Auguste Blangy was born on 13 March 1779 in Paris and was a pupil of the famous horn player Duvernoy. In 1799 he received the first prize at the Paris Conservatoire. Between 1810 and 1816 he was employed at the Paris Opera; it was probably during this period that he composed his works for the opera. From 1818 to 1820 he was Répétiteur at the Conservatoire — besides his training as a horn player, he must therefore also have received a thorough education in composition.
In 1828 he was one of the founding members of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, where he played second horn alongside the first horn players Dauprat, Mengal, and Meifred. It can be assumed that his move to the viola in 1831 was for health reasons, as was common practice at the time. He left the orchestra on 1 December 1843 and died on 10 October 1848.
Airs d'Aladin / ou la Lampe Merveilleuse / Musique de / Nicolo et Benincori / ARRANGÉS POUR DEUX CORS / dont plusieurs à Tons différens, / dédiés à / Mr. Alfred de Neuville / par A. Blangy / de l'Académie Royale de Musique
This is the title of the present Duos for 2 Horns. Blangy arranged some pieces from the opera "Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp" by the composer Nicolo. Under the name Nicolo is hidden Nicolas Isouard (1775–1818), who was a very successful Paris opera composer of his time. He, however, died before completing the work, and Angelo Maria Benincori (1779–1821) finished the composition — but Benincori too died before the premiere. The opera was finally premiered in Paris in 1822, after the conductor François-Antoine Habeneck (1781–1849) had completed it.
Blangy appears to have had a personal connection to the composer Nicolo: his Duos were first published around 1822 by the Paris publishing house run by Nicolo's widow. A series of 4 volumes of duos for 2 horns (published in the Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition as ROM 136–139) had already appeared with the same publisher a few years earlier.
What makes Blangy's compositions and arrangements particularly interesting is that he sometimes prescribes different crooks for the two horns, and that both horn parts are notated with a mix of low and high register — making the duos quite varied to play.
