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Last night I had a very pleasant surprise in my inbox. Blog reader Jay Anderson had seen my previous post on Maxime-Alphonse and got inspired and wrote publisher Alphonse Leduc to see if they had biographical data on file for Maxime-Alphonse. And they replied with a scan of a page of biographical information in French! Then I forwarded that page to fellow horn history enthusiast and current IHS president Jeff Snedeker and he replied with an English translation, as follows.
Maxime-Alphonse (pseudonym)
Born about 1880—Died in 1930
Won the Premier Prix in horn at the Paris Conservatoire.
Was a soloist at Monte Carlo, Concerts Pasdeloup, Opera Comique.
Compositions: Instrumental etudes for horn.
Maxime-Alphonse was both a teacher and a virtuoso hornist.
His etude books were conceived slowly and are mature [works]. They have been very successful because they correspond to actual needs and the use of the horn in contemporary music.
They are widely in use in the USA and especially in Italy.
Jean Marie Maximin François Alphonse (birth name)
says Griet
The original document is type written except for the hand written notation at the beginning that Maxime-Alphonse is in fact a pseudonym and last two lines which give his actual birth name. I hope someone out there takes this trail even further, but it is great to have these new details on this very important hornist of the twentieth century.
UPDATE: Jay Anderson forwarded further information received from the Paris Conservatory:
Jean Marie Maximin François ALPHONSE, known as GRIET, was born December 31, 1880 in Roanne (Loire). He won the Premier Prix de Cor at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1903.
