François DEVIENNE

Devienne apparently received his early musical training in his hometown of Joinville from a man by the name of Morizot, before leaving around 1771 for Deux-Ponts. He is known to have settled in Paris in 1779 with the help of Baron de Bagge (also Mozart’s benefactor). He played the bassoon at the Paris Opéra, while studying the flute, and presented his first composition at the Concert Spirituel in November 1780: his First Bassoon Concerto, performed by Étienne Ozi. He played there himself on several occasions. During that period, and until 1785, Devienne worked as a musician in the household of Cardinal de Rohan. We lose track of him after that until 1789, when the fifth of his eight symphonies concertantes was given at the Concert Spirituel. He joined the Théâtre de Monsieur as a bassoonist, then the Paris Opéra as a flautist, and from 1790 he was a member of the Military Band of the French Guard, with which he took part in patriotic celebrations, notably with his Symphony “La Bataille de Jemappes”. From that same year onwards, his dozen or so stage works, mostly opéras-comiques, were presented in the capital. In 1792, the very anticlerical Les Visitandines proved a great success. His Méthode de flûte théorique et pratique, published in 1794, marked a milestone in the history of flute teaching. He was appointed professor of flute at the recently founded Paris Conservatoire, of which he was also an administrator. Devienne made a name for himself as one of the most important composers of instrumental works of his time, with an elegant, not very contrapuntal, and brilliant style.