Louis François Dauprat
* 24 May 1781 in Paris, † 16 July 1868 in Paris
Dauprat received his first musical training at the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, which he had to leave during the Revolution (1790). He was among the first students in Kenn's horn class, established in 1795 at the newly founded Paris Conservatoire, and in 1796 became the first to win its First Prize for horn. He then served in various military bands (enfants de troupe, garde nationale, later garde consulaire). From 1801 to 1805 he studied composition at the Conservatoire with Catel and Gossec, and in 1811 he resumed his music theory studies under Reicha.
From 1806 to 1808 he was principal horn at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux, and from 1808 to 1811 in the Paris Opéra orchestra, where he succeeded the celebrated horn players Kenn and Duvernoy. From 1816 to 1830 he belonged to the royal and imperial chapels, and from 1832 to 1842 to the music of King Louis-Philippe. He was an assistant professor at the Conservatoire from 1802 to 1817 and a full professor from 1817 to 1820. From 1828 to 1838 he was soloist of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris.
Dauprat's compositions are valued above all for enriching the didactic and virtuoso repertoire of his instrument. According to his contemporary Fétis, he had a very beautiful tone and phrased with rare elegance. This account and a study of his teaching method place him, in keeping with tradition, among the greatest names of French horn playing. He played and taught only on the natural horn (without valves), but took an interest in the first experiments with valved horns. His name remains closely tied to Reicha's quintets, which he introduced to the Paris public. His memory is still so revered among horn players that his First Prize diploma (signed by Gossec and by the Conservatoire's founder, Sarrette) and his horn are displayed today in the museum of the Paris Conservatoire.
2. Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, Op. 9
Dauprat's Concerto No. 2 was composed for seconde cor (low horn). It is dedicated to a French nobleman, the Comte Nabert de la Ferté-Meun, who may have been a patron of Dauprat.
The Concerto No. 2 is scored more extensively than the Concerto No. 1. The latter is still scored in a thoroughly classical manner with two horns and two oboes, while the tutti winds of the Concerto No. 2 add a flute and two bassoons. The solo part is outstanding for the natural horn: since the gaps between the natural harmonics widen in the low register, it demands excellent command of hand-stopping technique. With these unexpected possibilities, Dauprat must have surprised audiences in both solo and chamber music, and he impressed in concert as well.
1st movement: Allegro
The complete concerto on YouTube
Dauprat's Horn Concertos
In 1860 Dauprat made new full-score copies of his works for horn and orchestra (now held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris). He did not merely copy them but subjected the works to a fresh revision that in part interfered considerably with their substance. Presumably he wished that only this version ("1860 par école Dauprat") should be performed or reprinted in future.
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Because of the substantial differences, the editor could not reconcile the 1860 version with the versions of the first prints. There are parallels in how composers treated their own works: Robert Schumann revised his Fourth Symphony (a revision Johannes Brahms did not care for at all). But Schumann's two versions lie about ten years apart, Dauprat's 30 to 50. Dauprat explains his view of music that is rightly forgotten in his horn method:
(…) Even the music of Punto is no longer played and should no longer be played, at least not in public, partly for reasons we have set out in the preface, and partly because of the style of this music, which is now outdated owing to the progress clearly attributable to the founding of the Conservatoire. (…)
Today we see this differently: we do not regard Bach and Mozart as antiquated but view their works in the context of their time. Dauprat's view of his own music at the time of composition thus differed greatly from that of his 1860 edition. His Concerto No. 1 for horn is a good example. Originally planned as a concerto for low horn (cor basso), it was published as a Nouvelle Édition for high horn, and in the editions of Concertos 2 to 4 it was expressly advertised as a nouvelle édition. The print carries the dedication to his teacher J. Kenn and, at the end of the first movement after the cadenza, a fine classical ending. In the 1860 version this ending is deleted in favour of a mere four-bar closing formula, most likely to avoid comparison with an outdated style or to appear progressive. There the concerto is again titled Concerto pour cor basso, the high horn part is noted only partially and incompletely within the cor basso part, and the dedication to Kenn is missing. The instrumentation was also embellished.
The editor therefore chose to base the edition on the first print. These editions were actually played in Dauprat's day, are often more coherent, structurally clearer and leaner in instrumentation, and contain whole solo horn phrases that are no longer notated in the 1860 edition. This problem did not arise for the Concertino of 1825: no print exists and Dauprat never revised it again, so it can be edited as a first print.
The editor thanks Daniel Lienhard (Basel), a masterly connoisseur of Dauprat's works, for his support. His essay "Das Naturhorn in Paris" ("The Natural Horn in Paris"), which deals extensively with Dauprat, is well worth reading. It appeared in the Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis XV (1991), pp. 81–115, Amadeus Verlag, Winterthur.
