User:Rhitt

Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier (December 21, 1782 Caderousse, Vaucluse, France - January 20,1838 Pontlevoy, Loir-et-Cher, France) was a French flutist and composer.

Biography
At the time of his birth, Berbiguier's home town of Caderousse was part of the papal enclave Comtat Venaissin located within the Kingdom of France. The enclave was annexed by France in 1791 into its Vaucluse département.

In his youth, Berbiguier taught himself to play the flute, the violin and the violincello. Although destined by his family for the bar, he abruptly left his native land at age 22 and went to Paris to pursue his interest in music.

In October, 1805, he enrolled in the Paris Conservatory to study flute under Johann Georg Wunderlich and harmony under Henri Montan Berton. After the Conservatory, he made his living as a flutist in Paris. Berbiguier is considered to be one of Wunderlich's two most celebrated pupils (the other being Jean-Louis_Tulou).

In 1813, Berbiguier left Paris to avoid conscription into the military during the Napoleonic Wars. With the restoration of Bourbon King Louis XVIII in 1814, Berbiguier returned to Paris in 1815 and joined the recreated Garde du Corps (the household cavalry of the king). The court fled to Ghent in March of 1815 with the return of Napoleon from Elba. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo ended the Hundred Days, the court returned to Paris, for the second restoration of the King in July, 1815. In November, Berbiguier obtained a lieutenancy in the legion of l'Ain which was organized in Bourges.

Berbiguier became tired of the military life and wanted to return to his musical career. In 1819, he resigned from the military and returned to Paris to continue with his music. In 1823, he married a harpist named Mlle. Plou.

He remained in Paris until the July Revolution of 1830 when the Bourbon monarch King Charles X was overthrown and replaced by Louis-Philippe, the Duc d'Orléans. Because of his attachment to the elder branch of the Bourbons, Berbiguier fled Paris to avoid political trouble.

He went to live in Pontlevoy, near Blois. He had a friend there named Desforges, who was a cello player for whom he had written several duets for flute and cello. Berbiguier was very distrought when his friend died in 1838. He predicted at Desforges' funeral that he would die eight days later. In fact, he did.

Works
Berbiguier composed over 200 works, several of which are still in print.


 * Dalila (cantata, 1866)

Works Dedicated to Berbiguier

 * Kuhlau, Friedrich, Trio for Three Flutes, No. 7, Opus 90, in b minor