__NOTOC__ Year 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–March

January 5 – Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

January 17 – Félix Faure was elected President of French Republic after the resignation of Jean Casimir-Perier.

January 21 – The National Trust is founded in Britain by Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.

February 9 – Mintonette, later known as volleyball, is created by William G. Morgan at Holyoke, Massachusetts.

February 11 – The lowest ever UK temperature of is recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record is equalled in 1982 and again in 1995.

February 14 – Oscar Wilde's last play ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' is first shown at St. James' Theatre in London.

March 1 – William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General.

March 3 – In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates.

March 4 – Japanese troops capture Liaoyang and land in Taiwan.

March 15 – in County Tipperary, Ireland, Bridget Cleary is killed by her husband, believing her to be a fairy changeling.

March 30 – Rudolf Diesel patents the Diesel engine in Germany.

April–June

April 6 – Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.

April 14 – A major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.

April 16 – The town of Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, is incorporated.

April 17 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of Fengtien province, Taiwan, and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

April 22 – Gongche Shangshu movement: 603 candidates sign a 10,000-word petition against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

May 1 – Dundela Football, Sports & Association Club were formed

May 2 – Gongche Shangshu movement: Thousands of Beijing scholars and citizens protest against the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

May 24 – Anti-Japanese officials led by Tang Ching-sung in Taiwan declare independence from the Qing Dynasty, forming the short-lived Republic of Formosa.

May 25 – Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and is sentenced to serve 2 years in prison at Reading.

May 27 – ''In re Debs'': The Supreme Court of the United States decides that the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, legalizing the military suppression of the Pullman Strike.

June 28

* The union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

* The Court of Private Land Claims rules that James Reavis's claim to Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent".

July–September

Night of July 10–July 11 – The Doukhobors' pacifist protests culminate in the "Burning of the Arms" in their villages in the South Caucasus.

July 15 – Archie MacLaren scores County Championship cricket record innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

July 31 – The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) was founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana.

August 19 – American frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.

August 29 – The Northern Rugby Football Union (now ''Rugby Football League'') is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England. This event leads to the creation of the sport of rugby league football.

September 3 – The first professional American football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club (Latrobe wins 12–0).

September 7 – The first game of what would become known as rugby league football is played, in England, starting the 1895–96 Northern Rugby Football Union season.

September 18

Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech.

* Tomoji Tanabe is born in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. He would become the last living man born in 1895. Tanabe died on June 19, 2009, at the age of 113.

October–December

October – Rudyard Kipling publishes the story ''Mowgli Leaves the Jungle Forever'' in ''The Cosmopolitan'' illustrated magazine (price 10 cents).

October 1 – French troops capture Antananarivo in Madagascar.

October 8 – Empress Myeongseong, the national mother of Korea, is killed by Japan.

October 22 – A train wreck occurs at Montparnasse Station in Paris.

October 23 – The city of Tainan, last stronghold of the Republic of Formosa, capitulates to the forces of the Empire of Japan, ending the short-lived republic and beginning the Japanese rule era.

October 31 – A major earthquake occurs in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the last to date.

November 5 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

November 8 – Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of radiation later known as X-rays.

November 25 – Oscar Hammerstein opens the Olympia Theatre, the first theatre to be built in NYC's Times Square district.

November 27 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death.

December – 3,000 Armenians are burned alive in Urfa by Ottoman troops.

December 7 – A corps of 2,350 Italian troops, mostly Ascari, are crushed by 30,000 Abyssian troops at Amba Alagi.

December 24 – George Washington Vanderbilt II officially opens his "Biltmore House" estate on Christmas Eve, inviting his family to celebrate his new home in Asheville, NC.

December 24 – Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster- 15 lifeboat crew are lost when their lifeboat capsizes while trying to rescue the crew of the SS Palme off Kingstown, now Dún Laoighaire, near Dublin, Ireland.

December 28 – Auguste and Louis Lumière display their first moving picture film in Paris.

Date unknown

The London School of Economics and Political Science is founded in London, England.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator.

Grace Chisholm Young becomes the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university.

W. E. B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

The Duck Reach Power Station, Tasmania opens.

The first Boxer (dog) show is held at Munich, Germany.

