Today we shall revisit a composer who has not received even a fraction of the attention that his other classical contemporaneous composers have been assured of: Erik Satie. Some atribute this fact that to the composer's very personal style and his lack of allegiance to any aesthetic. Therefore, being born in the era of the Impressionists, he is not strictly deemed an Impressionist.
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (1866-1925; signed his name Erik Satie after 1884), born in Normandy, France, was also a pianist. Considered by many 'the father of ragtime', Satie was an important composer who influenced both Debussy and Ravel, and was the exponent of a number of twentieth-century trends such as minimalism, repetitive music and Theatre of Absurd.
Some have viewed certain of his stylistic traits as components of Impressionism, but his harmonies and melodies have relatively very little in common with the characteristics of that school. A revolutionary, ahead of his own time, he contended against the fact that a composer should spend so much time writing long pieces and depriving themselves of their contact with the public - so his pieces were usually short, and direct. His melodies were often melancholy, and his moods exotic, a dry wit being always the hallmark of his style.
In the 1890's, his works were very academic; in this period, he composed the first pieces in a compositional system of his own making: (Fête donnée par des Chevaliers Normands en l'honneur d'une jeune demoiselle), provided incidental music to a chivalric esoteric play (two Prélude du Nazaréen), had his first hoax published (announcing the première of Le bâtard de Tristan, an anti-Wagnerian opera he probably never composed), and launched his Uspud project, a ballet in collaboration with Contamine de Latour.
Satie's Vexations, likewise, were produced in those years. We shall return to the Vexations later.
The early 20th century witnessed the return of the composer to his musical studies; in 1905, Satie enrolled in Vincent d'Indy's Schola Cantorum de Paris to study classical counterpoint. With the new century also came Satie's height of success, more evidently after 1910, when his new humourous, sarcastic miniatures for piano, with odd titles - such as 'Dried up Embryos' and 'Three Real Flabby Preludes (For a Dog)' were premièred. Those were the pieces which very much attracted the attention of the avant-garde parisiènne youth who attended the famous Chat Noir, where Cocteau, Picasso and other cubists (not to mention the dadaists) gathered.
An eccentric, Eric Satie made strange remarks in his piano scores, meant for the performers. Such odd instructions included, for example, the one in Vexations, which carries in its score the following admonition: 'To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities'....
Notice Satie's use of innovative new scales, bitony and diminished triads in Gnossiènne 2. Also observe the simplistic, direct style of his approach.
'Avec étonnement!', he instructs... Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VKkACPvpNA
This is an exemplary overview of a truly undervalued composer. I agree with Ms. Gaertner's observation that Satie is not really an Impressionist though he is often consigned to that movement. In fact, he was appropriated by several members of the Dada movement and is often anthologized in books about that art movement. Excellent reading and very informative.
ReplyDeleteAs an additional resource, I highly recommend Mr. Satie's satirical essay entitled Memories of an Amnesic (fragments) (1912-13). This work contains a segment entitled The Day of a Musician. This writing illustrates Satie's penchant for absurdity. Small wonder the Dadaists were attracted.
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