Played by LAFFITTE
Bruyeres (Heather, from 'Preludes,' Book I)

THE PRELUDES of Debussy contain all kinds of sketches of scenes and people. Most of them are impressionistic, and we need little more than the title to help us to conjure up the scene which the composer has endeavoured to translate into music. A very little exercise of imagination, for instance, enables us to recall, when we hear Bruyeres, the glorious purple and fragrant scent of the springy heather.
Yesterday we heard Debussy's impression of the muffled bells of the cathedral under the waves. Here again, in Pagodas, we get a suggestion of the continuous tinkle of bells. Perhaps the composer imagined them hung all round the pagodas. More probably, he is thinking of those little Chinamen who nod to us from mantelpieces - they also are called pagodas. This piece and the next are from the book entitled Estampes (Engravings).
In the last piece we shelter beneath the canopy of a leafy tree, and watch the steadily falling, gentle rain-shower. We may imagine we hear a distant rumble of thunder and see a flash or two of summer lightning. Then the clouds clear away and the sun bursts out again.