"IRIS" "Light is the language of the eternal ones--hear it!" proclaims the librettist of "Iris" in that portion of his book which is neither said nor sung nor played.

And it is the sun that sings with divers voices after the curtain has risen on a nocturnal scene, and the orchestra has sought to depict the departure of the night, the break of day, the revivification of the flowers and the sunrise.

As Byron sang of him, so Phoebus Apollo celebrates himself as "the god of life and poetry and light," but does not stop there.

He is also Infinite Beauty, Cause, Reason, Poetry, and Love.

The music begins with an all but inaudible descending passage in the basses, answered by sweet concordant harmonies.