World Premiere: May 18, 1897
Last HSO performance: December 8, 2019
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings
Duration: 12 minutes

Paul Dukas

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is based on Goethe’s 1796 ballad Der Zauberlehrling, which in turn was derived from the dialogues of the 2nd-century Greek satirist Lucian. The tale tells of a naive apprentice to a wizard who overhears the magic incantation used by his master to animate the household broom into a water-carrier. In the sorcerer’s absence, the neophyte tries the spell on the broom, and — to his delight — it works. The broom marches smartly between well and water basin until the latter is full, then overflowing, then flooding — the apprentice never bothered to learn the magic words to stop his wooden servant! Not knowing what to do, he axes the broom in half, only making matters worse — now there are two water-carriers instead of one. More chopping produces more brooms. Just before the novice drowns in his own mischief, the sorcerer returns and, with a sweep of his hand and a muttered word, quiets the tumult.

French composer Paul Dukas captured perfectly the fantastic spirit of this poem in his colorful tone poem. The quiet, mysterious strains of the beginning depict the wizard and his incantations, while the apprentice scurries about to lively phrases in the woodwinds. When the door slams behind the departing sorcerer (a loud stroke on the timpani), the tyro is left in silence. A rumble in the low instruments signals the first stirring of the enchanted broom. The rumble becomes a galumphing accompaniment, over which the bassoons give out the work’s main theme. This melody, combined with a quicker version of the incantation theme and brass fanfares, is used to suggest the aquatic havoc being wrought in the wizard’s absence. At the height of the confusion, the magician bursts through the door (the mysterious music of the opening returns to indicate his presence), and he orders the flood to subside. When peace has been restored, the apprentice receives a swift boxing of the ears to end this jovial musical tale.