Dukas, Paul Abraham

French composer and teacher. His scrupulous orchestration and chromatically enriched harmonies were admired by Debussy. He wrote very little, composing slowly and with extreme care. His small output includes the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue/Ariane and Bluebeard (1907), the ballet La Péri/The Peri (1912), and the animated orchestral scherzo L'Apprenti sorcier/The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1897).

Dukas studied at the Paris Conservatory, where his teachers included Théodore Dubois and Ernest Guiraud. He taught the orchestral class there 1910–13 and was then appointed professor of composition; in 1926 he also began teaching at the École Normale, and held both posts until his death. Among his pupils at the Conservatory was Olivier Messiaen.

He wrote very little, composing slowly and with extreme care. His opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue is among the finest French operas of its day, premiered four years before Bartók wrote Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1918).