The year 1909 marked the centenary of Haydn's death, and the French music magazine SIM featured a special commemorative issue. The work commissioned for this occasion was Hommage à Haydn.

In this piece, the technique of musical cryptogram (a technique of incorporating letters of the alphabet into music by converting them into musical notes) is employed. It is a leisurely waltz consisting of four sections, in each of which the basic melodic series is varied.