When was the sorcerer apprentice composed

All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. The Sorcerer's Apprentice Paul Dukas. About this Piece. Previous Events. This site uses cookies to offer you the best possible experience. Composed Paul Dukas, conductor. Airy, mysterious chords in the muted strings and flutes pull back the curtain on the symphonic scene, introducing our protagonist: a single melody of intertwined clarinet, oboe, and flute, carefully limned with glassy harmonics from the harp.

Whether we hear this melody as the apprentice, the broom he enchants to carry his water pails, or the magic itself, it appears in many guises throughout this monothematic work.

A single crack from the timpani a bolt of magic? When the apprentice desperately hacks at the broom with an axe, heard as crashing cymbals, it replicates itself, and we hear fragments of theme rushing faster and faster.

Goethe specifies that the proliferating brooms work at double the pace. These are talents that he shared with Russian composers of the same period such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The quirky theme for the magic broom is particularly striking, especially when the bassoons introduce it. This piece is known to generations of film goers as the music that accompanies the antics of Mickey Mouse in the Walt Disney concert film, Fantasia.

According to celebrated conductor Leopold Stokowski, the project developed from a chance meeting with Disney in a Hollywood restaurant.

The film turned out so brilliantly that Disney proposed adding other segments to make up a full-length concert feature. He and Stokowski collaborated on choosing them — and Fantasia was born. We're back in the concert hall for all subscription concerts! All ASO musicians, guest artists and staff, venue staff, and patrons are required to wear a mask covering the nose and mouth and show proof of COVID vaccination or recent within 72 hours negative test for all ASO indoor concerts.