Grand Duo concertant op. 60 for Horn (or Violin) and Harp
Johann Sebastian Demar was born in the Bavarian place of Gauaschach on June 29th, 1763. He came from a family of musicians: his father was a music teacher, and his brother Joseph was a violinist in the chapel of the Grand Duke of Würzburg.
Demar studied with Franz Xaver Richter in Strasbourg and then became an organist and music teacher in Weißenburg (Unterelsaß). Later he travelled to Vienna and became a pupil of Haydn. In 1788 Demar went to Paris, and in 1789 he settled as a music teacher in Orléans. In 1806 he founded the Société des Concerts par Abonnement, which he conducted himself and which played an important role in the cultural life of the town of Orléans. For a number of years, Demar was director of the music education of the Garde Nationale d'Orléans. In 1815 he became organist at Saint-Paterne in Orléans. Demar died in Orléans on July 25th, 1832.
The duo at hand was certainly performed by Demar's daughter, the harpist Therese Demar, and probably the hornist Tognini, around the year 1811.
As a supplement to the horn part, a violin part exists which goes far beyond a simple replacement of the horn part in compositional terms and must be regarded as of equal importance.
