In the 1880s and 1890s, Romanticism blazed its last. Just as Brahms was writing his final works, wreathed in a twilit halo, the young Debussy began composing. Hence his early works were born in the nostalgic mists of a century that was drawing to a close; but the gigantic sketchbook that we are invited to leaf through here is also animated bv the life force that was to lead Debussy’s music to explore resolutely new musical territories, and to advance, in total freedom. towards sounds that had never been heard before.