Joseph-François Garnier (18 June 1755 – 31 March

1825 Events January–March * January 4 – King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies dies in Naples and is succeeded by his son, Francis. * February 3 – Vendsyssel-Thy, once part of the Jutland peninsula forming westernmost Denmark, becomes an ...

) was a French

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Life

Joseph-François Garnier was born in 1755 in Lauris,

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

, to a family of modest means. His father was a shoe-maker in the Place Jean d'Autan. His uncle was a bassoonist, who brought him to Paris to learn the oboe. In 1769 Garnier joined the orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music (which was to become the

National Opera of Paris The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

after the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

), playing oboe and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. Over the course of his long career with this orchestra, from 1775 to 1808, Garnier earned a grand reputation also for performing at the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel () was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts with the same name occurred in multiple places including Paris, Vienna ...

public concert series from 1787 to 1791 as solo oboist, occasionally in performances of his own compositions. From 1792, he taught oboe at the

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

where he became friends with the violinist

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin Son ...

, who dedicated his oboe concerto to Garnier and with whom Garnier gave the concerto's first performance. Garnier joined the National Conservatory of Music (founded by the Convention) in 1795, where he was one of five professors of oboe (along with Bernard Delcambre, Gebauer, François Félix-Miolan and François Sallantin. Garnier was dominant at the Conservatoire; he was "the savior of the French school of oboe during the Revolution."Cf. Florence Badol-Bertrand, in ''Mozart, ou la vie'', Paris, Éditions Séguier-Archimbaud, 2009. As oboist and flautist with the Paris Opera, Garnier participated in the premiere performances of many of the works of Grétry, Méhul,

Gluck Christoph Willibald ( Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire at ...

, Cherubini and Gossec, each under the composer's own direction. He also participated in the French-language premieres of many of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's works, including Les Noces de Figaro,

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and t ...

and La Flûte enchantée. A virtuoso on his instrument and as a composer, he was also an acclaimed teacher, and published a ''Méthode raisonnée pour le hautbois'' in 1798, published by Pleyel. It is reported that he was also a member of various Masonic lodges. Music critic Jacques Rouchouse wrote a biography of Garnier in 2003. Oboist Claude Villevieille is largely responsible for the reintroduction of Garnier's concert works into the public awareness. Villevieille has said that Garnier may be considered "the first French theorist of the instrument". His son, also named Joseph François (1796–1865), was a medical doctor and mayor of Neuilly (1843–1848). Garnier died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on 31 March 1825. His place of burial is unknown. His home town of Lauris named its school of music in his honour on 25 April 2010.

Compositions

* Symphonies concertante for two oboes. * Concerto for oboe and orchestra. * Sonatas, duo concertos and duets for two oboes, for oboe and clarinet, for oboe and bassoon and for oboe and violin.

References

* 1869 :

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, critic, teacher and composer. He was among the most influential music intellectuals in continental Europe. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ...

, ''Biographie universelle des musiciens'', t. 3-4, Paris, Firmin-Didot. * 1975 : Pierre Constant, ''Histoire du Concert Spirituel 1725-1790'', Paris, Société Française de Musicologie. * 1984 : François Fleurot, ''Le hautbois dans la musique Française 1650-1800'', Éditions Picard. * 2002 : Pierre Chevalier, ''Histoire de Saint-Jean d'Ecosse du Contrat social'', Ivoire-Clair. * 2003 : Jacques Rouchouse, ''Le Mystère des Garnier, ou l'aventure extraordinaire de trois provençaux, hautboïstes à l'Opéra de Paris, à la fin du XVIIIème siècle'', Editions du Luberon, Lauris.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garnier, Joseph-Francois French classical oboists French male oboists 1755 births 1825 deaths French Classical-period composers French male classical composers People from Vaucluse

Life

Compositions

Further reading

References

Notes

See also

External links