A huge crowd at the Welsh Grand National at Ely Racecourse, Cardiff, almost overwhelms police trying to keep out gatecrashers.

The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury is saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loan $65 million worth of gold to the United States government.

The Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina is completed.

The Swarovski Company opens.

German trade unions have c. 270,000 members.

The huge indemnity exacted from China is used to establish the Yawata Iron and Steel Works.

Empress Myeongseong is assassinated.

A coup in Guayaquil starts 20 years of ultra-liberist government in Ecuador.

Venezuela Crisis of 1895 develops.

Foundation of:

* Dundela FC (Belfast, Ireland)

* Shelbourne F.C. (Dublin, Ireland)

Births

January–June

January 1 – J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)

January 15

* Leo Aryeh Mayer, Israeli professor and scholar of Islamic art (d. 1959)

* Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)

January 21 – Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish-French couturier (d. 1972)

January 23 – Raymond Griffith, American actor (d. 1957)

January 24 – Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)

January 30 – Wilhelm Gustloff, German-born Swiss Nazi party leader (d. 1936)

February 1 – John Ford, American film director (d. 1973)

February 2 – George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)

February 6 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (d. 1948)

February 14 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)

February 15 – Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)

February 19 – Diego Mazquiarán, Spanish matador (d. 1940)

February 21 – Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)

February 25 – Lew Andreas, American basketball coach (d. 1984)

February 28

*Louise Lovely, Australian actress (d. 1980)

*Marcel Pagnol, French novelist and playwright (d. 1974)

March 3

* Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)

* Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)

March 4

* Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (''The Three Stooges'') (d. 1955)

* Milt Gross, American comic book illustrator and animator (d. 1953)

March 12 – William C. Lee, U.S. general (d. 1948)

March 20 – Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1944)

March 23 – Encarnacion Alzona, Filipino historian (d. 2001)

March 28 – Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)

March 29 – Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

April 1 – Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)

April 3 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)

April 9 – Mance Lipscomb, American singer (d. 1976)

April 13 – Olga Rudge, American violinist (d. 1996)

April 15

* Corrado Alvaro, Italian writer and journalist (d. 1968)

* Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)

April 20 – Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)

April 29 – Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)

May 6 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)

May 8 – Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)

May 10 – Kama Chinen, Japanese woman supercentenarian and oldest person in the world (d. 2010)

May 17

* Mary Josephine Ray, Canadian woman supercentenarian and second oldest person in the world (d. 2010)

* Saul Adler FRS, Russian-born British-Israeli expert on parasitology (d. 1966)

May 25 – Dorothea Lange, American documentary photographer and photojournalist (d. 1965)

June 12 – Wilfrid Kent Hughes, Australian Olympian and politician (d. 1970)

June 24 – Jack Dempsey, American heavyweight boxer (d. 1983)

July–December

July 2 – Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, Russian aircraft engineer (d. 1975)

July 8 – Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)

July 10 – Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)

July 12

* Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1982)

* Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)

July 14 – F.R. Leavis, British literary critic (d. 1978)

July 19 – Xu Beihong, Chinese painter (d. 1953)

July 22 – León de Greiff, Colombian poet (d. 1976)

July 24 – Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)

July 25 – Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (d. 1977)

July 26 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian (d. 1964)

August 3 – Neva Morris, American supercentenarian (d. 2010)

August 6 – Ernesto Lecuona, A Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1963)

August 16

* Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)

* Lucien Littlefield, American actor (d. 1960)

August 18 – Sibyl Morrison, Australian barrister (d. 1961)

August 24 – Tuanku Abdul Rahman, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

September 1 – Chembai, Indian Carnatic musician (d. 1974)

September 1 – Engelbert Zaschka, German helicopter pioneer (d. 1955)

September 7 – Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)

September 11 – Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)

September 13 – Ruth McDevitt, American actress (d. 1976)

September 18 – Tomoji Tanabe, Japanese supercentenarian who would become the last living man born in 1895 (d. 2009)

September 24 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)

September 29 – Joseph Banks Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

October 3

* Giovanni Comisso, Italian writer (d. 1969)

* Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin, Russian lyric poet (d. 1925)

October 4 – Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)

October 6 – Caroline Gordon, American writer and critic (d. 1981)

October 8

* Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina (d. 1974)

* King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)

