SELMER's History

SELMER

In 1844 the French clarinet maker Louis Auguste Buffet collaborated with the celebrated clarinet virtuoso and Paris Conservatory instructor Hyacinthe Eleonore Klosé to create an instrument with seventeen keys and five of Theobald Boehm's brille rings. This new system was not called the "Buffet-Klosé system" as it should have been, but instead it was called the "Boehm-Klosé system" clar­inet. In time it would become the standard clarinet of France and the Americas, and the most popular system in England.

A student of Klosé and a renowned clarinetist during his time was Fréderic Selmer. His sons were Henri and Alexandre Selmer, both professional clarinetists. The elder Selmer was painfully aware of the limitations of the instruments available to him. They had intonation problems and didn't sound as well as he imagined that they should sound. He yearned for better quality instruments and succeeded to impress his dreams upon his two sons.

In 1885 Henri Selmer founded H. and A. Selmer & Cie. He abandoned his career as a performer to do full-time research to improve the instrument and its manufacture. Meanwhile his brother Alexandre rose to prominence as a clarin­etist in French and American orchestras. Alexandre became principle clarinetist in the New York Philharmonic. While playing with New York he returned to France and brought back with him several of his brother's clarinets and began using them in the orchestra. Other players heard and played them, and the instruments created such a sensation that the Selmer's soon were receiving numerous orders. Alexandre obliged by opening a retail shop in New York City in hopes of satis­fying the demand for Selmer-made products.

Alexandre was also actively teaching while in New York, and one of his students was George M. Bundy, a native of Indianapolis. Bundy was fascinated with the Selmer clarinets. After a few years in New York, Alexandre decided to return to France and help his brother with the business, and he left Bundy in charge of the New York store. But Bundy had far greater aspirations. He wanted to set up a Selmer factory in America. With the help of Carl Greenleaf, in 1927 Bundy opened the new American Selmer company in Elkhart. They began to make designated Selmer (USA) instruments and to continue to import Selmer (Paris) products.

Selmer gradually became one of the giants of musical instrument manufacturing by acquiring other companies. In 1958 Selmer bought Harry Pedler and Sons. It is said that the Pedler tooling was used to start Selmer's satellite the Bundy Band Instrument Corporation founded in that year and named in honor of George Bundy who had died in 1951. Initially Bundy was a separate operation from Selmer, but it was merged to its parent in 1965, and the Bundy trademark is used on Selmer's student line instruments.

In 1963 Selmer bought the Buescher Band Instrument Company and infrequently uses the Buescher trademark on some instruments marketed overseas.

In 1963 Selmer purchased the prestigious Vincent Bach Corporation, and in 1965 the factory was moved from Mt. Vernon NY to Elkhart. Bach's know-how aided the development of Bundy brass instruments, and Vincent Bach was retained as a consultant by Selmer until his death in 1976.

In 1968 Selmer bought the Lesher Woodwind Company, a manufacturer of oboes and bassoons. Lesher had been making instruments for Selmer and putting the Selmer trademark on them. After the buyout Selmer dropped the Lesher trademark and used Lesher's tooling.

In 1978 Selmer acquired Glaesel Stringed Instrument Services of Cleveland, Ohio and chose to continue the Cleveland operation as before. n

In 1981 Selmer acquired Ludwig Industries, the world-renowned manufacturer of percussion instruments.

With the exit of C.G. Conn Ltd. from Elkhart in 1972, Selmer became Elkhart's largest manufacturer along with becoming one of the largest music companies in the world. It has managed to supplant Conn as America's leader in the industry.