Claude-Jean-François Despréaux was a French musician and revolutionary, born in the 1740s and died in Paris on 11 August 1794.
Biography
editThe son of Jean-François Despréaux, oboist of the Académie royale de musique who retired in 1767, and Marie-Anne d'Arras, Louis-Félix's older brother (1746-1813) and Jean-Étienne Despréaux, Despréaux made his debut in 1759 as violinist. After he became head of the concertmasters in 1771, he retired in 1782.[1][2]
A pensioner of the Republic, he was a civil commissioner and a member of the popular society of the section de Brutus, and juror at the Revolutionary Tribunal in 1793.[3][1][2][4]
Desperate following the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre, he committed suicide with a shotgun in his apartment, at 20 rue du Sentier, on 24 thermidor an II (11 August 1794).[1][2][4][5]
He is the author of several sonatas for violin and harpsichord.[2]
References
edit- ^ a b c Wilhelm Adolf Schmidt (1869). Tableaux de la Révolution Française publiés sur les papiers inédits du département de la police secrète de Paris. Vol. 2. Leipzig: Veit. p. 226.
- ^ a b c d François-Joseph Fétis (1877). Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. Vol. 3 : « Désargus - Gibbons ». Firmin Didot et Cie. p. 6. ISBN 9781421200934.
- ^ Albert Soboul, Raymonde Monnier (1985). Répertoire du personnel sectionnaire parisien en l'an II. Publications de la Sorbonne. p. 159. ISBN 9782859440770.
- ^ a b Castil-Blaze (1855). L'Académie impériale de musique. Vol. 2. Castil-Blaze. p. 46.
- ^ Alphonse Aulard (1898). Paris pendant la réaction thermidorienne et sous le Directoire : recueil de documents pour l'histoire de l'esprit public à Paris. Vol. I : « Du 10 thermidor an II au 21 prairial an III ». Paris: L.Cerf. p. 24.
