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Georges-Vital-Victor Gillet (May 17, 1854 – February 8, 1920) was a French oboist, teacher, and composer. influential as a soloist, teacher, manufacturer, and composer through his sets of études. In addition to premiering the oboe works of prominent French composers of the 19th century, including Émile Paladilhe, Charles-Édouard Lefebvre, and Clémence de Grandval, and Camille Saint-Saëns, among others. Gillet was the teacher of Fernand Gillet and Marcel Tabuteau, and he helped develop the F. Lorée brand of oboe and composed a number of études that are still used today.

Contents

• 1Biography
• 2Work with Lorée
• 3Compositions
• 4References

Biography[edit]

Born into a musical family in Louviers on 17 May 1854, Gillet his brother, cellist and composer, Ernest Gillet (1856–1940) were child prodigies. Gillet began studying the oboe when he was twelve and, less than a year later, entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Charles Colin. He received the premier prix in 1869 at 15 years old. After graduating, he held oboe positions with the Comédie-Italienne, Concerts Colonne, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Opéra-Comique, and the Paris Opera, as well as a longtime teaching position at the Paris Conservatory from 1882 to 1919. In addition to orchestra and teaching positions, Gillet was a founding member of the Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent (Chamber Music Society for Wind Instruments) with Paul Taffanel, Charles-Paul Turban, Camille Saint-Saëns, with whom he premiered works by Charles Gounod, Lefebvre, Saint-Saëns, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Gillet was well respected in 19th Century France, with his nephew Fernand later stating that his sound, technique and reed making were "the envy of all"--citation.

Gillet retired due to health reasons in 1919, died February 8, 1920 at the age of 65, and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery.

Paris Conservatory

As a teacher, two of Gillet's most notable students were his nephew, Fernand Gillet, and Marcel Tabuteau. Tabuteau used his teacher's methods to adapt a new playing style in America. Other students included two principal oboists of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Albert Weiss and Georges Longy), Alfred Barthel (principal of the Chicago Symphony), Louis Speyer, and Alexandre Duvoir. Gillet was credited with introducing vibrato at the Paris Conservatory as well as teaching students to warm up by playing three chromatic scales in thirds in any given practice session. Gillet greatly cared about his students, so his life became increasingly strained when three of them were killed in World War I.

While at the conservatory, Gillet composed a set of etudes, Etudes pur L'enseignement Superieur du Hautbois, described below under 3Compositions. (need more details on the gillet studies)

Work with Lorée[edit]

Together with François Lorée and his son Adolphe Lucien Lorée, Gillet made F. Lorée oboes one of the most popular brands manufactured. Before Lorée was established in 1881, the dominant oboe manufacturer was Triebert, headed by Fréderic Triebert. The company was established when Lorée left his job as the foreman of Triebert. According to Laila Storch, Gillet encouraged Lorée to open his own company. Gillet quickly designated Lorée oboes as the required brand to be used by students attending the Paris Conservatory. In 1906, Lorée's son, Lucien, collaborated with Gillet to create the "conservatory plateau system" of oboe making, a style that is used frequently today.

Need more information about the systems and changes made during this trial period.

Compositions[edit]

Gillet also composed a set of études titled Études pour L'enseignement Supérieur du Hautbois, or Studies for the Advanced Teaching of the Oboe, which have become a standard part of oboe repertoire. In the introduction to the études, Gillet stated that he wrote the studies for his students in order to be able to play the increasingly difficult solo and orchestral repertoire for the oboe and that composers should use the études as a rough guide to the technical possibilities of the oboe.

I have tried to make the reading of [the studies] as arduous as possible in order to prepare you for all the surprises I have found in the orchestra and in certain sight-reading pieces at examinations and contests, and I have taken particular care to include numerous and very difficult passages and articulations, as well as certain high and low trills…I hope that it will make you familiar with every difficulty of your instrument; I shall be amply rewarded for my trouble if it is conducive to your progress and if it is of material help in developing your budding talent and in perfecting you in the very difficult art of the oboe.

The études are in common use today, and oboist John de Lancie used the étude book as the fourth and final book in forming his students at the Curtis Institute of Music.