The significance of late nineteenth-century French Wagnérisme in the relationship of Paul Dukas and Édouard Dujardin : a study of their correspondence, essays on Wagner, and Dukas's opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue
Creators: name: Moore, William Angus, 1946-
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 1986
Subjects: subject: Richard Wagner
subject: 1813-1883
subject: Influence
subject: Paul Dukas
subject: 1865-1935
subject: Correspondence
subject: Ariane et Barbe-bleue
subject: Édouard Dujardin
subject: 1861-1949
subject: Wagnérisme
subject: Revue wagnérienne
subject: Music
subject: France
subject: 19th century
subject: French composers
subject: History
subject: Criticism
subject: Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883--Influence
subject: Dukas, Paul, 1865-1935--Correspondence
subject: Dukas, Paul, 1865-1935. Ariane et Barbe-bleue
subject: Dujardin, Édouard, 1861-1949--Correspondence
subject: Music--France--19th century--History and criticism

description: Paul Dukas (1865-1935) shared admiration and enthusiasm for the works of Richard Wagner with many French composers of his generation. This Wagnerian preoccupation, which contemporary writers termed wagnérisme, was a striking aspect of French musical life in the last decades of the nineteenth century. By 1900 some of Dukas's colleagues, most notably Claude Debussy, rejected their youthful infatuation, claiming to have liberated themselves from the constraints of wagnérisme. Dukas, however, continued to acknowledge the seminal influence of Wagner in his creative life and sought to incorporate the essence of the Wagnerian music drama into his work, all the while striving to adhere to his own rigid standards of musical originality. Dukas's friendship with Edouard Dujardin (1861-1949), a writer, historian, and critic, was instrumental in his continuing involvement with wagnérisme. Dujardin, who was influenced not only by Wagner but also by the Symbolist and Decadent literary movements of the 1880s, was the editor of a monthly periodical, the Revue wagnérienne, published from 1885-1888. Like Dukas, he continued to revere Wagner after interest in him by their contemporaries had waned. This dissertation extracts the essential features of wagnérisme as an artistic and intellectual movement and demonstrates their importance in the creative work of Dukas and Dujardin. The roots of wagnérisme are examined, beginning with Wagner's two Parisian sojourns, in 1839-1842 and 1859-1861. This discussion includes an analysis of contemporary French critical reaction to Wagner's works, both from individuals who championed his cause and from those who condemned him. Against this background, Dukas and Dujardin's major critical essays about Wagner are discussed. Dujardin's articles for the Revue wagnérienne treat Wagner as primarily a philosopher and poet and exemplify wagnérisme as a literary movement. In contrast, Dukas bases his musical criticism of the 1890s on the conviction that Wagner's genius as a musician is the motivating force behind his music dramas. Dukas's writings reveal his view of essential elements of the Wagnerian work, notably the intimate bond between text and music, and Wagner's symphonic treatment of the music itself. Dukas's opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue (1907) testifies to his success in fulfilling his own critical ideal: emulation of the essence of Wagner's work without relying on imitation of superficial compositional devices. Evidence of Dukas's attempts to build upon the success of Ariane and produce a second opera appears frequently in unpublished correspondence with Dujardin dating from approximately 1907-1914. Dujardin's involvement in those attempts was prompted by his wish for Dukas to become Wagner's successor, a poet-musician whose work would constitute a French counterpart to Wagner's contribution to German culture. Their correspondence presents evidence that these expectations placed upon Dukas, combined with his own unrelenting perfectionism, contributed to failed attempts to produce an opera after Ariane. Dukas's continuing involvement with the work of Wagner after the turn of the century, documented in the concluding chapter of the dissertation, became a factor in his estrangement from the rapidly changing twentieth-century musical scene. Dukas and Dujardin, as adherents of wagnérisme, represent a pervasive artistic movement of their times. Often neglected facets of their individual lives and works emerge from the material presented in this dissertation, which also serves to illuminate a significant aspect of French musical life in the last decades of the nineteenth century