Peter Grimes begins with a repeated calling of the protagonist's name, and already in these opening measures, as Peter steps forward in response to Hobson's cry, the gist of the drama to come – in Hans Keller's pithy gloss, “the story of the man who couldn't fit in” (1983: 105) – is revealed to an audience. One senses Peter's isolation, at this early moment, without reading a plot summary or remembering Britten's poetic source; that he is alone is something one knows because the music says so. The two words of hailing – “Peter Grimes!” – do more than announce the identity of the witness in a courtroom. Set to the music of this opening (Ex. 2.1), the delivery of Peter's name interrupts the slightly pompous woodwind tune with a sudden harmonic and rhythmic swerve. As the curtain rises, chromatic pitches pull the music flatwards, landing the phrase rather abruptly on Hobson's “Grimes!” calls. These cut across the previous duple meter, and their intonation is colored by an alien sounding D-minor triad, superseding the bare octaves of the wind tune with somber conflation of chromatic pitches above (D# in the flute) and below (the sustained G# in the bass). A form of the opening theme returns now in the flute, but its sound is spectral and distorted. From its opening moments, the opera imbues the name “Peter Grimes” alone with unsettling disruptive force.