Duparc's Chanson Triste, Op. 2, no. 4 has been arranged for viola solo and piano by the world-famous violist Donald McInnes, who held a professorship at the University of Southern California from 1985 to 2014 and is known in virtually every corner of the artistic world for his appearances with major orchestras, recitals, chamber music participation, and numerous master classes.

Duparc, a French composer of the late Romantic period, is perhaps best known for his seventeen art songs. They feature texts by poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, and Goethe. Duparc wrote Chanson Triste in 1868, when he was only about twenty years old. Its glorious, soaring lyricism are representative of Duparc's hot yet controlled romanticism which characterized his music.

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Below is the original French text and the English translation for this song:

Dans ton coeur dort un clair de lune,
Un doux clair de lune d'été,
Et pour fuir la vie importune,
Je me noierai dans ta clarté.

J'oublierai les douleurs passées,
Mon amour, quand tu berceras
Mon triste coeur et mes pensées
Dans le calme aimant de tes bras.

Tu prendras ma tête malade,
Oh! quelquefois, sur tes genoux,
Et lui diras une ballade
Qui semblera parler de nous;

Et dans tes yeux pleins de tristesse,
Dans tes yeux alors je boirai
Tant de baisers et de tendresse[s]
Que peut-être je guérirai.


Moonlight slumbers in your heart,
A gentle summer moonlight,
And to escape the cares of life
I shall drown myself in your light.

I shall forget past sorrows,
My sweet, when you cradle
My sad heart and my thoughts
In the loving calm of your arms.

You will rest my poor head,
Ah! sometimes on your lap,
And recite to it a ballad
That will seem to speak of us;

And from your eyes full of sorrow,
From your eyes I shall then drink
So many kisses and so much love
That perhaps I shall be healed.

Text by Jean Lahor