Duparc, (Marie Eugène) Henri Fouques (1848-1933)

French composer. His songs are memorable for their lyric sensibility. Only 16 of them survive.

He was educated by Jesuits at the Collège de Vaugirard, where he learned piano from César Franck, and afterwards took private lessons in composition from him. His few works include the symphonic poem Lénore (1875), and a nocturne, Aux étoiles, but he is chiefly remembered for his songs, among them ‘Invitation au voyage’ and ‘Phydilé’. He was a fierce critic of his own work and destroyed almost all his compositions. He never took any share in official musical life, but continued to compose at intervals until 1885, when he began to suffer from an incurable nervous complaint and retired to Switzerland.

Works Orchestral symphonic poem Lénore (on Bürger's poem, 1875) and nocturne Aux étoiles.

Choral motet Benedicat vobis Dominus.

Songs 16 songs including ‘Phydilé’, ‘Invitation au voyage’, ‘Soupir’, ‘La Vague et la cloche’, ‘Extase’, ‘Le Manoir de Rosemonde’, and ‘Lamento’; and several afterwards destroyed.