BizAims

The G. Leblanc Corporation is one of the world's leading makers of woodwind and brass instruments. The company manufactures instruments under the brand names Leblanc, Noblet, Normandy, Vito, Holton, Martin, and Courtois. Leblanc's Holton subsidiary is the world's largest maker of French horns, and makes other brass instruments as well. Leblanc's Martin subsidiary is known for an esteemed line of trumpets, and specializes in smaller brasses. Leblanc also manufactures instrument cases and woodwind mouthpieces. Leblanc operates three factories in the United States, in Kenosha and Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and one plant in La Couture-Boussey, France. The company was originally set up as a joint venture with a French company, Leblanc S.A. Leblanc S.A. was one of the oldest corporations in France, tracing its roots back to 1750. Leblanc USA purchased a majority interest in the French company in 1989, then acquired the entire firm in 1993. Leblanc has been a key promoter of school music programs in the United States from the 1950s onward. The company manufactured an improved line of instruments for beginning students and helped establish the type of instrument rental practice that is now an industry standard. The company helped organize the school musical instrument sales industry, and its efforts led to the founding of the National Association of School Music Dealers.

18th-Century French Antecedents

The G. Leblanc Corporation harks back to the reign of Louis XV in France. The king promoted music at his court, leading to a new French musical instrument industry. The firm of Ets. D. Noblet was founded in 1750 in La Couture-Boussey to make woodwind instruments. Noblet was known for its clarinets and helped make France a European center for woodwind manufacturing. Members of the Noblet family operated the company until 1904. In that year, the last Noblet died without an heir, so the firm passed to Georges Leblanc. Leblanc was also a member of an illustrious family of woodwind makers, thought to be the best at his craft in all France. His firm, G. Leblanc Cie., was centered in Paris. Leblanc continued to manufacture the Noblet line of clarinets at La Couture-Boussey, while making improvements to Leblanc instruments in his Paris workshop. The business was a family affair. While Georges fought in World War I, his wife Clemence managed the factory. Later his son Leon greatly expanded and improved the business. The Leblanc family also worked with Charles Houvenaghel, a famed acoustic scientist. Houvenaghel and Leblanc set up an acoustical research laboratory, the first of its kind, and applied their research to instrument manufacture. Leblanc and Houvenaghel designed new clarinets in unusual ranges. They eventually made a line of clarinets ranging from the piccolo-like sopranino to the extremely low octo-contrabass--a whole clarinet choir, with a greater pitch spread than a string orchestra.

Leon Leblanc took his company's scientific principles even farther. Leon was a gifted clarinetist who took the top prize at the Paris Conservetoire as a young man. Although he could have had a great career as a performer, Leon chose to stay with the family business and apply his musical insight to instrument manufacture. He dedicated his life to bringing acoustical, mechanical, and musical improvements to woodwind instruments. Although Leblanc's instruments were almost entirely handmade, Leon Leblanc insisted that the craftsmen follow careful measurements. "Music is an art, but it is still governed by the laws of science," he declared (Music Trades, July 1996). As a result, Leblanc instruments were more consistent than those that had come before. The company continued to strive for consistent quality, ease of playability, and mechanical innovation, throughout its history.

Postwar Beginnings of the American Firm

G. Leblanc Cie. had worked with an American distributor since 1921. It gave exclusive rights to U.S. distribution to Walter Gretsch, who ran the large musical instrument company Gretsch & Brenner. Although the Leblanc family had strong personal ties to Walter Gretsch, the arrangement had many problems. The Leblanc instruments came from France by sea, and arrived in New York in terrible shape, out of tune and sticky from two weeks of exposure to damp and cold. Gretsch sold the instruments in this condition, much to the distress of the French manufacturer. But because Gretsch handled many product lines, he did not devote particular care to the Leblanc clarinets, and he did not have the time to acclimate and recondition the imports. Thus, the Leblancs were already thinking of an alternative to this distributorship when they met a young U.S. soldier in 1945. This was Vito Pascucci. >>>Continue>>>Part 2.