The Reception of Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies: Audience, Identity, and Commercialization

Thesis

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Master of Arts in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University

By

Billie Eaves, M. M.

Graduate Program in Music

The Ohio State University

2011

Thesis Committee:

Danielle Fosler‐Lussier, Advisor

Arved Ashby

Robert Sorton

Copyright by

Billie Eaves

2011

Abstract

Erik Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies (1888) embody the aesthetic synthesis of high and low

musical culture, which was the premise of artistic ventures at the Chat Noir, the cabaret frequented by Satie in the 1880s. The Gymnopédies maintained but softened distinct aesthetic boundaries by combining modernist and popular musical elements, making the pieces accessible to both artistic and bourgeois audiences. In subsequent performances, the popular musical elements more dominantly informed the identity of the works, and even though Claude Debussy’s 1896 orchestration of the Gymnopédies succeeded in elevating the status of the pieces, this prevailing perception led to aesthetic debates regarding the justification for including the works on concert programs. With the advent of recordings, the Gymnopédies attained a broader, less musically literate audience, and by the 1950s, commoditization and marketing campaigns targeting amateur audiences assigned new functions and meanings to the Gymnopédies that were wholly separate from intensive listening to the pieces as abstract, modernist music. For example, the pieces were marketed for such purposes as sleep, exercise, weddings, or light accompaniment to everyday activities. With experimental transcriptions, especially the arrangement by Blood, Sweat and Tears, Satie’s aesthetic identity was completely supplanted by influential performers. While the modernist identity of the Gymnopédies as absolute music

endured through concert‐hall performances and recorded collections, the accessible and

popular elements of the pieces encouraged a multitude of transcriptions and allowed for

their successful commercialization. ii

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my advisor, Dr. Danielle Fosler‐Lussier, for her perceptive suggestions and positive encouragement, from the earliest ruminations of my topic through the finalized project. Her meticulous reading and detailed comments enabled me to make efficient and profitable progress from draft to draft, challenging my ability to achieve conceptual clarity, and encouraging my growth as a writer and scholar. I would also like to thank Dr. Arved

Ashby and Professor Robert Sorton for their careful reading and insightful contributions to this project. Finally, a special thanks is owed to my husband, Adam, for his unshakable confidence in me, and to my parents, for providing me with the resources and support to follow any and all of my musical interests for the past twenty‐five years.

iii

Vita

November 27, 1985 ...... Born – Binghamton, New York

May 2008 ...... B.M.. Musical Studies and Oboe Performance, Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam

2008‐2009 ...... University Fellow, The Ohio State University

June 2010 ...... M.M Music, The Ohio State University

2009‐present ...... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University

Fields of Study

Major Field: Music

iv

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii

Acknowledgments ...... iii

Vita ...... iv

List of Examples ...... vi

Chapter 1: The Impact of the Chat Noir’s Audience and Aesthetic on the Composition and Identity Formation of Satie’s Gymnopédies ...... 1

Chapter 2: Transmission and Reception of the Gymnopédies through 1950 ...... 14

Chapter 3: The Commercialization of the Gymnopédies (1950‐2010) ...... 39

Selected Bibliography ...... 67

Appendix: Selected List of Gymnopédies Recordings, 1985‐2010……….……………………………..70

v

List of Examples

Example Page

1. Gymnopédie no. 1, mm. 21‐24 ...... 10

2. Gymnopédie no. 1, mm. 1‐4 ...... 11

3. Gymnopédie no. 3 (orchestration by Debussy of Satie’s Gymnopédie no. 1), mm. 1‐8 ...... 17

4. Gymnopédie no. 1 (orchestration by Debussy of Satie’s Gymnopédie no. 3), mm. 28‐40 ..... 18

vi

Chapter One: The Impact of the Chat Noir’s Audience and Aesthetic on the Composition and

