Pensée des morts

Dukas first competed for the Prix de Rome in 1886. For the first-round choral piece with orchestral accompaniment an inspired text by Lamartine had been chosen: Pensée des morts. Of the four such pieces that Dukas composed for the Prix de Rome competition between 1886 and 1889, this one is certainly the most Classical in style and tone, but the sensitive touches typical of his mature years are already noticeable, in his use of a solo violin and the chorus a cappella in the last section. The piece is in ternary form, with the more intense middle section taken by the solo tenor and the conclusion given to the chorus, imperturbably repeating the melancholy lines previously sung by the chorus and the solo tenor: ‘Voilà les feuilles sans sève … Ainsi finissent nos jours’. Notice the orchestral transition before the tenor’s solo, a transition that modulates in a radiant major key and takes up a considerable part of that very short section. The oboe’s sad countermelody recalls the nostalgic first bars of the chorus, heard a few minutes previously. Despite the quality of the work as a whole, Dukas did not get through to the next round and the composition of a cantata to a text by Eugène Adenis, La Vision de Saül. The Premier Grand Prix that year went to Augustin Savard and the second prizes to Henry-Charles Kaiser (Premier Second Prix) and André Gedalge (Deuxième Second Prix). That same year, 1886, Dukas made his first trip to Bayreuth and returned delighted and full of enthusiasm for Wagner’s music – which at that time was not at all to the liking of the Institut de France. Indeed, Dukas himself saw it as the reason for his second failure to qualify for the cantata round of the Prix de Rome competition in 1887.