An 1889 pilgrimage to hear Die Meistersinger and Parsifal in Bayreuth prompted the musical travelogue Tableaux de voyage, Op. 33—a collection of thirteen brief piano pieces, from which d'Indy orchestrated six numbers to make the eponymous suite, Op. 36, of 1891. What he lacks in the immediately compelling lyric inspiration of his model, Schumann, he compensates for with atmospheric evocations which benefit immeasurably from their exquisite orchestrations. d'Indy conducted the première of his little suite at Havre on January 17, 1892.

A "Préambule" (titled with a question mark in the piano original) seems to echo an almost palpable world of legend hovering at the unraveling fringe of consciousness. The blithesome series of ascending canonic sallies of "En Marche" is beset by a sudden pensive moment before springing forward to its cadence. "Le Glas," a heartfelt knell, rises twice to halt, wavering, as if overcome by its own grief. "Lac Vert" features a lazy swing between major and minor—light and shade—which conjures an idyllic—if not wholly untroubled—summer's day at the Tyrol's Fernsee. Into these enchanted landscapes, a postillion's horn call intrudes realistically for a moment in "La Poste," receding into the distance. Finally, in good cyclic fashion, "Rêve" wraps it all up with reminiscences—first lively, then as if from a great distance—and nostalgia for a fabulous world that is merely suggested.

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