Identity Formation of Satie’s Gymnopédies

Following his famous introduction by Vital Hocquet as “Erik Satie, gymnopédiste!” the Parisian cabaret Le Chat Noir welcomed the young composer gladly.1 Satie’s made‐up profession, likely chosen for the novelty, obscurity, and musicality of the word gymnopédie, unusually struck Rodolphe Salis: he responded, “That’s quite a profession!”2 Satie wrote the

Trois Gymnopédies between February and April of 1888, and the first was published in

August by his father, Alfred Satie, in La Musique des familles. While the third Gymnopédie was advertised in La Lanterne Japonaise on December 1, 1888 (in an entry where Satie described the piece as “One of the most beautiful”)3 it had been published privately by his father’s publisher, Dupré, possibly a full month earlier.4 Because the interaction with Salis took place before Satie began composing his Gymnopédies, one can assume that these pieces were developed to justify his claim to the title and gain the approval of Salis and the inner

1 Eric Frederick Jensen, “Satie and the ‘Gymnopédie,’ Music & Letters 75, no. 2 (May, 1994): 239‐240. Dominique Mondo’s Dictionnaire de musique (Paris, 1839) describes gymnopédie as “a nude dance, accompanied by song, which youthful Spartan maidens danced on specific occasions.” Gymnopaidia is additionally defined by Liddell and Scott in A Greek­English Lexicon as the “festival at Sparta, at which naked boys danced and went through gymnastic exercises.” Therefore, Satie may have learned the word from these French or German dictionaries, or possibly Jean‐Jacques Rousseau’s music dictionary (dating all the way back to 1768) whose definition was simply: “Gymnopédie – air or nomos to which young Spartan maidens danced naked.” Satie would surely have had ample access to this volume, whether through home collections or those at the conservatory. Steven Moore Whiting also speculates regarding what Satie meant by his profession, whether referring to the Sparta festival, himself as a future composer of the Gymnopédies or simply “just to cut an audacious figure.” Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 69. 2 Patrice Contamine de Latour, “Erik Satie Intime: Souvenirs de Jeunesse,” Comoedia (August 3, 1925): 2, quoted in Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 69. 3 Robert Orledge, Satie the Composer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 337. 4 Orledge, Satie the Composer, xxi. 1

circle of artists, poets and musicians of the Chat Noir. Nevertheless, they were also

composed for the bourgeois public present at the performances. This aesthetic synthesis of

high and low musical culture—the premise of artistic ventures at the Chat Noir—was

embodied in Satie’s Gymnopédies: these works maintained but softened distinct aesthetic

boundaries, allowing for simultaneous reception by modernist and bourgeois audiences.

Émile Goudeau and Rodolphe Salis opened the Chat Noir in 1881 in Montmartre.

The cabaret originated in “a group of young Latin Quarter poets, chansonniers, and painters

calling themselves the Hydropathes, who had begun meeting regularly in the seventies to

recite, sing, and issue a magazine.”5 Thanks to new theatrical interaction and entertainment

at the Chat Noir, the cabaret’s clientele broadened to include not only artists with shared values and identity, but also amateurs.6 Jerrold Seigel offers a particularly vivid picture of the constructed behavior of performers and a typical profile of the clientele at the Chat Noir

in the 1870s and 80s:

At the Chat Noir, the traditional blague [joke, deception, good‐natured jesting] of

students and artists took on new forms: the staff of the cabaret was dressed in the

green robes of the French Academy; as patrons arrived, they were greeted with

exaggerated politeness, addressed with noble titles, and treated with extreme,

caricatured respect. Bohemia was literally turned into theater, acting out its

estrangement from ordinary life, but also masking it, channeling its energy to appeal

to the bourgeoisie as patrons and consumers of literary and artistic work.7

5 Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant­Garde in France 1885 to World War I (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), 22. 6 Jerrold Seigel, Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaires of Bourgeois Life, 1830­1930 (New York, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986), 223. 7 Ibid, 221. 2

