This piece for solo flute was composed in 1913 and published by Editions Jobert in 1927, nearly ten years after the death of Claude Debussy.
It was originally called Flute de Pan and served as incidental music for Gabriel Mourey's play Psyché.
The title Syrinx comes from the name of a nymph favoured by the god Pan who, through pursuing her, caused her death, and who after she metamorphosed into a reed, decided to make various pieces of reed cane into the instrument that is named after him.
Among the composer's work, this funerary lament can be grouped with the numerous works inhabited by fauns (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Fêtes galantes, the theme from La Boîte à joujoux, and Pour invoquer Pan from the Epigraphes antiques).
