Paul Dukas Correspondence with Marguerite Hasselmans, and Related Materials.

Paul Dukas was born in Paris on October 1, 1865. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Ernest Guiraud; in 1928, Dukas himself became a professor of composition at the Conservatoire. Like Schumann, Debussy, and Thomson, Dukas was a prominent music critic as well as a composer. He composed a variety of works, mostly for orchestra, voice, or piano. He was not prolific, and he destroyed numerous pieces that did not meet his standards. His most frequently performed composition is The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He died in Paris on May 17, 1935.

Marguerite Hasselmans (1876–1947), daughter of the harpist and composer Alphonse Hasselmans, was a concert pianist and Gabriel Fauré’s mistress and constant companion until the end of his days. She was also a close friend of Paul Dukas and Isaac Albéniz. She was beautiful and cultivated; she was interested in philosophy, she read Russian, and she behaved like a modern young woman, for example by smoking and wearing makeup in public. She was appreciated by her contemporaries for her musical talents, her conversation and her delicacy.