The aim of this book is to step into the workshop of a contemporary music composer and address the issue of musical imagination, time required to compose music, how the consideration of past works promotes ideas about future works, the happiness derived from creating music, the doubts that assail artists, and what it is like to be a woman in a largely masculine universe.
Once the composition is complete, what becomes of it ? What are the roles on interpreters, relations with audiences, and the impact of the context and of cultural institutions ?
This book, which was written by a modern composer, is neither objective nor neutral : it relates a singular experience, as is true of all experiences involving the creative process.

Michel Reverdy, a student of Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory, a producer with Radio France from 1978 to 1991, and the recipient of the SACEM Symphonic Music Grand Prize for the body of her musical work (1995) — has composed operas, full scores, and works for soloists and chamber music. She has been teaching Musical Analysis and Orchestration at tne CNSMD of Paris since 1983.