A Brief Look at the Dauprat Méthode

Louis-François Dauprat (1787-1868) was professor of horn at the Paris Conservatory from 1816 until 1842. His monumental three-volume Méthode de Cor alto et Cor basse, published in 1824, is a book more hornists should be more familiar with today. It is available from Birdalone (in this photo depicted with the Farkas book for comparison) in a spectacular English language edition. They describe it as follows:

The first complete English translation of this very influential method book by the most highly-esteemed Professor of Horn at the Paris Conservatoire in the nineteenth century is still available in a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies. Printed in its original size (10 1/4″ x 13 1/4″) on acid-free paper, with all musical examples, etudes, and a fold-out chart reproduced in facsimile. A new Introduction and Index have been written for this Edition, which is 500 pages long, in a specially designed, sturdy yet elegant binding of dark blue Japanese cloth.

As is obvious from the photo, it is a big book. A really big book! I have over in Horn Articles Online a quote from Dauprat on the tone of the natural horn which gives some sense of the level of his discussion.

The book contains text and extensive exercises for high and low horn. I presently use some of the low horn exercises in my technical materials with students, and actually we have all done exercises similar to those in Dauprat. Compare this exercise below, from the Méthode, pt. 2, p. 69, no. 12, to Kopprasch 10:

I have more on that comparison in this article and more on the natural horn here.

This edition of Dauprat has been out since 1994. I don’t know how many units of the 1,000 copy run are left for sale but certainly this book deserves a place alongside the Farkas book on the shelves of more horn players out there.