The _Estampes_ (‘Engravings’) are among the best of these middle pieces. A comparison of them with works of an early period, with the two arabesques or even the _Suite Bergamasque_, shows an extraordinary development in Debussy’s art and a change or a more marked independence in his ideals. There is hardly a trace in the earlier works of the new expansion in pianoforte technique which marks the _Pagodes_, _La soirée dans Grenade_, and _Jardins sous la pluie_. Especially in the first of these pieces the whole range of the keyboard is blended into effects of a new sonority of sevenths and ninths. The second is a study in impressionism, in the combination of a few fragments of melody, harmony and rhythm into a whole of new poetic intensity. In the former his technique, in the latter his procedure, are strange and unfamiliar in pianoforte music, yet wholly successful. Their effectiveness is no doubt largely due to the nature of his material. The motives of the _Pagodes_ are Oriental, those in _La soirée_ both Spanish and Moorish. Perhaps for this reason they sound more exotic than the _Jardins sous la pluie_, which, in spite of odd blendings of harmony, is essentially more conventional than its two companions in the set. Certainly the _Jardins_ is a wholly poetic and effective piece of keyboard music; but it lacks the originality and the elusive suggestiveness of the _Pagodes_ and of _La soirée_. The _Reflets dans l’eau_ is superior to the _Hommage à Rameau_ and the _Mouvement_, with which it is combined in the first series of _Images_. Technically it is a masterpiece, and both by the quality of its themes and its perfection of form is fitted to stand as a piece of absolute music of rare beauty. The plan of it is logical rather than impressionistic. It is the development of a single idea, not the combination of suggestive fragments. Hence it seems to stand as the most complete result of the art of which the _Pagodes_ and _Les Jardins_ are representative. In the second series of _Images_ the strange piece, _Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut_, is a further experiment in the kind of music of which _La soirée_ is an example. Here as there the music is fragmentary. Here as there there is but an occasional touch of vividness against a background of misty night. In both pieces pictures, words, almost sounds are only suggested to the ear, not completely represented. On the other hand, the _Cloches à travers les feuilles_, and the _Poissons d’or_, respectively the first and last pieces in this second set of _Images_, are what we might call consistently motivated throughout, in the manner of the _Reflets dans l’eau_. There is always the rustling of leaves and the faint jangle of bells in the former, always a quiver of water and a darting, irregular movement in the latter; whereas in neither _La soirée_ nor in _Et la lune_ is there the persistence of an idea that is thus predominant and more or less clearly presented.