October 13

* Cemal Gürsel, Turkish army officer and President (d. 1966)

* Mike Gazella, American baseball player (d. 1978)

October 14 – Silas Simmons, Pre-Negro League Baseball player, longest-lived professional baseball player (d. 2006)

October 19 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)

October 21 – Edna Purviance, American actress (d. 1958)

October 22 – Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)

October 25 – Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (d. 1969)

October 30

* Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)

* Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)

October 31 – Basil Liddell Hart, British military historian (d. 1970)

November 5 – Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)

November 10 – John Knudsen Northrop, American airplane manufacturer (d. 1981)

November 14

* Walter Freeman, American physician (d. 1972)

* Maggie Mae Renfro, American supercentenarian (d. 2010)

November 15

* Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)

* Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (d. 1976)

November 16 – Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)

November 17 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher and literary scholar (d. 1975)

November 25

* Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)

* Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (d. 1986)

November 29 – Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)

December 2 – Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)

December 28 – Carol Ryrie Brink, American author (d. 1981)

December 14

* Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)

* King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)

Deaths

January–June

January 9 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)

January 10 – Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)

January 24 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (b. 1849)

February 2 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)

February 20 – Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)

February 25 – Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, politician (b. 1815)

February 26 – Salvador de Itúrbide y de Marzán, Prince of Mexico (b. 1849)

March 2 – Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)

March 10 – Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)

April 4 – Nikolai Baranov, Russian politician (b. 1843)

May 19 – José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)

May 21 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)

May 26 – Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, Ottoman statesman (b. 1822)

May 28 – Walter Q. Gresham, American politician (b. 1832)

June 6 – Gustaf Nordenskiöld, Swedish explorer (b. 1868)

June 27 – Sophie Adlersparre, Swedish feminist (b. 1823)

June 29

* Thomas Henry Huxley, English evolutionary biologist (b. 1825)

* Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826)

* Floriano Vieira Peixoto, 2nd president of Brazil (b. 1839)

* Emile Munier, French artist (b. 1840)

July–December

July 28 – Edward Beecher, American theologian (b. 1803)

August 4 – Louis-Antoine Dessaulles, Quebec journalist and politician (b. 1818)

August 5 – Friedrich Engels, German communist philosopher (b. 1820)

August 22 – Luzon B. Morris, American politician (b. 1827)

September 28 – Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist and chemist (b. 1822)

October 8 – Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (b. 1851)

October 25 – Charles Hallé, German-born pianist and conductor (b. 1819)

November 5 – Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan (b. 1847)

November 23 – Mauritz de Haas, Dutch-American marine painter (b. 1832)

November 27 – Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)

December 13 – Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, inventor of the Dynamo (b. 1800)

References

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{| id="toc" width="300" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="float:right; margin: 0em 0em 0.5em 1em; width:300px;" |- ! align="center" colspan="2" style="background:#efefef;" | The Lumière Brothers''Les frères Lumière'' |- | align="center" colspan="2"| Auguste Lumière (left) and Louis Lumière (right) |- | Place of birth || Besançon, France |- | style="vertical-align:top;" | Auguste || Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière October 19, 1862April 10, 1954 (Lyon, France) |- | style="vertical-align:top;" | Louis || Louis Jean Lumière October 05, 1864June 06, 1948 (Bandol, French Riviera) |- | Occupation || Filmmakers |- | Education || La Martiniere Lyon |- | Parents || Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1895) |- | Awards || Elliott Cresson Medal (1909) |}

The Lumière () brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas () (19 October 1862, Besançon, France – 10 April 1954, Lyon) and Louis Jean () (5 October 1864, Besançon, France – 6 June 1948, Bandol), were among the earliest filmmakers in history. (Appropriately, "lumière" translates as "light" in English.)

Asteroid 775 Lumière is named in their honour.

History

The Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, France, in 1862 and 1864, and moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. Their father, Claude-Antoine Lumière (1840–1911), ran a photographic firm and both brothers worked for him: Louis as a physicist and Auguste as a manager. Louis had made some improvements to the still-photograph process, the most notable being the dry-plate process, which was a major step towards moving images.

It was not until their father retired in 1892 that the brothers began to create moving pictures. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera - most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector. The cinématographe itself was patented on 13 February 1895 and the first footage ever to be recorded using it was recorded on March 19, 1895. This first film shows workers leaving the Lumière factory.

