Eugène Marie Henri Fouques Duparc (21 January 1848 – 12 February 1933) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of the late

Romantic period Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

Biography

Son of Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita, Henri Fouques-Duparc was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He studied piano with

César Franck César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in present-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of h ...

at the Jesuit College in the Vaugirard district and became one of his first composition pupils. Following military service in the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, he married Ellen MacSwiney, from Scotland, on 9 November 1871. In the same year, he joined Saint-Saëns and

Romain Bussine Romain Bussine (4 November 1830 – 20 December 1899) was a French voice teacher, baritone singer, translator and poet active in the second half of the 19th century. Career He was born in Paris; and from the late 1860s until his death Bussi ...

to found the

Société nationale de musique Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

. Duparc is best known for his 17

mélodie A ''mélodie'' () is a form of French art song, arising in the mid-19th century. It is comparable to the German '' Lied''. A ''chanson'', by contrast, is a folk or popular French song. The literal meaning of the word in the French language is " ...

s ("art songs"), with texts by poets such as

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

, Gautier,

Leconte de Lisle Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (; 22 October 1818 – 17 July 1894) was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle. Biography Leconte de Lisle was born on the French overseas i ...

and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as "

neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...

", caused him abruptly to cease composing at age 37, in 1885. He devoted himself to his family and his other passions, drawing and painting. But increasing vision loss after the turn of the century eventually led to total blindness. He destroyed most of his music, leaving fewer than 40 works to posterity. In a poignant letter about the destruction of his incomplete opera, dated 19 January 1922, to the composer

Jean Cras Jean Émile Paul Cras (; 22 May 1879 – 14 September 1932) was a 20th-century French composer and career naval officer. His musical compositions were inspired by his native Brittany, his travels to Africa, and most of all, by his sea v ...

, his close friend, Duparc wrote: He spent most of the rest of his life in

La Tour-de-Peilz La Tour-de-Peilz () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. The city is located on Lake Geneva between Montreux and Vevey (their agglomeratio ...

, near

Vevey Vevey (; ; ) is a town in Switzerland in the Vaud, canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Leman, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the Vevey (district), district of the same name until 200 ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and died in

Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (; Gascon dialect, Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a communes of France, commune and capital of the Landes (department), Landes Departments of France, department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Population Milit ...

, in southwestern France, at age 85. Duparc is buried at

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

in Paris. A square in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, near the rue de Levis, is named in his honor. Image:Henri Duparc (1858).jpg, Duparc at age 10,
in 1858 Image:Duparc 1870.jpg, Duparc in uniform during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 Image:Henri_Duparc.jpg, Henri Duparc
in middle age

Works

Bibliography

Writings by Henri Duparc (in French)

* ''César Franck pendant le Siège de Paris'', in « Revue musicale », Paris, December 1922. * ''Souvenirs de la Société Nationale'', in « Revue de la Société internationale de Musique », Paris, December 1912.

Letters (in French)

* ''Lettre à Chausson'', in « Revue musicale », December 1925. * ''Duparc Henri : Une Amitié mystique, d'après ses lettres à Francis Jammes''. (Preface and comments by G. Ferchault). Mercure de France, Paris, 1944. * Gérard, Y. (Ed.). ''Lettres de Henri Duparc à Ernest Chausson'', in « Revue de Musicologie » (N° 38) 1956, p. 125. * Sérieyx, M.-L. (Ed.). ''Vincent d’Indy, Henri Duparc, Albert Roussel : lettres à Auguste Sérieyx''. Lausanne, 1961.

Monographs on Duparc (in French)

* Northcote, S. ''The Songs of Henri Duparc''. London: D. Dobson, 1949. 124 pp. * Van der Elst, N. ''Henri Duparc : l’homme et son oeuvre''. (Thesis). Paris: Université de Paris, 1972, & Utrecht, 1972. * Fabre, M. ''L'image de Henri Duparc dans sa correspondence avec Jean Cras''. 1973.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duparc, Henri 1848 births 1933 deaths 19th-century French classical composers 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century French classical composers 20th-century French male musicians Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French male classical composers French Romantic composers Pupils of César Franck