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
Au clair de la lune night by all the little boys of Paris, that song of "Au clair de la lune," every verse of which was a remembrance of happiness to Cresson, and a reproach of cruelty to friend Peterkin, who would not open his door to his neighbor, when he requested this slight service. In his 1952 memoir "Witness", Whittaker Chambers reminisced: In my earliest recollections of her, my mother is sitting in the lamplight, in a Windsor rocking chair, in front of the parlor stove. She is holding my brother on her lap. It is bed time and, in a thin sweet voice,