Debussy: The Preludes 171
occurrence in Debussy’s piano music—so vividly suggestive
of the timbre of the French Horn.
V. “The Hills of Anacapri” (Les Collines d,Ana-
capri )
An impression of Italy—the clear and fathomless blue
of its sky, the brilliance of its sun, the melodious clang of
noon-tide bells and the nonchalant gaiety, the banale but
irresistible romanticism of the Italian street-song. The
piece is an interesting example of the way impressionism
and realism tend, at times, to merge imperceptibly into one
another, a phenomenon so typical of the impressionistic
school of painting and also strikingly evident (though in
a very different way as far as the emotional effect is con-
cerned) in the work of Malipiero.
VI. “Footsteps in the Snow” (Des pas sur la
Neige )
An evocation of the melancholy solitude and desolation
of a winter landscape. Two pages in which, by the magic of
musical suggestion, everything is expressed but nothing
said outright and yet which reach the most intimate recesses
of the human soul.
VII. “What the West Wind Saw” (Ce qu,a vu le
Vent d’Ouesf).
The tumultuous movement of the sea, lashed and
whipped by the fury of the winds. The composer’s expres-
sion marks—animated and tumultuous, plaintive and dis-
tant, strident, incisive, rapid and furious—indicate pretty
clearly the range of the feelings that dominate the com-
position, but only the music itself can give any idea of its
elemental grandeur and power.