This composer was born 15 March 1773 in Versailles and died 28 July 1845 in Paris. His father was a military musician. François-René Gebauer was trained by his brothers Joseph (oboe) and François Devienne (bassoon. At the age of fifteen, he joined Garde suisse of Versailles playing the bassoon and soon followed his brother playing at the Musique de la garde nationale de Paris. In 1795, he became teacher for bassoon at the Conservatoire in Paris, working there until 1802 and from 1824 to 1838. He was employed at the Grande Opera about 1800. The compositions of Gebauer include thirteen concerti for bassoon eight symponies and numerous chamber music pieces with and for wind instruments.
Quartet No. 2 C Major op.41 / 2 for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon
Gebauer's Trois Quatuors concertant op.41 for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon is referred to in the title as 4.me Livre d' Instruments à vents. The present work was first printed by the Paris publishing house Jouve with plate number 76 and appeared around 1808. On the print, Gebauer refers to himself as “de la Chapelle de S. M. l' Empereur, et de l' Academie Impèriale”. This “livre” of wind quartets already had several predecessors with the same line-up. So the op. 20 (released as ROM 234 – ROM 236) and the Op. 27. Gebauer also published other quartet settings, for example for 2 clarinets, horn and bassoon or 3 quartets for horn, violin, viola and basso op.37 (ROM 076)
It is dedicated to his older brother Michel-Joseph, who later died in retreat during Napoleon's Russian campaign and the collapse of the Grand Armée.
In the literature and in early advertisements in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung from Leipzig, op. 41 is only mentioned as a quartet. This apparently means No. 3 in G minor. It is forgotten that there were originally three quartets.
The edition contains score and parts, The clarinet in this quartet is originally in C. An additional part for Bb clarinet has been edited.
