Martin Pierre d'Alvimare

Martin Pierre d'Alvimare du Briou was born on September 18, 1772 at Dreux, of Pierre d'Alvimare du Briou, a lawyer in the Parliament and receiver of gabelles and Cécile Doury de Sacy. He received an excellent education, and at an early age learned drawing, as well as the harpsichord and harp. Noticed by Duke of Penthièvre residing in the nearby château d'Anet, he was introduced by the latter and Madame de Lamballe to the court at the age of 7, where he played in front of Queen Marie-Antoinette. In 1788, he composed his first opéra: Églé.

At the age of fourteen, he obtained the office of receiver of salt-tax of his father, but the charge did not interest him and it could be done by proxy. He therefore embarked on a military career and became a bodyguard of Louis XVI, which enabled him to compose at leisure. So he found himself at his post on 10 August 1792 and escaped miraculously to the massacre, taking refuge in the porter's house of one of his friends, who made him pass for his sick son.

Inscribed on the list of emigrants, he hid under another name. There was nothing left of the confiscated fortune of his father. In order to earn his living, he became a draftsman for a handkerchief factory near Dreux, under the name of Dalvimare.

During the Consulate, removed from the list of emigrants, he returned to Paris and resumed his musical activities successfully. He was admitted as harpist of the Paris Opéra in 1800 and as a musician in the chamber orchestra of Napoleon. In 1807 he had the title of harp master of Joséphine and of her daughter Hortense. Familiar of Malmaison, he frequented Talma, general Lauriston, and was an intimate friend of Méhul.

Having recovered the fortune he possessed before the Revolution, he resigned from all his posts in 1812 and retired to Dreux, where he spent the rest of his life painting and composing.

He was married to Anne Louise Didelot (died in 1804) then in 1812 to Alexandrine de Feuquières. Sick, he went to Paris for treatment and died there on June 3, 1839.

• Trois sonates pour harpe et violon ad libitum, op 2, 9, 12, 14, 15, 18 (3 per opus)
• Grande sonate pour harpe avec violon, op 33
• 3 Duos pour harpe et piano, n° 1 op 22, n° 2 without opus, n° 3 op 31
• Concerto pour harpe et orchestre en ut majeur, op 30
• Premier et Deuxième duo pour 2 harpes
• Plusieurs morceaux pour cor et harpe composed with Frédéric Nicolas Duvernoy
• Symphonie concertante pour cor, harpe et orchestre, with Duvernoy (1798)

• François-Joseph Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique
• Auguste Jal, Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire

• Martin-Pierre d'Alvimare
• Martin-Pierre d'Alvimare's discography on Discogs
• Martin-Pierre d'Alvimare on Presto classical
• Concerto for harp in C minor (audiofile)
• La harpe française entre deux révolutions