The exaggeration presented in the above passage indicates an important Bohemian concept

called fumisme. Fumisme also has an edgier aspect, characterized by Goudeau as “a kind of

disdain for everything, an inner spite against creatures and things that translated itself on

the outside by innumerable acts of aggression, farces and practical jokes.”8 Shattuck further illustrates fumisme in his description of the cabaret: “The Chat Noir claimed to have been founded under Julius Caesar and displayed on its cobwebbed walls ‘cups used by

Charlemagne, Villon and Rabelais.’ The surly waiters wore the formal garb of the Académie française, and Salis insulted each customer… No one had tried such a ‘democratic’ enterprise before, and the snobs loved it.”9 This interactive and theatrical portrayal of a

“masked” and transformed Bohemia enraptured the targeted bourgeois audience, highlighting the Chat Noir’s creation of modernism for the bourgeois consumer. In fact, these theatrical elements are described by Bernard Gendron as secondary aesthetic practices, modernist bohemian characteristics that are extensions from artwork itself,

typically constructed to elicit a response from the bourgeoisie. These behaviors are rooted

in a notion of living life as art, an aestheticization of life which, as noted in the conduct described above, may take the form of stylized dress or carefully constructed eccentric personalities. For the thrill‐seeking bourgeoisie, this extension of modernist bohemia contributed to the shock and excitement of the Chat Noir experience.10

The cabaret demonstrated its emphasis on contemporary political issues in poetry and songs, and bore an entrance sign of “Passant, soi moderne!”11 Maurice Donnay’s description of the Chat Noir notes what was perceived as popular and contemporary at the

8 Émile Goudeau, Dix ans de Bohème [Ten years of Bohemia] (Paris: Librairie Illustré, 1888), 95, quoted in Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 221. 9 Shattuck, The Banquet Years, 22. 10 Bernard Gendron, Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant­Garde (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 31. 11 Ibid., 68. 3

time: “youth, gaity, audacity, lyricism, fantasy, je m’enfichisme, misery, certainty in the

uncertainties of the morrow, subversive, theorizing, fumisterie, its clouds of glory and

clouds of tobacco smoke, thirst, beards, and long hair.”12 On a surface level, both the

bourgeois and bohemian factions of the Chat Noir’s audience would have been amused by

the title of the Gymnopédies. Eric Jensen even imagines how Satie arrived upon the perfect

title for his varied audience, the composer “struck by the poetic exoticism of the word. It

would have been a source of great amusement to him to present to the public—amateur and

expert alike—a title perceived as unique and mysterious, yet listed in standard music

reference works.”13

At the same time, the Chat Noir provided a venue for innovative dramatic art forms

that exemplified the modernist aesthetic, such as shadow shows. Steven Moore Whiting

connects the modernist qualities of the Chat Noir shadow play aesthetic and the

Gymnopédies; the former utilized black and white cut‐outs and tinted lamps such that “each

scene had a single basic colour, and the projected images showed in lighter or darker shades

of that colour, depending upon the distance of each cut‐out from the screen. Satie, like

Rivière, strove for variety of nuance with a single colour or ‘dominant mood.’”14 Whiting

also points to the analogies between Edgar Degas’s modernist lithographic variation series

on a single subject and Verlaine’s symbolist aesthetic. These modernist ideas are revealed

through the Gymnopédies by the movement titles (1. Lent et douloureux, 2. Lent et triste, and

3. Lent et grave), which are merely variations on one another, and also by “a denial of the

need for effort, sharp contrast, or the complications of musical argument” in the pieces.15

12 Maurice Donnay, Autour du Chat Noir (Paris: B. Grasset, 1926), 15, quoted in Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 69. 13 Jensen, “Satie and the ‘Gymnopédie’,” 240. 14 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 73. 15 Ibid. 4

