Duvernoy belonged to that founding generation which established the fame of French horn playing and passed it on through a school of its own. He was born in Montbéliard on 16 October 1765 and joined the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne as a hornist in 1788. In 1797 he moved to the Paris Opéra, where he worked as solo hornist from 1799 onwards. In 1801 he was released from regular opera duties, together with the other principal wind players, in order to concentrate on solo work. From that time he also played in the „Chapelle de Musique“, which had been re-established by Napoleon Bonaparte – said to have been an admirer of Duvernoy’s.
From 1795 he also taught, at times alongside eight other hornists, at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique, where different schools of horn playing developed. The division into 1st and 2nd horn had long existed; the hornist Rodolphe favoured a comprehensive use of the full range, while Jean Joseph Kenn, and later especially Dauprat, argued for a clear separation into cor alto and cor basso. Duvernoy, in the truest sense of the word, took the middle path: in his printed horn method he too distinguished between high and low horn and recommended differently sized mouthpieces, but in solo playing he propagated the „cor mixte“. This meant renouncing the particularly high and low notes; the middle register (about 1½ octaves) was rarely left, with greater emphasis placed instead on cantabile playing.
Duvernoy retired in 1816, but held the position of solo hornist in the Chapelle de Musique until 1830. He died in Paris on 19 July 1838. Duvernoy’s works – twelve concertos for horn and numerous chamber works – were printed not only in Paris but also appeared in Germany, published for example by Simrock and Breitkopf.
2nd Divertissement for piano and horn (or violin)
This work was written around 1820, as part of a series of divertissements. In 2008 his 4th Divertissement was the set piece at the Concours International de Cor in Paris – a good occasion to make his other chamber music works available as well.
