Henri Duparc's Story

It is early in the morning on this dreary day before Thanksgiving, and I found myself browsing on Amazon. I stumbled upon Jose Van Dam's recital of Duparc songs, which I own, and then thought about how Duparc was a genius, and how his story is one of success and tragedy. Duparc was very gifted with musical talent and intelligence from a early age. But, he was incredibly hard on himself, and constantly doubting himself. When I listen to his songs full of brilliance, I think to myself, how is that possible. How could Duparc doubt himself so much, that quite a few of his works were destroyed by him? Duparc stopped composing before the turn of the 20th century, but he lived until 1933. When I listen to his songs, I think to myself how could anyone even come up with this. Well, the purpose of this blog is to talk about Duparc's life. So, here is some information about him. Duparc studied law in college, while studying piano with Cesar Franck at the same time. He soon began writing music, but often destroyed his early works because he was not satisfied with some aspect of them. One of the most important events of his life was traveling to Munich, where he met Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. Duparc's music is very Wagnerian in nature. In the 1870s, through the middle of the 1880s, Duparc wrote quite a few works, but very few of them survive because he destroyed them. Duparc made several trips to Bayreuth, and co-founded the Société Nationale de Musique with Camille Saint-Seans. By this time Duparc's inspiration turned towards the orchestra. Duparc wrote Poéme nocturne in 1874, and it was premiered in April of that year at a Société National concert Sadly, only one of the pieces three sections survived. Also, Duparc composed a symphonic poem entitled Lénore, in 1875. A few years later, because of the influence of Richard Wagner, though not stylistically now, Duparc began work on his opera Roussalka. Although his career was going very well, in 1885, at the age of 36, Duparc stopped composing altogether. By this time he had a disease called neurasthenia, which may have affected him psychologically. The term neurasthenia is no longer in use these days, but back then it was a disease in which there was acute pain and fatigue, irritability, lack of concentration etc... Duparc lived with his family until the end of his life, and he revised some of his works. However, he became blind and paralyzed as time went a long. He traveled to the shrine known for miracles in France, because he was always a religious man. Therefore, he came to peace with his blindness. Duparc's compositional output is too small for him to be considered one of the all time great composers. In my opinion, he is still great though, because of his songs. It is important to acknowledge what Duparc did, versus what might have been. A total of 16 songs of his are published, and several of them are performed quite often. The songs have profound beauty, and are very dramatic and tender at the same time. A lot of great singers have recorded songs by Duparc, such as; Jose Van Dam, Gerald Finley, Janet Baker, Paul Groves, and Gerard Souzay to name a few. Duparc's piano accompaniments are Wagnerian in scope. The vocal lines, go from very declamatory, to very sad, to very tender in a heart beat. Duparc could use a variety of emotions in his song compositions like very few composers I have heard. I thank him for what he did contribute, and long for what he might have done at the same time.