Jakob-Ignaz-Sebastian Demar was a German pianist, composer, conductor, music teacher and organist.
Biography
Born in the vicinity of Gauaschach, now part of Hammelburg, district of Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia, on 29 June 1763, he died in Orléans, on 25 July 1832. He was the son of music teacher Sebastien Demar and his wife Dorothée Zugis. Born into a family of musicians, he was first trained at the Strasbourg Cathedral by the Kapellmeister and composer Franz Xaver Richter, representative of the Mannheim School. Then he became organist in Wissembourg,. He also traveled to Vienna to further his studies in the field of composition, with Joseph Haydn. He arrived in Paris in 1788 and settled in Orléans in 1789, shortly before the Revolution. Demar did a lot for music in the city, where he first directed the music of the 88th Regiment, then of the National Guard. In 1799, he was appointed by the municipality to play the organ as an amateur at Republican festivals, in the various "temples" where they were held: the plain-song gave way to the "war song". At the beginning of the 19th century, Demar became "master of " in the Maison d'éducation de Mme Robillard, in Orléans. In 1806, he created the Société des Concerts par Abonnement. Following the course of history, he was also organist of Saint-Paterne's church from 1815... In this context he was able to train "choir children" in the technique of the pianoforte and the organ. He left many interesting works, often instrumental. He is the author, among others, of several concertos for forte-piano, including a "hunting concerto", a Cossack concerto, a concerto dedicated to the Empress Marie-Louise. He transcribed for harp one of his violin concertos so that it could be performed by his daughter Theresia in a public concert in Paris.
Her daughter, Thérésia-Elisabeth-Françoise Demar married Jean-Nicolas Gannal, pharmacist, chemist and inventor of modern embalming. She herself was a harpist, composer and music teacher. We also know that she was singing. She lived several years in Paris and finally ended her life in Orléans. She died in this city on January 18, 1858, at 71 years of age. She left more than thirty musical compositions, which were published at the time. They are kept at the BnF essentially. Her cantataSainte-Cécile had been written on the words of the Orléans historian and bibliophile Jean Michel Constant Leber. Demar was born in Gernsbach30 October 1786. Her death certificate indicates that she was the daughter of "Jacob-Ignace-Sébastien Demar, music teacher, and of Dame Elisabeth Riesam". Other erroneous sources, give her birth in Paris in 1788.
