Frederic Duvernoy (1765 -- 1838) belonged to that founder generation, which justified ones the glory of the French hornists and passed on in a school of their own. Duvernoy was born in Montbeliard on 16-10-1765 and came to the orchestra the Comedie-Italienne as a hornist 1788. He changed 1797 to the Parisian opera and worked there as solo hornist from 1799 onwards. In 1801 he was relieved from the normal opera service in order to concentrate on his solo tasks. In this time he played also in the „Chapelle Musique“ , which was founded again by Napoleon Bonaparte. 1795 he was a teacher also at the Parisian Conservatoire de Musique. Different schools of the playing the horn were developed there. There always was a separation into 1st and 2nd horns, Dauprat stood for a seapartion in cor alto and cor basso, the hornist Rudolphe thouhgt of a comprehensive use of the complete pitch level. Duvernoy walked along the middle course in the true sense of the word, although he also spoke of a high and deep horn and recommended differently big mouthpieces, in the solo, however, he propagated "cor mixed". So a renunciation of the particularly high and low notes took place and more value was put on melody. 1816 he was retired, however till 1830 Duvernoy played as the solo hornist in the Chapelle Musique. He died in Paris on July 19th, 1838. Duvernoys works (12 concerts for horn and numerous chamber music) were not only printed in Paris, they appeared also in Germany by the publishing houses Simrock, Breitkopf and others.
