Gebauer, Michel Joseph

1763-1812

Orchestral player and composer; was born at La Fere, France, and when but fourteen years .old was oboist in the Swiss Guard, and in 1791 in the Garde Nationale, Paris, where three years later he became professor at the Conservatory. In 1802 he resigned to assume the leadership of the band of the Imperial Guard, and on his army route made a study of German military music. He was also a proficient executant on the violin and viol, and in addition to the two hundred or more popular military marches which he wrote, composed much music for various combinations of orchestral instruments.