172 Lectures on Modem Music
VIII. “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” (La Fille
aux cheveux de Un).
Like the Blessed Damozel, a “Préraphaélite” composi-
tion, which, had the artist been as much of a musician as he
was a poet and a painter, might well have been written
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the author of these lines:
Lady, I fain would tell how evermore
Thy soul I know not from thy body, nor
Thee from myself, neither our love from God.
The influence of Chabrier is apparent in the melodic turn
of the theme and in the frequent use, in one form or another
(measures 9-10, 12-13, 15-16, 18-19, 19-20, 20-21) of the
cadential formula which we have previously cited in con-
nection with Chabrier.
IX. “The Interrupted Serenade” (La Sérénade
Interrompue)
The title alone is sufficient indication of the idea of the
piece, which is another example of the use of realistic detail
in a composition that is essentially impressionistic in
methods and mood. The incisiveness and precision with
which Debussy, by a few well chosen strokes of his pen, has
attained his end, is amazing.
X. “The Cathedral under the Sea” (La Cathédrale
engloutie)
The work was inspired by an old Breton legend which
tells how the town of Ys, swallowed up long, long ago by
the sea, rises, at times, from the depths of the ocean and
gradually becomes visible in all its ancient grandeur, only
to disappear again, a moment later, beneath the waves.