it is something that I think is lacking in UK...opportunities to have talks and discussion relating to mechanical music-related topics. The talks upstairs in the Elztal Museum at the last Waldkirch Organ Festival on subjects, such early Gavioli products, the history of the Limonaire Factory, etc were a very welcome development. I hope they do some more at next year's festival.

There's 5 very interesting 20s music books on sale and one is by "L Blache" - the same fellow? Working for Limonaire? Any thoughts? http://cgi.ebay.fr/bande-perforee-pour-limonaire-ou-orgue-de-barbarie_W0QQitemZ170234405791 click the sellers' "other items" (sorry : "Afficher les autres objets du vendeur") for the other titles -there's Charleston / Zaza etc etc

There's 5 very interesting 20s music books on sale and one is by "L Blache" - the same fellow? Working for Limonaire? Any thoughts? http://cgi.ebay.fr/bande-perforee-pour-limonaire-ou-orgue-de-barbarie_W0QQitemZ170234405791 click the sellers' "other items" (sorry : "Afficher les autres objets du vendeur") for the other titles -there's Charleston / Zaza etc etc

Could well be a Louis Blache, Adam. I believe he worked in the early part of the 20th century in Paris as piano notuer & then he moved on to Gavioli. Regards Robert Washington :org:

I wonder why the leader is narrower than the rest of the book? Robert :org:

I think it's all the same size. The leader end is flat on the floor the next two fold are vertically uptowards the camera and the leaf open at the top of the page is on the top of the rest of the folder book i.e. closer to the camera than the leader on the floor hence it looks bigger that's all.

....maybe it's a Louis Blache original composition! Surely it'd otherwise unusual for Limonaire to have a noteur's name on a factory product?

Hi everyone, This book is almost definitely one of the arrangements Louis Blache made during his time at Limonaire. It is pretty well documented that he started his mechanical music career at Pleyel in Paris, before moving onto Limonaire Freres sometime around the turn the turn of the century. He has been positively identified as the gentleman sitting at the marking barrel in one of the series of photographs taken in 1905 from the Roger-Viollet archive. As a composer as well as an arranger, he did get to mark some of his own compositions and even had an album of them published. The story goes that when he was called up for war service in 1914, Limonaire Freres promised to keep his job open for him should he return. Although he did, they did not keep their word, and the rest is history. Limonaire's loss was Chiappa's gain. Robert, I think you'll find the card is the same width throughout, just the way it has been unfolded creates an optical illusion! Jeremy.

Aha! There was me thinking there was a story behind this!!!!!! Robert :org:

Blache began at Pleyel's the piano-makers and then Gavioli and then Limonaire. Can I add the gloss to Jeremy's account that after the 1st world war LB had three offers to choose from (according to his grandson who is also called Louis Blache): besides England, he could have worked in Belgium (no surprises there!), or USA. I wonder who in America offered LB a job? Does anyone know? North Towanda Factory? Welte? Berni? Wurlitzer? I'd be grateful for your thoughts...