Composer. His fame rests on just over a dozen art songs, which are considered among the finest in French music. Henri Fouques Duparc was born in Paris. He studied piano at the Jesuit College of Vaugirard and composition with Cesar Franck, though he was something of a dilettante and never pursued music full time. In 1871 Duparc and Camille Saint-Saens co-founded the Societe National de Musique, for which he wrote the orchestral fantasies "Poeme nocturne" (1874) and "Leonore" (1875). His handful of songs, set to poems by Baudelaire, Gautier, Sully-Prudhomme and others, date from the cycle "Five Melodies" (1868) to 1884. The best of them are miniature masterpieces, imaginative in their harmonies and shot through with melancholy insight. They include "L'invitation au voyage", "La manoir de Rosemonde", "Chanson triste", "Phidyle", "Lament", and "Serenade Florentine". Duparc had the makings of a major talent but his potential was hampered and eventually destroyed by emotional problems. At the age of 36 he stopped composing and burned most of his unpublished manuscripts, including an opera, "Roussalka"; one beautiful aria survives from the latter. He was blind for the last 30 years of his life, which was spent mostly in Switzerland.
Composer. His fame rests on just over a dozen art songs, which are considered among the finest in French music. Henri Fouques Duparc was born in Paris. He studied piano at the Jesuit College of Vaugirard and composition with Cesar Franck, though he was something of a dilettante and never pursued music full time. In 1871 Duparc and Camille Saint-Saens co-founded the Societe National de Musique, for which he wrote the orchestral fantasies "Poeme nocturne" (1874) and "Leonore" (1875). His handful of songs, set to poems by Baudelaire, Gautier, Sully-Prudhomme and others, date from the cycle "Five Melodies" (1868) to 1884. The best of them are miniature masterpieces, imaginative in their harmonies and shot through with melancholy insight. They include "L'invitation au voyage", "La manoir de Rosemonde", "Chanson triste", "Phidyle", "Lament", and "Serenade Florentine". Duparc had the makings of a major talent but his potential was hampered and eventually destroyed by emotional problems. At the age of 36 he stopped composing and burned most of his unpublished manuscripts, including an opera, "Roussalka"; one beautiful aria survives from the latter. He was blind for the last 30 years of his life, which was spent mostly in Switzerland.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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