Dukas’s formal training spanned piano, harmony and composition studies at the Paris Conservatoire from 1880 to 1889. During that period, he produced a few pieces which remain unpublished but have received a handful of performances and recordings since the 1990s. The first part of this chapter surveys the juvenilia, scoping out the relationships between these scores and the composer’s mature output; I comment on the Polyeucte overture too as a transitional work bridging these periods. The second part of the chapter is both a chronological and thematic continuation: I explore the young musician’s ‘unofficial’, self-directed schooling that began when he became resident critic for La Revue hebdomadaire in 1892. It was the ideal situation for one who felt short-changed by the educational establishment. An inclination to rebel against the Conservatoire was not merely youthful posturing. Dukas continued to voice reservations about its policies in his analysis of 1890s Paris as a challenging environment for emerging composers.

As a veteran of the school’s annual Prix de Rome ritual, he bore the scars of the institution’s ethos and practices. The Conservatoire’s traditionalism was reinforced by the two major state opera companies (the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique), creating a situation which he believed conspired against the progress of opera in his country. In discussing this and other matters, Dukas explicitly constructed himself as a ‘French’ musician. While his Revue hebdomadaire articles were naturally driven by circumstances in the capital city, they were equally motivated by their author’s desire to forge (in his parallel professional life) a personal compositional style. To this end, he rarely wrote straightforward reviews. Instead, he evaluated performances and new works in historical and modern contexts (especially those local to Paris), measuring what he heard against stylistic norms and ideals, striving to pinpoint a spark of originality or statement of substance that justified the music’s contemporary relevance. These were the same standards he applied to his own work. Certain recurring themes in the early writings, notably Wagner and the post-1870 French symphonic tradition, signal how his evolving artistic identity was outgrowing his Conservatoire training. Assimilating the lessons of his youth and the surrounding professional scene, Dukas began philosophising about music. This laid the foundations for his independent creative practice.