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 Prelude a l’Apres-midi d’un Faune for orchestra, after the Eclogue of Mallarme—­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 Pelleas et Melisande,[3] and with the Proses lyriques, four songs—­not of his best—­to words of his own (De Reve, De Greve, De Fleurs, De Soir).  The next four years—­1896-1899—­saw the issue of the extremely characteristic and uncompromising Nocturnes for orchestra (Nuages, Fetes, Sirenes), 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” (Prelude, Sarabande, Toccata)—­inventions of distinguished and original style—­and some less representative songs and piano pieces, completed his achievements before the production of Pelleas et Melisande 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 Mer—­completed three years after the production of Pelleas—­is charged to the brim with his peculiar and potent quality.

[2] A revised version of these songs was published fifteen years later, in 1903, dedicated a Miss Mary Garden, inoubliable Melisande.

[3] M. Debussy sends me the information that, although the music of Pelleas et Melisande was begun as early as September, 1893, he was not finally through with it until nine years later.  In the spring of 1901 the last scene of the fourth act (the love-scene at the fountain in the park, with its abrupt and tragic close) was rewritten, and in 1902, after the first rehearsals at the Opera-Comique, it was found necessary to lengthen the orchestral interludes between the different tableaux in order that the scene-shifters might have sufficient time to change the settings.  These extended interludes are included in the edition of the score for piano and voices, with French and English text, published in 1907.

[4] The above is written in July, 1907.