Paul Dukas
composer
Paul Dukas destroyed most of his works and is today mainly represented in concerts by his brilliant orchestral scherzo [The Sorcerer’s Apprentice] based on Goethe’s poem [Der Zauberlehrling]. He nevertheless left his mark on French musical culture as a perceptive music critic and brilliant pedagogue – his most famous pupil was none other than Olivier Messiaen. Dukas’s highly sophisticated orchestration also influenced composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Franz Schreker.
Born in Paris in 1865, Paul Dukas attended Ernest Guiraud’s composition class at the Conservatoire de Paris together with Claude Debussy. After several unsuccessful attempts to win the coveted Prix de Rome – his cantata [Velléda] came second in 1888, and a year later [Séméle] received only three out of nine votes – Dukas left the conservatoire in disappointment. He enlisted for military service and continued his musical education privately. His Parisian debut as a composer with the overture Polyeucte in January 1892 was a great success. The same year, Dukas began his equally successful career as a music critic for the [Revue hebdomadaire]. After several cancelled opera projects, the composer produced his greatest works: the Symphony in C, the orchestral work [The Sorcerer’s Apprentice] - which was warmly received at its premiere in May 1879 – plus the Piano Sonata in E flat minor and the piano piece [Variations, interlude et final sur un thème de Rameau]. Dukas’s only completed opera [L’Ariane et Barbe-bleue] after Maurice Maeterlinck gained great popularity following its premiere in May 1907, with performances over the next few years in Vienna, Brussels, New York, Milan, Buenos Aires and Madrid. He went on to create several other major works, but only the ‘Poème dansée’ [La Péri] has survived. The symphonic poem [Le fil de la parque], the lyrical drama [Le nouveau monde] and the ballet [Le sang de Méduse] were destroyed by Dukas as they apparently did not meet his high artistic standards. From 1908, the composer taught at the Conservatoire de Paris, first orchestration and then composition. Paul Dukas died of a heart attack in Paris on 17 May 1935.
