Faure first conceived this Sicilienne as a work for cello/piano and published it as his Op 78. He later included an orchestrated version of it as part of his Op 80 incidental music to Maurice maeterlinck's play Pelleas et Melisande. In this new arrangement the accompaniment is based on that of the original, while the solo part closely follows the flute part of the orchestral version. Faure's original tempo indication was Andantino; he changed this to Allegretto motto in the orchestral version.