SIX PREMIERS FANFARES DU PREMIER CONSUL (1799)

Joseph David Buhl was born on February 21, 1781, in Amboise. The son of a musician employed by the Duke of Choiseul, he joined the Parisian Guard’s band as a trumpeter at age eleven and later served with the Grenadiers of the Consular Guard. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte tasked him with revamping military trumpet calls. Under the First Empire, Buhl directed the Cavalry Trumpet School in Versailles from 1805 to 1811. In 1814, Louis XVIII appointed him head of music for the royal bodyguards and awarded him the Legion of Honor. He later became principal trumpet at the Paris Opera and the Theatre Italien. One of his trumpet calls, La Retraite, was notably reused by Berlioz in Eight Scenes from Faust (1828) and The Damnation of Faust (1846). After being severely injured during Charles X’s coronation in 1825, Buhl focused more on teaching. Among his pupils was François Dauverne, who called him 'the most remarkable trumpeter of his time.' In 1828, Buhl co-founded the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, where he played second trumpet beside Dauverne. As a composer, he authored the influential Methode de trompette (1825), intended for both orchestral and cavalry trumpets. He also wrote suites of fanfares, some dating back to 1799, as well as marches such as the Marche du duc de Bordeaux and the Marche de Monsieur. His Quatre pas redoubles creatively contrasts cavalry fanfare with wind orchestra in the spirit of a concerto grosso. Buhl also produced numerous trumpet calls for mounted troops, helping to establish the modern French repertoire of cavalry signals. He died in Versailles on April 7, 1860.

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