Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy

Composed in 1920 as a tribute to Claude Debussy for a special issue of La Revue musicale dedicated to the recently deceased French composer, the Homenaje is the most important original guitar piece by a major early-20th-century Spanish composer and a landmark in the instrument's repertoire. Its brief, concentrated single movement evokes the spirit of Debussy's Impressionism through distinctly Spanish harmonic and rhythmic language, including a quotation from the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Premiered by Llobet and subsequently championed by Segovia, it was later orchestrated by de Falla for his ballet El sombrero de tres picos, but the solo guitar version retains its unique intimacy and is regarded as a perfect miniature masterpiece.