Villanelle for horn and piano
Best known today as the composer of the symphonic poem "L’Apprenti Sorcier" and the opera "Ariane et Barbe-bleue", Paul Dukas followed a typically French career path, winning the Prix de Rome and going on to combine a composing career with a teaching position at the Paris Conservatoire. His completed works are few in number but beautifully written, and he had an instinctive and poetic feeling for instrumental colour. The Villanelle is a rustic Italian song form, previously used by (amongst others) Berlioz and Chabrier. Dukas wrote his in 1906 for a competition at the Conservatoire, and it remains in the solo repertoire of most horn players.
R.G.Bratby 2001
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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