Reflets dans l’eau (from Images, Book I)

In spite of the title, only one piece in the first set of Images - which was published in 1905, to be followed by a second set three years later - derives from a visual experience. Reflets dans l’Eau is a tranquil pool of D flat major, the rippling arpeggios of which cause harmonic vibrations on the three-note motif just below the surface. Twice the tranquillity is disturbed - the first time by a cadenza based on a series of minor thirds, the second time by a whole-tone scale rising up from the bass. Each time the three-note melodic reflection disappears and is replaced by a more agitated image in varying rhythmic shapes until the D flat major tonality is restored.