Henri Duparc (1848-1933) 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.
