Louis François Dauprat
Born 24 May 1781 in Paris, died 16 July 1868 in Paris.
Dauprat received his first musical training at the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, which he had to leave in 1790 as a consequence of the Revolution. When the horn class at the Paris Conservatoire was established in 1795, he was among its first students under Kenn, and in 1796 became the first horn player to win the Conservatoire's premier prix. He subsequently served in several military music ensembles (enfants de troupe, garde nationale, and later the garde consulaire). From 1801 to 1805 he attended composition classes with Catel and Gossec at the Conservatoire, though he only resumed his theoretical studies in earnest in 1811, this time under Reicha. He was principal horn at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux from 1806 to 1808, then at the Paris Opéra from 1808 to 1811, where he succeeded the celebrated hornists Kenn and Duvernoy. From 1816 to 1830 he was a member of the royal and imperial chapels, and from 1832 to 1842 he served in the musical establishment of King Louis-Philippe. He taught at the Conservatoire as assistant professor from 1802 to 1817 and as full professor from 1817 to 1820, and held the post of soloist with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris from 1828 to 1838.
Dauprat's compositions are valued chiefly for having expanded the didactic and virtuosic repertoire of his instrument. According to his contemporary Fétis, he possessed a beautiful tone and phrased with a rare elegance. This account, together with his pedagogical treatise, places him — in keeping with tradition — among the greatest names in French horn playing. He played and taught exclusively on the natural horn (without valves), though he took an interest in the earliest experiments with valved horns. His name remains closely tied to Reicha's wind quintets, which he helped introduce to Parisian audiences. His reputation among horn players remains so strong that his premier prix diploma (signed by Gossec and by Sarrette, the Conservatoire's founder) and his horn are still preserved with reverence and displayed in the museum of the Paris Conservatoire.
3 Quintets – No. 2 in E major, Op. 6, for Horn and String Quartet
The Trois quintetti pour Cor, deux Violons, Alto et Violoncelle, Op. 6 were published by the Parisian firm of Bochsa père and dedicated to Dauprat's harmony teacher "Monsieur Catel," a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.
The quintets are comparable in length to Reicha's quintets, each lasting around 25 minutes.
Quintet No. 2 – Adagio non troppo