The work demonstrates Satie's attempts to reconcile the linear contrapuntal style he had acquired through his recent studies at the Schola Cantorum in Paris with his natural sense of wit and fantasy. It was to have been the first of his series of "humoristic" piano suites (1912-1915), but the composer withdrew the score after it was rejected for publication. He then wrote a second set of pieces on the same theme, the Veritables Preludes flasques (pour un chien) (1912), which proved a breakthrough in Satie's career and creative development. The original Préludes flasques were presumed lost for decades and would not see print until 1967.