PAUL DUKAS
A Thumbnail Sketch
David Wright
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These notes were written for the programme
of an orchestral concert of music by
French composers in Edinburgh in 1977.
The author conducted the Scottish Youth
Symphony Orchestra in music by Roussel,
Pierre Sancan, Guy Ropartz and in a
performance of Dukas's Polyeucte
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Dukas was born in Paris on 1 October,
1865.
He entered the Paris Conservatoire
and was a pupil of Mathias, Dubois and
Guiraud.
He gained second Grand Prix de Roma
for his cantata ‘Velleda’.
He had already composed two overtures
namely to Shakespeare's ‘King Lear’
and to Goethe's ‘Götz von Berlichingen’
neither of which were published..
In 1891 he composed his third overture
‘Polyeucte’ which was premiered at a
Lamoureux Concert. The influence of
Wagner is unmistakable.
This concert overture is based on the
tragedy of Corneille and was published
by Durand in 1910. It has never been
a popular piece; it’s not a curtain-raiser
and although sections two and four generate
some excitement it has little to thrill.
In fact it is more like a symphonic
poem or a symphony but only in the sense
that Rossini's William Tell overture
could be called a symphony. Dukas's
work could have been called Episodes
in the life of Polyeucte
Curiously, it is written in A flat
major, a rare key for music. I can only
think of one other worthy orchestral
score in this key and that is a symphony
by Bax.
The overture is really in five sections
sometimes with linking passages. The
first is marked Andante sostenuto and
it begins with the theme that pervades
the work, a theme that has a resemblance
to that in Wagner's Siegfried Idyll
with its opening interval of a perfect
fifth and the music travelling back
to its start. Almost immediately the
music goes into remote keys such as
C flat major. The second section, beginning
at figure C, is headed Allegro non troppo
vivace and is in three-eight time and
is agitated. A brief molto rall leads
back into four-four time and, at figure
G, a poco lento leads into the third
section marked Andante espressivo. The
music becomes passionate and a brief
allargando leads to the fourth section
which recalls the second section in
three time. At figure P, the music slows
to introduce the fifth and final section,
Adagio tranquillo non troppo lento,
noted for the string orchestra dividing
into thirteen separate lines accompanied
by persistent harp arpeggios. The mood
of the opening section is recalled with
a slight variation of the opening theme.
Ravel clearly had this in mind when
he composed Daphnis et Chloe some twenty
years later. The Dukas piece ends in
quiet serenity.
Five years later, in 1896, he completed
his impressive ‘Symphony in C’ which
was conducted by Paul Vidal to whom
it is dedicated.
And in the following year his famous
scherzo ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’
was premiered by the composer at the
Société National de Musique.
It was first played in England in 1899
at the London Musical Festival. It has
remained popular ever since. Its inclusion
in the Walt Disney film Fantasia increased
its popularity but did this usage demean
this clever music?
In 1901 he produced his marvellous
‘Piano Sonata in E flat minor’. While
it owes something to the great Beethoven
it is a marvellous achievement and the
only French piano sonata that can compare
with it is that by Henri Dutilleux.
It is often wrongly assumed that modern
composers, that is to say composers
of their own time, do not value older
composers or composers of another time.
Of course, that is utter rot. Dukas
wrote another piano piece in 1903 namely
his ’Variations, Interlude and Finale
on a theme of Rameau. whom I rank as
one of the five greatest opera composers
of all time.
Dukas wrote his ‘Villanelle’ for horn
and piano in 1906 and a ‘Vocalise’.
His respect for older composers is
also shown in his piano piece ’Prelude
élégiaque" on the
occasion of the centenary of the death
of Haydn.
Like Humphrey Searle, Dukas had a wonderful
capacity for friendship. In 1921 he
composed another piano piece ‘La Plainte,
au loin, du faune’ in memory of his
friend Claude Debussy.
In 1924 he wrote his song, ’Sonnet
de Ronsard’ for voice and piano for
the fourth centenary of the poet's birth.
But his finest creation is the opera
‘Ariane et Barbe-bleu’. It is set in
three acts and the librettist Maurice
Maeterlinck conceived it with Dukas
in mind. It was premiered at the Opéra
Comique in Paris on 10 May 1907.
The ‘Poème dansé: La
Péri’ dates from 1921 and was
performed by the Russian dancer Trukhanov.
As to Dukas's other activities he was
Professor of the Orchestral Class at
the Conservatoire from 1910 to 1913
and from then until his death Professor
of composition there and at the Ecole
Normale de Musique. He was an excellent
teacher.
He helped Saint-Saëns complete
Frédégonde an unfinished
opera by Guiraud.
He also edited works by Rameau, Beethoven
sonatas and revised many works by Couperin.
He was a prolific writer of musical
articles.
He was a member of the Conseil Supérieur
of the Conservatoire.
He was Inspector of Beaux-Arts (music
department).
He was an Officer of the Legion of
Honour.
On the death of D'Indy he was elected
President of the Union Syndicale de
Compositeurs. He was a member of the
Conseil des Emissions Radiophoniques.
In 1934 he took the Chair of the Académie
des Beaux-Arts left vacant by the death
of Alfred Bruneau.
He was severely self-critical and destroyed
a lot of his musical compositions.
With all this heavy workload, he suffered
and died in Paris of heart failure on
17 May 1935.
Copyright David Wright 1976, renewed
2002. This article or any part of it
must not be copied, quoted, downloaded
, stored in any retrieval system or
used in any way whatsoever without first
obtaining the express permission of
the author. Failure to comply will lead
to criminal proceedings.
The author hopes to extend this brief
article to be a more comprehensive survey
of Dukas's life and work at a later
date.
see also
Programme
note by Paul Serotsky
entry
in MusicWeb Classical A-Z
