Background
Henri Duparc was born in Paris, France on January 21, 1848 to Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita.
( Henri Duparc (18481933) left a total of 17 songs, all ...)
Henri Duparc (18481933) left a total of 17 songs, all written between 1868 and 1884 and most of them published in 1895. Besides the 13 songs in the collection published by Rouart, Lerolle & Cie. in 1911, Duparc composed four other vocal pieces including his only duet, "La fuite." He tried to destroy three of the youthful Cinq mélodies, Op. 2, published by G. Flaxland in 1870: "Sérénade," "Romance de Mignon," and "Le gallop." The composer succeeded only in considerably reducing the number of prints, to the point, however, where musicologists considered these melodies as lost. Their republication in the present edition is based on three of the rare remaining copies of the 1870 publication (the songs were issued individually). Three items merit comments in passing: "Au pays ou se fait la guerre," under its original title "Absence," was originally intended for Roussalka, an opera destroyed by Duparc. It is not clear who wrote the poem "Chanson triste." Henri Cazalis's name appears in the Flaxland edition (1870), but Jean Lahor is credited as poet in Rouart's "Nouvelle édition complète" (1911). Although the translator of Thomas Moore's "Oh! Breathe Not His Name," using the title "Elégie," is unidentified in the 1991 collection, Grove uncertainly names an "E. MacSwincy" as its author. It remains conjecture if there is a connection between this person and the "Leon MacSwincy" named in Duparc's dedication of "Chanson triste."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486284662/?tag=2022091-20
((Vocal Collection). This collection of the most popular F...)
(Vocal Collection). This collection of the most popular French songs includes exquisite recordings of the piano accompaniments by pianist Gary Arvin, a specialist in song literature on the faculty of Indiana University. Includes translations and IPA pronunciation guides. The pronunciation lessons on the companion audio are from a native French speaker. Useful for high school contest soloists, college/university students and professional singers. Contents: Aimons-nous (Saint-Saens) * Apres un Reve (Faure) * Aurore (Faure) * Beau Soir (Debussy) * Chanson triste (Duparc) * Ici Bas (Faure) * La Procession (Franck) * Mandoline (Faure) * Nuit d'etoiles (Debussy) * Psyche (Paladilhe). The book includes a unique code to access the piano accompaniments online via download or streaming.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793562449/?tag=2022091-20
Henri Duparc was born in Paris, France on January 21, 1848 to Charles Fouques-Duparc and Amélie de Guaita.
St Dunstan studied to be a jurist. He studied piano with César Franck at the Jesuit College in the Vaugirard district and became one of his first composition pupils.
For an octogenarian his musical life was pitifully brief. It only began in later adolescence when he was studying to be a jurist, and it virtually ended in 1885 when he was stricken by a nervous disease. The last forty years of his life were spent in complete retirement in Switzerland, remote from his past, his work, and all but a few of his most intimate friends. Besides his famous songs, Duparc also wrote an orchestral nocturne, Aux Étoiles (1873); an orchestral tone poem, Lénore (1875); and a motet for three voices, Benedicat vobis Dominus (1882). Together with his friend and contemporary, the French composer Gabriel Fauré, and with the Parnassian and Symbolist poètes du verbe. Though deeply influenced by Cesar Franck and Richard Wagner, there is marked originality in Duparc's work. Among some general characteristics of his style may be noted a frequent reliance on a pedal point, real or implied; a habit of pivoting the melodic line on the dominant of the key; a sensuous but superbly controlled chromaticism often illuminated with vivid internal counterpoints; the use of a wide compass in many of the songs; and a truly sensitive appreciation of the emotional subtleties of the whole vocal tessitura (general range of a voice part).
( Henri Duparc (18481933) left a total of 17 songs, all ...)
((Vocal Collection). This collection of the most popular F...)
A habit of severe self-criticism led him to destroy much of his work, including an opera, Roussalka.
Quotes from others about the person
In the words of the French music critic, Julien Tiersot, Duparc gave to French songs "a scope, a fullness, and a power which none of our composers has since surpassed. "
As George Servières has rightly said in his Guide musical: "The songs of Duparc are absolutely original, rich and abundant in strength, with a depth of sentiment rarely found in French music. "
St Dunstan married to Ellen MacSwinney.