bilities—sometimes with notable results. In all cases, too, the number of virtuosi multiplied, bringing the several instruments into widespread popularity as sources of concert effectiveness, and endeavoring to utilize upon them the leading forms of composition, like the concerto, the fantasia or divertissement, the variation, the étude, etc. Furthermore, the field of chamber music was extended by ingenious experiments with unusual combinations, in which sometimes the less-known instruments were made prominent. The chief centre for all this enterprising activity was Paris, where both concertizing and teaching along novel lines received support from the Conservatoire and the public.
From the multitude of able workers in this field we can select only some
bare lists of the best-known players, composers and teachers, many of whom
continued active through the next period.
Famous flutists were Étienne François Gebauer (d. 1823), from 1801 in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique; Benoît Tranquille Berbiguier (d. 1838), pupil of Wunderlich at Paris, where from 1815 he wrought as a remarkable virtuoso and fertile composer; Friedrich Kuhlau (d. 1832), already mentioned as an opera-writer at Copenhagen (see sec. 172), who wrote fluently for flute, violin, piano and voice; Jean Louis Tulou (d. 1865), Wunderlich's best pupil and in 1813 his successor at the Opéra, as well as from 1827 professor at the Conservatoire—a strong objector to the Bohm improvements; Louis Drouet (d. 1873), Tulou's chief competitor at Paris, and in 1836-54 choirmaster at Coburg; Kaspar Kummer (d. 1870), from 1813 also at Coburg; Johann Wilhelm Gabrielski (d. 1846), from 1816 court-player at Berlin; Anton Bernhard Fürstenau (d. 1852), from 1820 in a similar position at Dresden, writing abundantly and well; and Christian Gottlieb Belcke (d. 1875), from 1819 at Leipsic and from 1834 at Altenburg.
Among the oboists were Karl Bochsa (d. 1821), a Bohemian who finally became a music-seller at Paris; Gustave Vogt (d. 1870), from about 1800 eminent at the Opéra-Comique and the Conservatoire; Friedrich Eugen Thurner (d. 1827), for some years touring from Cassel and Brunswick as centres, and dying insane at Amsterdam; and Joseph Sellner (d. 1843), from 1811 with Weber at Prague and from 1817 a famous teacher and conductor at Vienna, the author of a classic method. Distinguished bassoonists were Karl Almenräder (d. 1843),from 1812 at Frankfort and from 1820 at Nassau (near Coblentz), introducing useful improvements in his instrument and writing about it (1824); and Karl Bärmann of Munich (d. 1842).
In the line of clarinettists were Johann Simon Hermstedt (d. 1846), from 1800 choirmaster at Sondershausen, where he invented improvements in the instrument; Heinrich Joseph Bärmann (d. 1847), court-player at Munich, intimate with both Weber and Mendelssohn, and a prolific composer; Friedrich Müller (d. 1871), from 1803 in the court-band at Rudolstadt, retiring in
