Suite bergamasque how much was written in 1905, it is clear that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces. Passepied had first been composed under the name "Pavane", while Clair de lune was originally titled "Promenade sentimentale". These names also come from Paul Verlaine's poems. The final title of "Suite bergamasque" comes from Verlaine's poem "Clair de lune", which refers to bergamasks in its opening stanza: The "Suite bergamasque" consists of four movements: The first piece in the suite is entitled "Prélude", in the key of F and marked "tempo rubato". It is full of dynamic contrasts with
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