He belonged to that founding generation which established the fame of French horn players and passed it on in a school of their own. Duvernoy 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, along with other solo wind players, relieved of normal opera duty in order to concentrate on his solo tasks. From this time on he also played in the "Chapelle Musique", which was re-established by Napoleon Bonaparte, who is said to have been an admirer of Duvernoy.
From 1795 he was also a teacher, alongside at times eight other hornists, at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique. Different schools of horn playing developed there. There had always been a separation into 1st and 2nd horn; the hornist Rodolphe favoured a comprehensive use of the whole range, while Kenn and, in particular later, Dauprat favoured a clear separation into cor alto and cor basso. Duvernoy took the middle path in the truest sense of the word: in his printed horn method he too divided the instrument into high and low horn and recommended differently sized mouthpieces, but in his solo works he propagated the "cor mixte". This meant renouncing the particularly high and low notes — the middle register (about one and a half octaves) was rarely left, and more value was placed instead on cantabile playing.
In 1816 Duvernoy retired, though he continued to hold the position of solo hornist in the Chapelle Musique until 1830. He died in Paris on 19 July 1838. Duvernoy's works (12 concertos for horn and numerous chamber works) were printed not only in Paris but also appeared in Germany, for example with the publishers Simrock and Breitkopf.
Fantaisie No. 5 for Piano and Horn
This work was created as part of a series of at least 8 fantasies, around 1820. Thanks to its limited range, it is, in particular, very well suited to students.
