Paysage opens the cycle with a straight perfect cadence to the tonic D-flat, downgrading what textbooks would tell us should be reserved for a more conclusive moment. Paysage is riddled with rhythmic and harmonic games, not least the absence throughout of a single clear four-bar phrase; the piece's opening section, all in three-bar phrases, makes two teasing feints at four-bar phrases, both thwarted.Howat R. Modernization: from Chabrier to Faure to Debussy and Ravel. In: French Music since Berlioz. By Richard Langham Smith, Caroline Potter. Ashgate Publishing, 2006. Poulenc suggests that the piece should be played with "allegresse et tendresse".Poulenc F. Emmanuel Chabrier. La Palatine, Geneva & Paris, 1961.
