Lastly, the orchestration is purposely restrained, light, and divided,
for Debussy has a fine disdain for those orgies of sound to which
Wagner's art has accustomed us; it is as sober and polished as a fine
classic phrase of the latter part of the seventeenth century. _Ne quid
nimis_ ("Nothing superfluous") is the artist's motto. Instead of
amalgamating the _timbres_ to get a massive effect, he disengages their
separate personalities, as it were, and delicately blends them without
changing their individual nature. Like the impressionist painters of
to-day, he paints with primary colours, but with a delicate moderation
that rejects anything harsh as if it were something unseemly.
* * * * *
I have given more than enough reasons to account for the success of
_Pelleas et Melisande_ and the place that its admirers give it in the
history of opera. There is every reason to believe that the composer has
not been as acutely conscious of his musico-dramatic reform as his
disciples have been. The reform with him has a more instinctive
character; and that is what gives it its strength. It responds to an
unconscious yet profound need of the French spirit.
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