Couvre Feu

Couvre Feu is No.5 (and the best) of a set of six pieces for oboe (or violin) and piano by French bandmaster Adrien Barthe and probably the only one of the six to be in print. It is dedicated to 'Monsieur Emile Devraine' and there was a violin maker of that name working in Paris and broadly contemporary with Barthe.

He was a good friend of the flautist Paul Taffanel, and was involved with the Societe des Instruments de Vent that flourished in Paris at the end of the 19th century. Barthe gave up composing and turned to teaching after the failure of his opera 'La Fiancee d'Abydos' in 1865 - a failure due more to the weakness of the libretto than the quality of his music.