Louis François Dauprat
Grand Trio for 3 Horns op.26
Dauprat, Louis François, born 24 May 1781 in Paris, died 16 July 1868 in Paris. He received his first musical training in the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, which he had to leave during the Revolution (1790). Since the founding of the Paris Conservatoire, he was one of the first students in the horn class of Kenn, established in 1795, and was the first to receive the Conservatoire's first prize for horn in 1796.
He was then a member of various military music formations (enfants de troupe, garde nationale, later garde consulaire). From 1801 to 1805 he attended composition classes with Catel and Gossec at the Conservatoire, but in 1811 resumed his music theory studies on a new footing under the direction of Reicha. From 1806 to 1808 he was first horn player in the orchestra of the Grand Théâtre of Bordeaux, and from 1808 to 1811 in the orchestra of the Paris Opera, where he followed the famous horn players Kenn and Duvernoy.
From 1816 to 1830 he was a member of the royal and imperial bands, and from 1832 to 1842 he belonged to the music of King Louis-Philippe. From 1802 to 1817 he was a (deputy) professor and from 1817 to 1820 a properly appointed professor at the Conservatoire. From 1828 to 1838 he held the post of soloist at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris.
Dauprat's compositions have essentially only the merit of having enlarged the didactic and virtuosic repertoire of his instrument. According to his contemporary Fétis, he had a very beautiful tone and phrased with an elegance rarely found. This account, together with the study of his teaching work, places him — in keeping with tradition — among the greatest names of French horn players. He played and taught only the natural horn (without valves), but he deserves credit for taking an interest in the earliest experiments with keyed horns. His name remains forever linked to Reicha's quintets, with which he introduced the Parisian public to the wind quintet. So great is his reputation among players even today that his first-prize diploma (signed by Gossec and the Conservatoire's founder, Sarrette) and his horn are still reverently preserved and displayed in the museum of the Paris Conservatoire.
In his horn method, Dauprat strongly developed the distinction between the cor alto (high horn) and the cor basse (low horn). This is also reflected in the original title of the trios: Grand / Trio / pour / un Cor alto et deux Cors basse / dédié à Monsieur / le Comte de Farrobo / Pair du Royaume de Portugal / par / Dauprat
The work was first published by the Parisian publisher Schonenberger.