First film screenings

The Lumières held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. Their first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. This history-making presentation featured ten short films, including their first film, ''Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon'' (''Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory''). Each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 50 seconds.

thumb|right|190px|The world's first film poster, for 1895's ''L'Arroseur Arrosé'' It is believed their first film was actually recorded that same year (1895) with Léon Bouly's cinématographe device, which was patented the previous year. The cinématographe — a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures — was further developed by the Lumières.

The public debut at the Grand Café came a few months later and consisted of the following ten short films (in order of presentation):

#''La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon'' (literally, "the exit from the Lumière factory in Lyon", or, under its more common English title, ''Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory''), 46 seconds #''La Voltige'' ("Horse Trick Riders"), 46 seconds #''La Pêche aux poissons rouges'' ("fishing for goldfish"), 42 seconds #''Le Débarquement du Congrès de Photographie à Lyon'' ("the disembarkment of the Congress of Photographers in Lyon"), 48 seconds #''Les Forgerons'' ("Blacksmiths"), 49 seconds #''Le Jardinier (l'Arroseur Arrosé)'' ("The Gardener," or "The Sprinkler Sprinkled"), 49 seconds #''Repas de bébé'' ("Baby's Breakfast" (lit. "baby's meal")), 41 seconds #''Le Saut à la couverture'' ("Jumping Onto the Blanket"), 41 seconds #''La Place des Cordeliers à Lyon'' ("Cordeliers Square in Lyon"--a street scene), 44 seconds #''La Mer (Baignade en mer)'' ("the sea [bathing in the sea]"), 38 seconds

The Lumières went on tour with the cinématographe in 1896 - visiting Bombay, London, New York and Buenos Aires.

The moving images had an immediate and significant influence on popular culture with ''L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat'' (literally, "the arrival of a train at La Ciotat", but more commonly known as ''Arrival of a Train at a Station'') and ''Carmaux, défournage du coke'' (Drawing out the coke). Their actuality films, or ''actualités'', are often cited as the first, primitive documentaries. They also made the first steps towards comedy film with the slapstick of ''L'Arroseur Arrosé''.

Early color photography

The brothers stated that "the cinema is an invention without any future" and declined to sell their camera to other filmmakers such as Georges Méliès. Consequently, their role in the history of film was exceedingly brief. They turned their attentions to colour photography and in 1903 they patented a colour photography process, the "Autochrome Lumière", launched on the market in 1907. Throughout much of the 20th century, the Lumière company was a major producer of photographic products in Europe, but the brand name, Lumière, disappeared from the marketplace following its merger with Ilford.

The Lumières also developed other products such as a loudspeaker, "Lumière tulle gras" (a dressing to heal burns) and the homonoid forceps (a medical tool).

Other early cinematographers

The Lumière Brothers were not the only ones to claim the title of the first cinematographers. The scientific chronophotography devices developed by Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey and Ottomar Anschütz in the 1880s were able to produce moving photographs, as was Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, premiered in 1891. Since 1892, the projected drawings of Émile Reynaud's Théâtre Optique were attracting Paris crowds to the Museé Grevin. Louis Le Prince had been shooting moving picture sequences on paper film as soon as 1888, but had never performed a public demonstration. Polish inventor, Kazimierz Prószyński had built his camera and projecting device, called Pleograph, in 1894. Max and Emil Skladanowsky, inventors of the Bioskope, had offered projected moving images to a paying public one month earlier (November 1, 1895, in Berlin). Nevertheless, film historians consider the Grand Café screening to be the true birth of the cinema as a commercial medium, because the Skladanowsky brothers' screening used an extremely impractical dual system motion picture projector that was immediately supplanted by the Lumiere cinematographe.

Although the Lumière brothers were not the first inventors to develop techniques to create motion pictures, they are often credited as one of the first inventors of Cinema as a mass medium, and are among the first who understood how to use it. By comparison, it is argued that Thomas Edison may have meant his invention as entertainment for rich people, not as a movie to be seen in public.

