21/01/1848, Paris, France – 12/02/1933, Mont-de-Marsan, France
French composer of the late Romantic period. He studied piano with César Franck at the Jesuit College in the Vaugirard district and became one of his first composition pupils. In 1871, he joined Saint-Saëns and Romain Bussine to found the Société Nationale de Musique. Duparc is best known for his 17 mélodies ("art songs"), with texts by poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and Goethe. A mental illness, diagnosed at the time as "neurasthenia", 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.
