The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas) The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas) " The Sorcerer's Apprentice (French: "L'apprenti sorcier") is a symphonic poem in the key of F minor by the French composer Paul Dukas, written in 1897. Subtitled "Scherzo after a ballad by Goethe", the piece was based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 poem of the same name. By far the most performed and recorded of Dukas's works, its notable appearance in the Walt Disney 1940 animated film "Fantasia" has led to the piece becoming widely known to audiences outside the classical concert hall. Inspired by the Goethe poem, Dukas's work is part of the larger
Midnight poem in the South". It also influenced A. E. Housman, who wrote three different poems based on the fragment: "The weeping Pleiads wester" and "The rainy Pleiads wester" from "More Poems" and "The half-moon westers low, my love" from "Last Poems". Other poems apparently alluding to the "midnight poem" include Elizabeth Bishop's "Insomnia" – whose first line fits the meter used in the Greek fragment, and which shares setting and tone with it – and H.D.'s "Night", which is thematically linked with the poem, also concerned with the passage of time and isolation. Midnight poem The midnight poem is a fragment