Description
The cycle, composed at the end of 1907 and published the following year, contains a singular innovation: Debussy notated the highly differentiated piano part that spans the extreme registers on three staves. The first movement, "Cloches à travers les feuilles," evokes a deathknell, while the second, "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut," conjures distant India or China. As for the third movement, "Poissons d'or," Debussy drew inspiration from an enamel painting of goldfish in his study. The dedicatee of this final movement, Ricardo Viñes, gave the cycle's premiere performance.
