It was composed around April 1891, following a visit to his native Auvergne the previous summer, when Chabrier’s health was deteriorating. According to Alfred Cortot it is "one of the most exciting and original works in the whole literature of French piano music". Unlike much nineteenth century writing for the pianoforte, the instrument is treated almost like an orchestra, and "foreshadows innovations in pianistic technique introduced by Ravel in Gaspard de la nuit and Debussy in the late Études". The manuscript is at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.