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 a 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 dor) Debussy was inspired by an enamel painting of goldfish in his study. The dedicatee of the third movement, Ricardo Vines, gave the first performance of the cycle.
