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Lawrence Gilman This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists
of approximately 47 pages of information about Debussy's Pellas
et Mlisande.   A brief orchestral prelude, less than twenty
measures in length, introduces the opening scene of the first
act.  Divided and muted ’cellos, double-basses, and bassoons
intone, pp, a solemn and brooding theme[6] designed to evoke the
thought of the forest, which, sombre, mysterious, and
oppressive, forms the background against which the events of the
drama are projected (page 1, measure 1):[7]  [6] Its curious
progressions, based on the Dorian mode of the plain-chant
(corresponding to a scale of D-minor without accidentals), I
have alluded to in a previous chapter.  [7] These indications
refer to the arrangement of the score for voices and piano, with
French and English text, published by A. Durand & Fils of Paris
in 1907.  I have indicated in each case, in addition to the
page, the measure in which the example