The high and low aesthetic synthesis achieved in the Chat Noir exemplifies the

“contentious relationship between high art and mass culture”: Andreas Huyssen notes that

after the failure of the 1848 revolutions, artists made “a succession of attempts to bridge the

gap” between high and low, elite and mass culture.16 This synthesis, providing modernist

art to a consuming bourgeois audience, represents what was later termed as a middlebrow enterprise. By the mid‐twentieth century, a middlebrow art culture came to be understood as an attempt to elevate the tastes of middle‐class listeners; in turn, these listeners would seek out culture that was established as good.17 Potency was given to the concept in the

form of modernist exclusivity anxieties, such as Greenberg’s concern that middlebrow

culture “exploits many of the innovations of avant‐garde art, lowers their intensity and

dilutes their seriousness into something calendar and magazine can digest—as if in answer

to a public that is making new and higher demands on the art offered to it.”18 Furthermore,

Dwight MacDonald wrote, “In Masscult, the trick is plain—to please the crowd by any

means. But Midcult has it both ways: it pretends to respect the standards of High Culture

while in fact it waters them down and vulgarizes them.“19 While these debates regarding the middlebrow took place well after the composition of the Gymnopédies, the application is appropriate since Satie consciously addressed these two separate audiences. For

Greenberg, what “singles Modernism out and gives it its place and identity more than anything else is its response to a heightened sense of threats to aesthetic value: threats from

16 Andreas Huyssen, After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 16. 17See Joan Shelley Rubin, The Making of Middlebrow Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992); Clement Greenberg, “Avant‐Garde and Kitsch,” in Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, 2nd ed., ed. Francis Frascina (New York: Routledge, 1985), 48‐59; and Kurt List, “Music Chronicle: The State of American Music,” Partisan Review 15, no. 1 (January 1948): 85‐90. 18 Clement Greenberg, “Art,” Nation, February 23, 1946, 241. 19 Dwight MacDonald, “Masscult and Midcult,” In Against the American Grain (New York: Random House, 1962), 3‐78. 5

the social and material ambience, from the temper of the times, all conveyed through the

demands of a new and open cultural market, middlebrow demands.”20 Both the Chat Noir

and the Gymnopédies embodied the concept of middlebrow, not only in their offering of

modernism to bourgeois people, but in the construction of veiled art through blague and

fumisme, which reveal Greenbergian modernist anxieties.

The Chat Noir both provided financial support to its artistic inner circle and gave the

bourgeoisie “a place where the increasingly organized and regulated life of the modern city

could be left behind [and] non‐Bohemians might seek release from ordinary social

boundaries, take part in the play of breaking conventions and violating tabus…Bohemia was

a realm of liberated fantasy, a space where… wishes and anxieties associated with sexual

passion, death, and violence eddied in and out of each other.”21 Bourgeois participants

sought a form of cultural capital22 in the modernist displays at the Chat Noir, a popularized

and accessible artistic engagement with bohemian culture and ideology. In other words, the

Chat Noir represented a “Bohemia [that] was no longer a form of withdrawal from ordinary

life in the name of art or experience, nor a realm of réfractaires [rebelliousness,

disobedience]. It had become a form of publicity.”23 The cabaret became a vehicle for modernist bohemians to gain recognition, a self‐sustaining enterprise maintained by having the work of artists and poets displayed and performed at the cabaret, and also by publicizing and publishing their work in the house journal. Therefore, within the realm of the Chat Noir, the function of the fumisterie concept was transformed from the earlier

20 Clement Greenberg, “Modern and Postmodern,” Arts 54, no. 6 (February 1980). 21 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 239‐240. 22 Discussed in Gendron, Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club, 5. “Pierre Bourdieu has taught us to think of cultural power in ways analogous to economic power. Thus, there is cultural capital, which is expressed by one’s position in cultural institutions, one’s aesthetic authority and education, the extent to which one’s works are sanctioned by cultural authorities, one’s place in the cultural hierarchy, and so on.” Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Cambridge: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1984). 23 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 222. 6

bohemian “expression of social hostility to a mode of bringing obscure poor poets out of

their garrets and into the light of public recognition.”24

Satie was also attracted to the notion of publicity, both for recognition and for monetary gains; yet publicity showed an apparent contradiction between Satie’s modernist aesthetic (which typically implied exclusivity) and his willingness to accommodate a bourgeois audience. As evidenced by his personal aesthetics, written works, and lifestyle, however, Satie is securely positioned within the early modernist tradition. For example,

