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
Suite (music) or entirely original movements ("Holberg Suite", "The Planets"). Estienne du Tertre published "suyttes de bransles" in 1557, giving the first general use of the term "suite" 'suyttes' in music, although the usual form of the time was as pairs of dances. The first recognizable suite is Peuerl's "Newe Padouan, Intrada, Dantz, and Galliarda" of 1611, in which the four dances of the title appear repeatedly in ten suites. The "Banchetto musicale" by Johann Schein (1617) contains 20 sequences of five different dances. The first four-movement suite credited to a named composer, "Sandley's Suite", was published in 1663. The "classical" suite