Duparc, Phidylé

Henri Duparc (1848-1933) can be added to the list of composers who studied law before committing to a career in music. I have threatened to compile that list someday, but the list would be long and not particularly useful since none that I can think of left any notable mark in the field of jurisprudence.

Duparc is remembered for his 17 songs—French mélodies—composed between 1868 and 1884. He composed a handful of other works but largely abandoned composition in 1885. The decision was driven to some extent by a neurological illness. Even so, he lived a long and productive life after 1885 immersed in family life and various intellectual pursuits, including music and painting water colors. His painting would come to an end as a result of blindness shortly after the turn of the century.

He studied piano and composition with César Franck, as did his close friend and fellow mélodie composer Ernest Chausson. Like Franck, Duparc was drawn German composers and influences. He met Wagner and Liszt in Weimar, and the influence of Wagner can be heard in some of Duparc’s songs, including Phidylé. Written in 1882, Phidylé is based on a text by French poet Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle.

Duparc was a slow and meticulous composer whose songs are praised for their craftsmanship. Musicologist Martin Cooper concludes that Duparc’s mélodies transcend the genre and writes:

He was unique in giving the French mélodie a musical substance, an emotional intensity and a unity of poem and music that were not to be equalled until the songs of Fauré’s maturity.

Text and English translation.