The cycle with three movements, composed at the end of 1907 and published at the beginning of the next year, contains a singular innovation: Debussy notated the highly differentiated piano part that goes into the extreme registers on three staves. The first movement (Cloches à travers les feuilles) is reminiscent of a deathknell, the second (Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut) conjures up far-off India or also China; and as for the third movement (Poissons d’or) Debussy was inspired by an enamel painting of goldfish in his study. The dedicatee of the third movement, Ricardo Viñes, gave the first performance of the cycle.
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- Images 2e série
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Preface
Three years separate the publication of the two volumes of Images. The second volume was thus longer in the making than the first since Debussy had planned to send his publisher “twelve pieces for the piano” as early as 1903, including the three titles published here. Among the innovations which Debussy chose to adopt during this period of reflection was to notate his … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer

Claude Debussy
Most important French composer around 1900, whose music, primarily characterized by its sound, exhibits profound innovations. His oeuvre bears a close relationship to Symbolism.
1862 | Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on August 22. |
1872–84 | Studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. During this time, he travels with the family of Nadezhda von Meck to Switzerland, Italy, Vienna, and Russia, where he becomes acquainted with Russian and Gypsy music. |
1884 | Wins the Prix de Rome with his cantata “L’Enfant prodigue.” Thereafter resides in Rome until 1887. |
1887–89 | Songs, “Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire.” |
1888/89 | Visit to the Bayreuth Festival; criticism of Wagner. |
1889 | Exposition universelle (World Exposition) in Paris, where he learns about East Asian music, which influences his style. |
1890 | Connection to Mallarmé and his circle. |
1891/1903 | Series of songs, “Fêtes galantes,” after Verlaine. |
1891–94 | Orchestral work “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” (“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”) with arabesque-like melodies. |
1897–99 | Nocturnes for orchestra and women’s voices. |
1901 | Beginning of his activity as a music critic. |
1902 | Performance of the opera “Pelléas et Mélisande” after the Symbolist drama by Maeterlinck, which despite criticism spells his breakthrough. |
1903–05 | Orchestral work “La Mer” uses symphonic principles and “Impressionist” tonal language. |
1905–07 | Books one and two of “Images” for piano. |
1906–08 | “Children’s Corner,” children’s pieces for piano. |
1909–10/11–1913 | Books one and two of the “Préludes” for piano; the programmatic titles of these character pieces, some of which are quite esoteric, are listed at the end of each one. |
1913 | Songs “Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.” |
1915–17 | Chamber music sonatas, drawing from the French tradition of the eighteenth century. |
1918 | Death in Paris on March 25. |