If you’re a flutist, you almost certainly know the name “Philippe Gaubert.” But if you’re not a flutist, you probably don’t. And yet Philippe Gaubert was one of the most famous and important French musicians of the first half of the twentieth century. As a teenager in the 1890s, Gaubert studied the flute at the Paris Conservatory with the great French flutist Paul Taffanel, and eventually the signature style of the legendary teacher and his brilliant pupil became known as “the French method.” Taffanel and Gaubert collaborated on a teaching text called Méthode Complète de Flûte, “Complete Flute Method,” usually called simply “Taffanel/Gaubert” by the countless flutists all over the world who still use it. Gaubert himself, though, didn’t just stick to the flute. He became a fine composer and a distinguished conductor, eventually rising to the exalted and powerful position of director of the Paris Opera. Philippe Gaubert – a musician famous in his time, known mainly to specialists in ours.
This has been A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.
