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and also had just as many unpublished pieces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
- 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