The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice written by French composer, Paul Dukas, is a piece of programme music written in 1897. Originally written as a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, this is one of his most famous poems (see appendix 1). It is the recommendation of this paper that this work is a suitable choice for inclusion in the “Express it with Music!” concert for Vision Australia. This is evident in Dukas’ manipulation of the elements of music, mainly Duration, Expressive Elements and Timbre, in relation to the stimulus above and demonstrates how Dukas has represented the stimulus in his work and created a piece of programme music suitable for the concert.
Duration is an element of music that talks about the, …show more content…
Expressive Elements is an element of music that includes dynamics such as, Piano and Forte. Expressive Elements also includes articulation such as, Accents and Legato. This element can easily be found at most places in this as the entire piece is full of different dynamics ranging from gradual changes to sudden changes. A specific example of this can be found at 5:42. “With a whetted axe I’ll crack you.” is the line in the 10th stanza of the poem which can be easily matched up at 5:42 in the composition where the apprentice is striking the mop with an axe to split it (see audible example B). Expressive Elements is shown here in the way that at 5:42 and just before it, the piece is at Fortissimo (very loud) and right on 5:43 there is the sudden change of the dynamics. The dynamics suddenly change to Piano (quiet/soft). Over the next 20 second the piece is having a gradual change to Mezzo Forte (medium loud), slowing adding in more instruments. At 6:05 the familiar Bassoon rhythm is played again, signalling the walking of the