See also

1895 in film

1896 in film

19th century in film

History of film

References

Further reading

Chardère, B.; Borgé, G. and M. (1985). ''Les Lumière'', Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts. ISBN 2-85047-068-6 (Language: French)

Chardère, B. (1995). ''Les images des Lumière'', Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-011462-7 (Language: French)

Rittaud-Hutinet, Jacques. (1985). ''Le cinéma des origines'', Seyssel: Champ Vallon. ISBN 2-903528-43-8 (Language: French)

External links

Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale

The films shown at the first public screening (Quicktime format) — December 28, 1895. Also includes a program for the event.

Le musée Lumière — Lumière Museum

autochrome color still of the ''Lumiere Brothers'' , 1907

Category:Color scientists Category:Sibling duos Category:French film directors Category:French businesspeople Category:French inventors Category:Pioneers of photography Category:Cinema pioneers Category:History of film Category:Cinema of France Category:La Martiniere College Category:1895 films Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences Category:People from Besançon Category:Sibling filmmakers

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Paul Abraham Dukas (1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best known work is the orchestral piece, ''L'apprenti sorcier'' (''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''), the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works. Among these are an opera ''Ariane et Barbe-bleue'' (''Ariadne and Bluebeard''), a symphony, two substantial works for solo piano, and a ballet, ''La Péri''.

At a time when French musicians were divided into conservative and progressive factions, Dukas adhered to neither but retained the admiration of both. His compositions were influenced by composers including Beethoven, Berlioz, Franck, d'Indy and Debussy.

In tandem with his composing career, Dukas worked as a music critic, contributing regular reviews to at least five French journals. Later in his life he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and the École Normale de Musique; his pupils included Maurice Duruflé, Olivier Messiaen and Joaquín Rodrigo.

Life and career

Early years

Dukas was born in Paris, the second son in a Jewish family of three children. His father, Jules Dukas, was a banker, and his mother, Eugénie, was a capable pianist. When Dukas was five years old, his mother died giving birth to her third child, Marguerite-Lucie. Dukas took piano lessons, but showed no unusual musical talent until he was 14 when he began to compose while recovering from an illness. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the end of 1881, aged 16, and studied piano with Georges Mathias, harmony with Théodore Dubois and composition with Ernest Guiraud. Among his fellow students was Claude Debussy, with whom Dukas formed a close friendship. Two early overtures survive from this period, ''Goetz de Berlichingen'' (1883) and ''Le Roi Lear'' (1883). The manuscript of the latter was rediscovered in the 1990s and the work was performed for the first time in 1995.

Dukas won several prizes, including the second place in the Conservatoire's most prestigious award, the Prix de Rome, for his cantata ''Velléda'' in 1888. Disappointed at his failure to win the top prize, he left the Conservatoire in 1889. After compulsory military service he began a dual career as a composer and a music critic.

1890s

Dukas's career as a critic began in 1892 with a review of Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' conducted by Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden in London. His review was published in ''La Revue Hebdomadaire''; he later wrote also for ''Minerva'', ''La Chronique des Arts'', ''Gazette des Beaux-Arts'' and ''Le Courrier Musical''. His Parisian debut as composer was a performance of his overture ''Polyeucte'', written in 1891 and premiered by Charles Lamoureux and his Orchestre Lamoureux in January 1892. Based on a tragedy by Corneille, the work, like many French works of the period, shows the influence of Wagner, but is coherent and displays some individuality.

Although Dukas wrote a fair amount of music, he was a perfectionist and destroyed many of his pieces out of dissatisfaction with them. Only a few of his compositions remain. After ''Polyeucte'', he began writing an opera in 1892. He wrote his own libretto, ''Horn et Riemenhild'', but he composed only one act, "realising too late that the work's developments were more literary than musical".

The Symphony in C major was composed in 1895–96, when Dukas was in his early 30s. It is dedicated to Paul Vidal, and had its first performance in January 1896, under the direction of the dedicatee. In a study of Dukas published towards the end of the composer's life, Irving Schwerké wrote, "The work … is an opulent expression of modernism in classical form. Its ideational luxuriance, nobility of utterance and architectural solidity mark it as one of the most conspicuous achievements of contemporaneous writing, and magnificently refute the generally prevalent notion that no French composer has ever produced a great symphony." Like Franck's only symphony, Dukas's is in three movements rather than the conventional four. Schwerké wrote of it: The work received a mixed reception at its first performance. Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, later known as a conductor, was a member of the orchestra at the premiere, and wrote, "the work which nowadays seems to us so lucid aroused not only the protestations of the public, but also those of the musicians of the orchestra." The symphony was better received when the Lamoureux Orchestra revived it in 1902.

