Au clair de la lune Au clair de la lune "" (, lit. "By the Light of the Moon") is a French folk song of the 18th century. Its composer and lyricist are unknown. Its simple melody () is commonly taught to beginners learning an instrument. Some sources report that "plume" (pen) was originally "lume" (an old word for "light" or "lamp"). 19th-century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns quoted the first few notes of the tune in the section "The Fossils", part of his suite "The Carnival of the Animals". Claude Debussy, composer of the similarly named "Clair de lune" from his "Suite bergamasque", uses "Au
Choses vues à droite et à gauche (sans lunettes) aside, Satie was painstaking in his efforts to redevelop these old musical forms in modern terms, harmonically and structurally. He rejected the first movement he completed, an untitled 31-bar chorale in G Major, and experimented with several fugue subjects (including a quotation of the folksong "Au clair de la lune") for the "Fugue à tâtons". In his analysis of Satie's composing methods Robert Orledge remarked on "how ordinary his first thoughts often were", and this certainly applies to the "Choses vues". Satie's original order for the pieces - "Fantaisie", "Choral", "Fugue" - would have given the suite a conventional fast-slow-fast