A text of homage should certainly exalt one or more aspects of an artist's work. This year will doubtless see the birth of a prolix exegesis of La mer or of Pelléas. But is it not equally important, indeed urgent, that the contemporary musician should try to place the geometrical site of a creation of the past, to define the historical coordinates, to unveil, finally, what is evoked today by the appearance of a composer of genius?

To what sort of immediate meditation—already a signal of our creation—does Debussy invite us then? Why not let ourselves glide, by the forces of the imagination, in this other universe?

Since the creator, condemned to live uneasy—almost desperate—in his time, defines himself hypocritically (for he is no longer alone) but triumphally (will future creators not consecrate his mad gesture?), a homage, deferring so irreverently in its respect, surely supposes—and, why not?, revives—the history of a Master who is today no more. Indeed, this straining towards dreams, desires or nightmares already experienced (but also the brutal emergence, creating beauty) allows people to invent their own aspirations, in the same inquiring quest.

Debussy, ‘first modern musician’, subjects us to these confrontations. He himself was obliged to take on, if perhaps unconsciously, the heavy loads of heritage and descendance.