In 1910 Claude Debussy published a collection of piano pieces entitled Préludes. One of these pieces bears the enigmatic title: Ce q’a vu le vent d’Ouest (What the West Wind saw).
It turns out to be a reference to a fairytale by Denmark’s national author, Hans-Christian (H-C) Andersen, called The Garden of Paradise. A wandering prince strays into the Cave of the Winds, where he sees an old woman roasting a whole stag complete with antlers. She invites him to stay for supper, and one by one her sons, the Four Winds, come in and tell the story of what they have seen and done that day.
Debussy’s piano piece is a tone poem based on the West Wind’s furious story, which it faithfully evokes.
“Is that little Zephyr?” the Prince asked.
“Of course it’s Zephyr,” the old woman replied, “but he’s not little. He was a nice boy once, but that was years ago.”
He looked like a savage, except that he wore a broad-rimmed hat to shield his face. In his hand he carried a mahogany bludgeon, cut in the mahogany forests of America. Nothing less would do!
“Where have you come from?” his mother asked.
“I come from the forest wilderness,” he said, “where the thorny vines make a fence between every tree, where the water snake lurks in the wet grass, and where people seem unnecessary.”
“What were you doing there?”
“I gazed into the deepest of rivers, and saw how it rushed through the rapids and threw up a cloud of spray large enough to hold the rainbow. I saw a wild buffalo wading in the river, but it swept him away. He swam with a flock of wild ducks, that flew up when the river went over a waterfall. But the buffalo had to plunge down it. That amused me so much that I blew up a storm, which broke age-old trees into splinters.”
“Haven’t you done anything else?” the old woman asked him.
“I turned somersaults across the plains, stroked the wild horses, and shook cocoanuts down from the palm trees. Yes indeed, I have tales worth telling, but one shouldn’t tell all he knows. Isn’t that right, old lady?” Then he gave her such a kiss that it nearly knocked her over backward. He was certainly a wild young fellow.
The Garden of Paradise
Whitby Writers Group 