Note 88 — Chapter XII · FRANCE AND ITALY.

During the past two years particularly, Debussy's orchestral compositions have awakened much interest in France and in the United States, while his opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" to-day shares critical favor in Paris with Charpentier's "Louise." Both these operas are being performed in New York during the present season of 1907-1908.

The orchestration of "Pelléas et Mélisande" strengthens the previously formed conviction that Debussy is proving a worthy elaborator upon Saint-Saëns' lucid and refined methods. The key-note is transparency combined with an all-sufficient sonority. In a word, the cardinal feature of Debussy's scoring is the indispensability of each note, each phrase, each melody, even when assigned to the so-called secondary instruments of the orchestra—and this is by no means invariably the case in the scores of even such masters as Wagner, Elgar, Richard Strauss!