Debussy confidently wrote to his publisher Jacques Durand in August 1905:
“I believe – without unwarranted vanity – that these three pieces will prove to be good and that they will take a prominent place in the literature of piano music … to the left of Schumann or to the right of Chopin … as you like it”.
The title of Ravel’s Miroirs (1904/05) can be interpreted as “reflections” of the human world of experiences. Among the nature pictures in this cycle, “Une barque sur l’océan” is particularly popular, forming a pianistic complement to Debussy’s orchestral work “La mer”, which was written at about the same time