SATIE Gymnopédies
1000 YEARS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC SATIE Gymnopédies VOLUME 74 | THE MODERN ERA FAST FACTS • Erik Satie is famous for his deeply eccentric nature, which extended to his dress (at one point he bought seven identical velvet suits and then, for more than ten years, wore nothing else), his eating habits (he claimed to eat only white food: ‘eggs, sugar, shredded bones, the fat of dead animals, veal, salt, coconuts, SATIE chicken cooked in white water, mouldy fruit, rice, turnips, sausages in camphor, pastry, cheese (white Gymnopédies varieties), cotton salad, and certain kinds of fish, without their skin’), and the instructions he gave to those performing his music: his scores are full of enigmatic notes such as ‘Light as an egg’, ‘Open your head’, ERIK SATIE 1866–1925 ‘Work it out yourself’ and ‘Don’t eat too much’. Trois Gymnopédies [9’44] 1 No. 1: Lent et douloureux (Slow and full of suffering) 3’37 • His sharp wit, irreverence and refusal to do as expected led him to reject the big, lush Romantic 2 No. 2: Lent et triste (Slow and sad) 3’06 tradition of composers like Wagner, and turn instead to shorter, simpler pieces in which melody was 3 No. 3: Lent et grave (Slow and solemn) 2’54 the central element. 4 Je te veux (I Want You) 5’17 • Satie broke new ground in many different musical ways. His familiarity with the world of cabaret (he [7’16] Trois Gnossiennes supported himself for several years by working as a pianist at Le Chat Noir and other Montmartre 5 No.
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