The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas) Romantic genre of programmatic music, which composers like Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius and Richard Strauss increasingly explored as an alternative to earlier symphonic forms. Unlike other tone poems, such as "La mer" by Debussy or "Finlandia" by Sibelius, Dukas's work is, like works such as "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" by Strauss, descriptively programmatic, closely following the events described in the Goethe poem. It was customary, in fact, to publish the poem as part of the orchestral score. The instrumentation of the piece consists of two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two soprano clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons
The Mask of the Sorcerer head when Vashtem inexplicably murders his wife and daughter, leaving his son Sekenre to seek vengeance and understanding with the aid of a Sybil who has her own agenda. A quest through the Underworld brings son and father to their reckoning, with justice meted out to Vashtem only at the cost of Sekenre taking on his curse. In killing a sorcerer, one takes on his power and immortality, absorbing his soul and knowledge, along with those of all those previously killed by that sorcerer and his predecessors. And one takes on their enemies, as well. Physically frozen at the age