Satie’s sense of lateness or alienation from the aesthetic tradition of his time and the immediately preceding era caused him to feel anxiety, a feeling he commented on directly when he wrote that he “came to this world very young in a very old age.”25 Satie also presented his aesthetic of musical simplicity and objectivity through his stripped‐down and anti‐sentimental style. Robert Orledge reveals the anti‐romantic component of Satie’s

writing as “strongly anti‐Germanic”: “the pieces utterly reject any idea of thematic

development in favour of concision and clarity, and they respect the spirit of Gregorian

chant.”26 As Satie expressed to Debussy, it was “necessity for a Frenchman to disengage himself from the Wagnerian adventure, which does not correspond to our natural aspirations. And I pointed out to him that I was by no means anti‐Wagnerian, but that it was necessary for us to have a music of our own—with no sauerkraut, if possible.”27 The

clarity and concision of the Gymnopédies opposed Wagner’s large‐ensemble orchestral and

operatic works, with their textual and chromatic density. This opposition underscores the

novelty of Satie’s music.

24 Goudeau, Dix ans de Bohème, quoted in Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 224. 25 Robert Orledge, Satie Remembered (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1995), xiv. 26 Robert Orledge, “Satie and the Art of Dedication,” Music and Letters 73, no. 4 (November 1992): 561. 27 Pierre‐Daniel Templier, Erik Satie (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969), 18. 7

Therefore, Satie’s keen interest in shattering expectation and tradition engenders a

paradox: why was Satie willing to share his modernist art with a middlebrow audience?

Were financial gain and public recognition incentive enough for him to contribute to the

middlebrow endeavor? Satie’s Gymnopédies predate the high modernist exclusion of mass

culture (as expressed by Greenberg), and also the attempted destruction of the entire

autonomous art institution by the historical avant‐garde; yet the Gymnopédies

foreshadowed elements of both modernist traditions. It would be anachronistic to claim for

Satie an allegiance to one or the other of these trends, for they were not yet well‐defined.

Therefore, the paradox is partially resolved by recognizing the Gymnopédies as predating

fully matured modernist traditions, but how are these characteristics realized and made

distinct for both the modernist and bourgeois audiences? The bourgeois enjoyment of his

works did not initially damage their cultural capital, but a modernist anxiety remained.

This anxiety is evidenced in the culture and aesthetics of the Chat Noir. For

example, Seigel writes that the Bohemian political style was not constructed from “a form of

dress or behavior, with artists’ studios or cheap cafes”; rather, Bohemians felt a tension, an

“ambivalence toward membership in the bourgeoisie,” and its “successive expressions were

the dramatizations of that ambivalence.”28 Such dramatizations produced the layering of

meaning found at the cabaret, as made possible by a subtle transformation and

exaggeration of blague and fumisme. These devices acted as a veil, hiding the seriousness of

the artist’s intentions, which allowed for and even encouraged a simultaneous presentation

of low and high cultural elements. In other words, the cultural atmosphere constructed in

the cabaret, including mockery, theatrics, over‐politeness, elaborate decorations, and sexual

28 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 212. 8

innuendo, coalesced into a surface layer of popular elements aimed at the bourgeois

clientele.29

Satie accounted for the interests of both the modernist and middlebrow audiences

through an especially subtle and nuanced integration of high and low culture, and by

developing an interesting and innovative interplay among the resulting layers of meaning.

Because of Satie’s childhood exposure to salon music, as well as his lifelong interest in and respect for French popular styles, it is unsurprising that popular, contemporary characteristics would appear in Satie’s even more serious modernist ventures. Popular components of the Gymnopédies include lyricism, a waltz‐like accompanimental rhythm, use of repetition for formal expansion, and a clear, homophonic texture. Nonetheless, the works also include modernist features: ambiguous tonality, use of modal scales, irregular phrasing, and an overall stripped‐down aesthetic. This aesthetic of simplicity and clarity allows both the popular and modernist elements to appear simultaneously and offers two different levels of experience. In other words, in the Gymnopédies, Satie constructed parallel perceptive levels to appeal to both the artistic and bourgeois audiences.

