Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs) is a song cycle for voice and piano, L. 60 by
Claude Debussy, based on poems by Paul Verlaine. The six ariettes were composed mostly in Rome in 1886. The first two were completed in Paris in March 1887. They are dedicated to the singer Mary Garden who also sang Mélisande. The poetry of Paul Verlaine had a more profound influence on Claude Debussy's music than did Debussy's closest literary or musical acquaintances.
Debussy and Verlaine were both inspired by subtlety and nuance. Each man sought to innovate by using rhythm and tone color as the basis for a new form of a pre-existing art. In the Ariettes oubliées, subtlety, nuance, rhythm and tone color (timbre) converged to create a mature compositional style for Debussy, which, in turn, gave a heightened level of understanding to Verlaine's poetry. This collection of songs set the tone for all of Debussy's future vocal compositions in terms of rhythm, harmony, tone, color and attention to poetic detail.
