Harp
SKU:
UT.MAG-221
Composed
by Martin-Pierre
Dalvimare. Edited by Anna
Pasetti. Saddle
stitching. Magadis.
Classical. Ut Orpheus
#MAG 221. Published by Ut
Orpheus (UT.MAG-221).
ISBN 9790215318625. 9
x 12
inches.
Martin-Pier
re Dalvimare, born in
1770, in Dreux
(Eure-et-Loir), from a
distinguished family,
learnt music as an
entertainment art, and
was obliged to make it a
resource for his
existence, after the
troubles of the
Revolution in 1789. He
had acquired a remarkable
talent for the harp; when
he arrived in Paris he
made a very good
impression. Then, man of
the world, knowledgeable
in many fields, which is
rare for a musician, he
was welcome everywhere,
and very soon came in
friendly terms with some
of the most renowned
artists and men of
letters of his times. The
marriage certificate of
the poet Legouve (15
pluviose of the year XI,
or February 1803, 12th
municipality of Paris),
shows that Dalvimare was
one of his best men and
that at the time he was
thirty-two years old. He
became harpist of the
Opera in the year VIII
(1800), and was
definitively confirmed in
the month of fructidor of
the year IX. At the time
of the institution of the
emperor Napoleon's
private music, M.
Dalvimare was appointed
as his harpist. In
September 1807 he
obtained the title of
harp master of the
empress Josephine. A
lucky change of his
fortune allowed this
artist to renounce to
practise his talent for
living, he resigned from
all of his positions on
March, 12th, 1812, and he
retired in Dreux, where
he still was living in
1837. For a peculiar
weakness, he does not
like to speak about his
artist career, which had
been entirely honourable,
and he would like to
forget his success too.
His first composition was
a symphonie concertant
for harp and horn, which
he composed with Frederic
Duvernoy, and published
in the year VII (1798);
notwithstanding, he
counted as his first opus
a collection of romances
with accompaniment of
piano or harp, which he
later published with
Pleyel.
In 1809
Dalvimare composed, for
the theatre Feydeau, a
one-act opera-comique
called The Marriage for
Imprudence. The music was
weak; the work did not
succeed, and people used
to say that the greatest
imprudence had been the
one of the authors who
had it performed.
Nevertheless, the score
of this opera was
published in Paris by
erard. (Francois-Joseph
Fetis).