The symphony was followed by another orchestral work, by far the best known of Dukas's compositions, his scherzo for orchestra, ''L'apprenti sorcier'' (''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'') (1897), a short piece (lasting for between 10 and 12 minutes in performance) based on Goethe's poem "Der Zauberlehrling". During Dukas's lifetime ''The Musical Quarterly'' commented that the world fame of the work not only overshadowed all other compositions by Dukas, but also eclipsed Goethe's original poem. The popularity of the piece became a matter of irritation to Dukas. In 2011, the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' observed, "The popularity of ''L'apprenti sorcier'' and the exhilarating film version of it in Disney's ''Fantasia'' possibly hindered a fuller understanding of Dukas, as that single work is far better known than its composer."

20th century works

In the decade after ''L'apprenti sorcier'', Dukas completed two complex and technically demanding large-scale works for solo piano: the Piano Sonata (1901), dedicated to Saint-Saëns, and ''Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau'' (1902). In Dukas's piano works critics have discerned the influence of Beethoven, or, "Beethoven as he was interpreted to the French mind by César Franck". There are also two smaller works for piano solo. The Sonata, described by the critic Edward Lockspeiser as "huge and somewhat recondite", did not enter the mainstream repertoire, but it has been more recently championed by such pianists as Marc-André Hamelin and Margaret Fingerhut. Lockspeiser describes the ''Rameau Variations'' as more developed and assured ... Dukas infuses the conventional form with a new and powerful spirit."

In 1899 Dukas turned once again to operatic composition. His second attempt, ''L'arbre de science'', was abandoned, incomplete, but in the same year he began work on his one completed opera, ''Ariane et Barbe-bleue'' (''Ariadne and Bluebeard''). The work is a setting of a libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck. The author had intended the libretto to be set by Grieg but in 1899 he offered it to Dukas. Dukas worked on it for seven years and it was produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1907. The opera has often been compared to Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' which was first performed while Dukas was writing ''Ariane et Barbe-bleue''. Not only are both works settings of Maeterlinck, but there are musical similarities; Dukas even quotes from the Debussy work in his score. Although it won considerable praise, its success was overshadowed by the Paris premiere of Richard Strauss's sensational opera ''Salome'' at much the same time. None the less, within a short time of its premiere, Dukas's opera was produced in Vienna, where it aroused much interest in Schoenberg's circle, and in Frankfurt, Milan and New York. It did not maintain a regular place in the repertory, despite the advocacy of Arturo Toscanini, who conducted it in New York three years in succession, and Sir Thomas Beecham, who pronounced it "one of the finest lyrical dramas of our time," and staged it at Covent Garden in 1937. Interest in it revived in the 1990s, with productions in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet, 1990) and Hamburg (Staatsoper, 1997), and at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in 2007.

Dukas's last major work was the sumptuous oriental ballet ''La Péri'' (1912). Described by the composer as a "poème dansé" it depicts a young Persian prince who travels to the ends of the Earth in a quest to find the lotus flower of immortality, coming across its guardian, the Péri (fairy). Because of the very quiet opening pages of the ballet score, the composer added a brief "Fanfare pour précéder ''La Peri''" which gave the typically noisy audiences of the day time to settle in their seats before the work proper began. ''La Péri'' was written for the Russian-French dancer Natalia Trouhanova, who starred in the first performance at the Châtelet in 1912. Diaghilev planned a production with his Ballets Russes but the production did not take place; the company's choreographer Fokine staged ''L'apprenti sorcier'' as a ballet in 1916.

In 1916, Dukas married Suzanne Pereyra, who was of Portuguese descent. They had one child, a daughter Adrienne-Thérèse, born in December 1919.

