As a leading figure in fin-de-siècle and early twentieth-century French music – composer, critic, editor and composition teacher – Paul Dukas (1865–1935), remarkably, has never been the focus of a book in English until now. A renowned artist and thinker who contributed to the progress of music in twentieth-century Paris, he was equally comfortable stepping back to survey and synthesise developments for the benefit of his musician peers and casual readers. He was a lifelong Parisian who identified himself as a distinctly French composer of his milieu; in the latter respect he was comparable to individuals such as Claude Debussy and Vincent d’Indy. Yet his transnational outlook also made him an astute observer on topics as diverse as the Russian ‘Mighty Handful’ and the colonialist parading of performers from France’s global empire as part of the capital city’s 1900 Exposition Universelle. Conversely, his own music, especially the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue and the symphonic poem L’Apprenti sorcier, reverberated with international audiences. Although his published oeuvre is modest in quantity, he produced exemplars of the symphony, symphonic poem, piano sonata, variation set, ballet, opera and other scores of lesser scale but not lesser quality. In addition, Dukas authored a separate, more substantial published catalogue: a rich corpus of music criticism comprising over four hundred articles. Before pursuing the productive relationship between his essays and music, it is essential to acknowledge that the composer’s parallel career as a critic sometimes had a pernicious effect. His infamously self-critical tendencies drove him to destroy a few major manuscripts and abandon projects which, according to reliable sources, had promised to be of high standards consistent with his published work.

This book investigates Dukas’s interrelated identities as composer and critic with the goal of accessing his aesthetic philosophy and practice.Treating his essays as a form of creative, philosophical thought that engages with his contemporary musical world yet also tracks the development of an independent composer voice, I explore Dukas’s artistic agenda and motivations (or lack thereof) for certain projects. Readers might anticipate a consideration of his activities as editor and teacher here too, but the vast terrain to explore with composition and criticism precludes such a study at present. I have narrowed the parameters in response to how those activities overlapped in this musician’s life.