Gouvy: A life spent between France and Germany

Gouvy is a name still familiar to many people in the Lorraine region of France, and one that was associated until not so long ago with the metallurgical industry and with metalworking. Indeed, the Gouvy family firm existed for two and a half centuries in a Sarre-Lorraine whose turbulent history meant that for many years it was buffeted between two cultures, German and French. However, one member of the family – Théodore Gouvy – was a talented composer, who led a distinguished career in France and Germany, but then, like many other musicians of the French Romantic period, was forgotten after the Second World War.