Frederic Duvernoy (1765–1838) belonged to that founding generation which established the fame of French horn players and passed it on through a school of its own. Duvernoy was born in Montbéliard on 16 October 1765 and joined the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne as a horn player in 1788. In 1797 he moved to the Paris Opera, where he worked as solo horn player from 1799 onwards. In 1801 he was relieved of normal opera duties, together with the other principal wind players, in order to concentrate more fully on solo work. From this time on he also played in the „Chapelle Musique“, which had been re-established by Napoleon Bonaparte – who is said to have been an admirer of Duvernoy. From 1795 he was also a teacher, alongside up to eight other horn players at times, at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique. Several different schools of horn playing developed there. There had always been a division into 1st and 2nd horn; the horn player Rudolphe, for instance, advocated the comprehensive use of the entire range, while Kenn, and later especially Dauprat, argued for a clear separation into cor alto and cor basso. Duvernoy, quite literally, took the middle path: in his printed horn method he too distinguished between a high and a low horn and recommended mouthpieces of different sizes, but as a soloist he championed the „cor mixte“. This meant largely avoiding the particularly high and low notes, rarely leaving the middle register (around one and a half octaves), and placing greater emphasis on a singing tone. In 1816 Duvernoy retired, though he retained the position of solo horn player in the Chapelle Musique until 1830. He died in Paris on 19 July 1838. Duvernoy's works (12 horn concertos and numerous chamber music pieces) were printed not only in Paris but also appeared in Germany, for example with the publishers Simrock and Breitkopf.
Serenade No. 1 "La journée suisse" for piano and horn (or flute/violin)
This work was written as part of a series of divertissements, fantasies and serenades around 1820. The serenade was inspired by a trip to Switzerland and depicts a day there. An alternative part for flute or violin is available for the horn part.
Enjoy the work here on YouTube
