"Ariettes,"[2] six settings for voice and piano of poems by Verlaine. To
1889-1890 belong the _Fantaisie_ for piano and orchestra and the
striking "Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire" (_Le Balcon_, _Harmonie du Soir_,
_Le Jet d'Eau_, _Recueillement_, _La Mort des Amants_). In 1891 came
some less significant piano pieces; but the following two years were
richly productive, for they brought forth the exquisite _Prélude à
l'Après-midi d'un Faune_ for orchestra, after the Éclogue of
Mallarmé--the first extended and inescapable manifestation of Debussy's
singular gifts--and the very personal but less important string quartet.
In 1893-1895 he was busied with _Pelléas et Mélisande_,[3] and with the
_Proses lyriques_, four songs--not of his best--to words of his own
(_De Rêve_, _De Grève_, _De Fleurs_, _De Soir_). The next four
years--1896-1899--saw the issue of the extremely characteristic and
uncompromising Nocturnes for orchestra (_Nuages_, _Fêtes_, _Sirènes_),
and the fascinating and subtle _Chansons de Bilitis_, after Pierre
Louys--songs in which, aptly observed his colleague Bruneau, "he mingled
an antique and almost evaporated perfume with penetrating modern odors."
The collection "Pour le Piano" (_Prélude_, _Sarabande_,
_Toccata_)--inventions of distinguished and original style--and some
less representative songs and piano pieces, completed his achievements
before the production of _Pelléas et Mélisande_ brought him fame and a
measure of relief from lean and pinching days. He has from time to time
made public appearances in Paris as a pianist in concerts of chamber
music; and he has even resorted--one wonders how desperately?--to the
writing of music criticism for various journals and reviews. "Artists,"
he has somewhat cynically observed, "struggle long enough to win their
place in the market; once the sale of their productions is assured, they
quickly go backward." There is as yet no sign that he himself is
fulfilling this prediction; for his most recent published
performance,[4] the superbly fantastic and imaginative _La