whether the overture and the song cycle are musically related is debated. according to ravel's biographer arbie orenstein, there is little melodic connection between the overture and the cycle, with the exception of the opening theme of the first song, "asie", which uses a theme, based on a modally inflected scale, similar to one near the beginning of the overture. ravel originally conceived the cycle with "asie" coming last, and this order was adopted at the premiere, but his final preference, in the published score, gives a sequence steadily decreasing in intensity; the critic caroline rae writes that the music moves "from rich voluptuousness and gentle lyricism to languid sensuousness".