Hommage à Haydn is a musical work by Claude Debussy written for piano , composed as part of the collective work Hommage à Joseph Haydn promoted by Jules Écorcheville for the Revue musicale SIM to celebrate the centenary in 1909 of Joseph ‘s death Haydn. Guy Sacre considers the Hommage à Haydn as a “writing exercise”:”After a short , distant and wry prelude , which constitutes the best moment of the work, with its way of deferring the key of G major ( slow waltz movement ), the theme is alternately diminished in garlands of sixteenth notes ( lively ), augmented in chorale in bass and soprano, fragmented in the high-pitched ( restrained ), derhythmed above a stubborn staccato in the left hand ( little by little animated ), treated in placid chords , pianissimo, before two measures of the prelude, and a final arabesque that pierces the treble of the piano

Claude Debussy composed his two books of preludes during a remarkably brief period—the first, between December 1909 and February 1910; and the second, during roughly the same period in 1912-13. The last of Debussy’s 24 preludes, Feux d’artifice (“Fireworks”) is also the most technically challenging. It depicts a brilliant and spectacular fireworks display over Paris, and captures in tones the many furious streaks of rockets and their colourful explosions in the night sky. Sweeping runs, outlining two major thirds a semitone apart, open the prelude, perhaps depicting the anticipation of the audience, while isolated tones, like little points of light, sound in the upper register of the piano. The texture of the piece grows ever thicker and more complex and colours abound as the harmonies, figurations and dynamics change to give representation to the wondrous display and patterns of coloured light. At its close, the visual display begins to slowly fade away. Over a tremolo in the bass a brief quote of La Marseillaise is heard before the last flashes of colour.