Symphonic poem Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia" "powerful orchestral pictures, each unique in its composer's output". Titled a "musical portrait", "In the Steppes of Central Asia" evokes the journey of a caravan across the steppes. "Night on Bald Mountain", especially its original version, contains harmony that is often striking, sometimes pungent and highly abrasive; its initial stretches especially pull the listener into a world of uncompromisingly brutal directness and energy. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote only two orchestral works that rank as symphonic poems, his "musical tableau" "Sadko" (1867–92) and "Skazka" ("Legend", 1879–80), originally titled "Baba-Yaga". While this may perhaps be surprising,
Symphonic poem the cycle is similar to Smetana's "Má vlast" in overall scope. Henri Duparc's "Lenore" (1875) displayed a Wagnerian warmth in its writing and orchestration. Franck wrote the delicately evocative "Les Éolides", following it with the narrative "Le Chasseur maudit" and the piano-and-orchestral tone poem "Les Djinns", conceived in much the same manner as Liszt's "Totentanz". Ernest Chausson's "Vivane" illustrates the penchant shown by the Franck circle for mythological subjects. Claude Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" (1892-4), intended initially as part of a triptych, is, in the composer's words, "a very free ... succession of settings through which the Faun's