Paul Dukas

Paul Dukas (1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, music critic, scholar, and teacher whose legacy is dominated by a small number of surviving works, most notably the symphonic poem L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice, 1897), due to his extreme self-criticism that prompted him to destroy the majority of his compositions.

Born in Paris to a family of Jewish descent—his father was a banker—Dukas displayed early musical talent but lost his mother at age five, an event that shaped his introspective personality. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1882, studying harmony under Théodore Dubois and composition under Ernest Guiraud, a close associate of Georges Bizet, alongside future colleagues like Claude Debussy. By 1888, he had won first prizes in counterpoint and fugue, though his early attempts at opera and other large-scale pieces were unsuccessful, leading to a period of military service and self-doubt.

Paul Abraham Dukas was born on 1 October 1865 in Paris to a Jewish family; his father, Jules Dukas, was a banker, while his mother, Eugénie, was an accomplished pianist.