Career
He had four brothers, Michel-Joseph Gebauer (1763–1812), Pierre-Paul Gebauer, Jean-Luc Gebauer, and Etienne-François Gebauer, all of whom were also musicians and composers. The quintet received favorable reviews from critics, who found the music to be "unusually lively for a wind quintet" and "full of earthly elegance". He then took lessons with François Devienne, which proved to be more successful.
In 1788 he joined the Swiss Guard in Versailles as a bassoonist.
In 1790 he joined the orchestra of the Musique de la garde nationale de Paris. From 1801 to 1826 he was a bassoonist in the orchestra of the Paris Opera.
In 1795 he was appointed professor of bassoon at the Conservatoire de Paris, a post he held until 1802 and then from 1824 to 1838. His most famous work was Duos Concertants, Operation
48, for horn and bassoon, which featured repetitive rhythmic motifs in phase shifting patterns and strikingly modern asymmetrical melodies.