Later years

In the last years of his life, Dukas became well known as a teacher of composition. When Charles-Marie Widor retired as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1927, Dukas was appointed in his place. He also taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. His many students included Jehan Alain, Elsa Barraine, Francis Chagrin, Carlos Chávez, Maurice Duruflé, Georges Hugon, Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, Manuel Ponce, Joaquín Rodrigo, David Van Vactor and Xian Xinghai. As a teacher he was conservative but always encouraging of talent, telling one student, "It's obvious that you really love music. Always remember that it should be written from the heart and not with the head." He said his method of teaching was "to help young musicians to express themselves in accordance with their own natures. Music necessarily has to express something; it is also obliged to express somebody, namely, its composer." ''Grove'' observes that his wide knowledge of the history of European music, and his editorial work on Rameau, Scarlatti and Beethoven, gave him "particular authority in teaching historical styles".

After ''La Péri'', Dukas completed no new large-scale compositions, although, as with his contemporary Jean Sibelius, there were frequent reports of major work in hand. After several years of silence, in 1920 he produced a tribute to his friend Debussy in the form of ''La plainte, au loin, du faune...'' for piano, which was followed by ''Amours'', a setting of a sonnet by Pierre de Ronsard, for voice and piano, published in 1924 to mark the five hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth. Shortly before his death he had been working on a symphonic poem inspired by Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'', a play of which he had made a French translation in 1918 with an operatic version in mind.

In the last year of his life Dukas was elected to membership of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Though adhering to neither the progressive or conservative factions among French musicians of the era, Dukas had the friendship and respect of both. In 1920, Vincent d'Indy published a study of Dukas's music; Debussy remained a life-long friend, though feeling that Dukas's music was not French enough; Saint-Saëns worked with Dukas to complete an unfinished opera by Guiraud, and they were both engaged in the rediscovery and editing of the works of Rameau; Fauré dedicated his Second Piano Quintet to Dukas in 1921.

Dukas died in Paris in 1935, aged 69. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in the columbarium at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

List of works

Published by the composer

''Polyeucte'', overture for orchestra (1891)

Symphony in C (1895–6)

''L'apprenti sorcier'' ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), for orchestra (1897)

Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1899–1900)

''Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau'', for piano (c.1899–1902)

''Ariane et Barbe-bleue'', opera (1899–1907)

''Villanelle'', for horn and piano (1906)

''Prélude élégiaque sur le nom de Haydn'', for piano (1909)

''Vocalise-étude (alla gitana)'', for voice and piano (1909)

''La Péri'', ballet (poème dansé) (1911; later supplemented with ''Fanfare pour précéder La Péri'' (1912))

''La plainte, au loin, du faune...'', for piano (1920)

''Amours'', sonnet for voice and piano (1924)

''Allegro'', for piano (1925)

''Modéré'', for piano (?) (1933; published posthumously in 1936)

Early unpublished works

''Air de Clytemnestre'', for voice and small orchestra (1882)

''Goetz de Berlichingen'', overture for orchestra (1883)

''Le roi Lear'', for orchestra (1883)

''Chanson de Barberine'', for soprano and orchestra (1884)

''La fête des Myrthes'', for choir and orchestra (1884)

''L'ondine et le pêcheur'', for soprano and orchestra (1884)

''Endymion'', cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1885)

''Introduction au poème "Les Caresses"'', for piano (1885)

''La vision de Saül'', cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1886)

''La fleur'', for choir and orchestra (1887)

Fugue (1888)

''Hymne au soleil'', for choir and orchestra (1888)

''Vélléda'', cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1888)

''Sémélé'', cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1889)

Destroyed and projected works

''Horn et Riemenhild'', opera (1892)

''L'arbre de science'', opera (1899)

''Le fil de parque'', symphonic poem (c.1908)

''Le nouveau monde'', opera (c.1908–1910)

''Le sang de Méduse'', ballet (1912)

Symphony No. 2 (after 1912)

Violin Sonata (after 1912)

''La tempête'', opera (c.1918)

''Variations choréographiques'', ballet (1930)

An untitled orchestral work for Boston Symphonic Orchestra (1932)

Notes

References

External links

Free scores at the Mutopia Project

Category:1865 births Category:1935 deaths Category:French composers Category:French Jews Category:Musicians from Paris Category:Ballet composers Category:Prix Blumenthal Category:Alumni of the Conservatoire de Paris Category:Academics of the École Normale de Musique de Paris

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