he wrote in several styles, sometimes severe baroque counterpoint, as in the fugue that opens his second symphony sometimes "impressionistically" as in the tone poem "au loin", or, as in the symphony no. 2's scherzo, yet more astringently. he could go from extreme simplicity to extreme complexity of texture and harmony from work to work, or within the same work. some of his most characteristic effects come from a very static treatment of harmony, savouring the effect of, for instance, a stacked-up series of fifths through the whole gamut of the instruments. his melodies are often long, asymmetrical and wide-ranging in tessitura. he was closely interested in the works of schoenberg, some of which he quoted from memory in his treatise on orchestration. the twelve tone technique is one of the several modern music styles parodied in the 'jungle book' symphonic poem "les bandar-log", but koechlin also wrote a few pieces in what he described as the 'style atonal-sériel'. he was fascinated by the movies and wrote many 'imaginary' film scores and works dedicated to the anglo-german actress lilian harvey, with whom he was infatuated. his "seven stars symphony" features movements inspired by douglas fairbanks, lilian harvey, greta garbo, clara bow, marlene dietrich, emil jannings and charlie chaplin in some of their most famous film roles. he also composed an "epitaph for jean harlow" and a suite of dances for ginger rogers. he was interested in using unusual instruments, notably the saxophone and the early electronic instrument the ondes martenot. one movement of the second symphony requires four of them (and has not usually been included in the few performances of the work, for that reason). he also wrote several pieces for the hunting-horn, an instrument he himself played. koechlin orchestrated several pieces by other composers. in addition to the fauré "pelléas et mélisande" (suite mentioned above), he orchestrated the bulk of claude debussy's 'legende dansée' "khamma" under the composer's direction, from the piano score , and orchestrated cole porter's ballet "within the quota"; other works he transcribed include schubert's "wanderer fantasy" and chabrier's "bourrée fantasque."