Sorcerer's apprentice to read along

The nice thing about good sheet music editions is that they don't burn up in the firmament as quickly as all the stars and starlets of the music scene. Whereas there the marketing literally screams for immediate attention (and sales figures), in the music trade they are so-called long sellers - i.e. products that people like to return to again and again. This is also the case with the Sorcerer's apprentice by Paul Dukas, which has been published by Edition Eulenburg in a larger format as a study score based on the sources and in sharp focus.

The work, written in 1896/97, is based on Goethe's ballad of the same name. However, it was not the many successful performances in the Old and New World that were decisive for the composition's afterlife, but Walt Disney's legendary animated film Fantasia (1940), in which the score was congenially realized. What can be unsuspectingly perceived here as precise Mickey Mousing is heard by the connoisseur as a quasi-pictorial realization of the original ballad, on which Hollywood's film images were only subsequently placed. A lesson in the convoluted paths of reception history. The new edition of the score (including Goethe's verses in English and French translation) is therefore to be welcomed. - It could be of educational benefit not only today, but also in the long term.

Paul Dukas: L'Apprenti Sorcier, edited by Jean-Paul C. Montagnier, study score, ETP 8081, € 24.50, Eulenburg (Schott), Mainz