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The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Introduction to Paul Dukas' Life

Introduction To

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Symphonic poem composed in 1896-1897 by Paul Dukas (orchestral music intended to portray a specific mood/story/scene/etc.)

Instrumentation

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem called The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 1797
  • The Poem is a ballad written in 14 stanzas

Paul Dukas

His Life

  • Oct 1st 1865 - May 17 1935
  • was a french composer, critic, scholar and teacher

1890's

  • was the time in his life where he very likely wrote the most pieces

THE BEST ONE

Dukas was a perfectionist so he destroyed many pieces

and also had just as many unpublished pieces

Analysis

  • born in Paris in a Jewish family of 3 children
  • mother was a pianist and his father was a banker
  • showed musical talent at age 14 when he started composing music
  • started studying piano at 16 when he entered the conservatoire de Paris

  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice was written during this time, in the year 1897
  • the Musical Quarterly during Dukas’s time commented that The Sorcerer's Apprentice outshines all his other compositions and on top of that overshadow Goethe’s original poem
  • starts off with sorcerer performing magic
  • flutes and violins make it mysterious
  • solos from clarinet, oboe, and flute
  • broom theme played legato

The Story

Animated by Walt Disney in Fantasia

His Life

  • A sorcerer’s apprentice is left alone and decides to test out his magical powers
  • The apprentice turns a broom into his personal slave
  • Commands the broom to prepare the bath for the sorcerer
  • Apprentice loses control of the broom and feverishly tries to reverse magic
  • Water begins to overflow
  • Apprentice resorts to using an axe to chop the broom to stop it from causing a flood
  • In 1881, when he was 16 he began attending the Paris Conservatory studying piano
  • In 1888, Dukas earned 2nd place in the Prix de Rome - soon left the Conservatory because of his frustration with his inability to place 1st in Prix de Rome

  • After the sorcerer has left, the apprentice decides he wants to try doing magic so he doesn't have to do the menial tasks
  • broom theme in trumpets
  • flutes and piccolo play which represent the sorcerer leaving
  • Apprentice starts to try to animate broom - high woodwinds and strings

  • Broom splits into two and continues to collect water at double the pace
  • Master/sorcerer arrives and manages to reverse the spell
  • Sorcerer punishes the apprentice

  • magic finally starts to work
  • excitement builds in 16th notes from woodwinds and strings
  • Broom starts to come to life (tentative hopping)
  • all except strings mimic awkward hops.

  • broom marching and walking
  • bassoons play the broom theme

Recurring Themes

Broom

Water

2:12

  • broom getting the water
  • violins play the water theme
  • horns play a variation of the broom theme

  • apprentice goes to destroy broom with an axe after being unable to stop it
  • buildup in high woodwinds and strings.

  • apprentice destroys broom with axe (or so he thinks)
  • fast staccato notes in the trumpets
  • screeching high woodwinds
  • cymbal crashes
  • 2 brooms come back to life from splinters
  • 4-note chromatic passage in cello and bass
  • gradually gets faster and other instruments eventually join in playing the same passage
  • brooms continue to pour water into an already-full basin
  • “climax” of the piece
  • instruments join in to create a sense of chaos
  • sorcerer returns and fixes everything with a simple gesture
  • power represented by cymbals and accented eighth notes.

  • apprentice is sad/embarrassed
  • solo clarinet
  • slower tempo than before

  • sorcerer kicks the apprentice out the door
  • four fast staccato notes played by all the instruments
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