Although the works operate on multiple levels for multiple audiences, they also retain a mysterious quality, partially because of Satie’s own privacy and eccentricities, but also due to the unanswered questions surrounding the pieces themselves, such as how and why he chose the title for the Gymnopédies. Satie’s eccentricities of personality corresponded with the characteristics of his music, which exuded “charm and distraction, intimacy and eccentricity, timidity and boldness, directness and evasiveness” and was

“marked by a cleanliness and precision that excluded all romantic gestures, and by a self‐

29 Ibid., 231‐41. 9 restriction and miniaturism that sometimes veiled its originality.”30 The mysterious

element of Satie’s personality and works also added to their interest, especially for the

artists of the Chat Noir.

The multiple layers of meaning and their subsequent effect on the reception of the

Gymnopédies reflect Satie’s interest in medieval styles. Satie developed a strong knowledge

of the medieval; his first piano teacher, Monsieur Vinot, educated him in chant, and he later

spent many afternoons in Notre‐Dame reading texts on Gothic art and learning liturgy.31

Katherine Bergeron writes that the medieval was perceived as modern in the nineteenth

century when architectural restoration became an “object of self‐conscious study and

analysis.”32 Explaining the impact of the medieval on the Gymnopédies, Wright Roberts describes the melody as “inclined to be modal, a flat seventh here and there enhancing the antique flavor of the finely‐sculptured phrases that float mournfully over a slow pulsing bass.”33 In fact, the Gymnopédies employ components of modality; for example, in the first

Gymnopédie, measures 22‐31 and 60‐end in D dorian (example 1), and in the third

Gymnopédie, A aeolian is predominant throughout the piece.

EXAMPLE 1 – Gymnopédie no. 1, mm. 21­2434

30 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 324. 31 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 61. 32 Katherine Bergeron, Decadent Enchantments: The Revival of Gregorian Chant at Solesmes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 7. 33 W. W. Roberts, “The Problem of Satie,” Music and Letters 4, no. 4 (October 1923): 315. 34 Erik Satie, Trois Gymnopédies (New York: Dover Publications, 1989). Reproduced from Gymnopédies, Rouart, Lerolle, 1888. 10

The Gymnopédies exhibit a variety of other musical techniques that artfully develop their modernist and contemporary qualities, as well. For example, Satie employs contemporary popular elements of a simple, lyrical, and repetitious melody over a salon‐ waltz‐like ostinato accompaniment, but instead of utilizing traditional, functional harmonies he writes a sixteen‐bar alternation between GM7 and DM7 harmonies, creating a harmonic stasis (example 2).

EXAMPLE 2, Gymnopédie no. 1, mm. 1­435

Another technique Satie employs that is found in popular music (such as the salon waltz or

popular chanson) is the use of small repeated phrases to extend the form. Additionally, the

primacy of repetition engenders a simple form of a four bar introduction, A, A’, B, C, D, with

a complete repeat. Hidden just below the surface, however, is ambiguous tonality created

by the addition of a major seventh to each chord, blurring the tonic to dominant

relationship. A ten‐bar D pedal with freely flowing triadic harmonies, a technique that

could be easily ignored for the lyrical melody dominating above, further blurs any sense of

functional tonality.

Moreover, the employment of irregular phrasing adds contrast from contemporary

popular styles; for example, the first Gymnopédie has a phrase structure of 4‐8‐9‐5‐5‐8. As

an example of a subtle use of repetition, after the 4‐bar introduction, the 9‐bar phrase is a

35 Ibid. 11 variation of the previous 8‐bar phrase, and upon the full repeat, F and C‐naturals appear in the final 8‐bar phrase (d dorian). Despite the phrase irregularity, Satie was able to

construct the first and third Gymnopédies as symmetrical pieces (halves equaling thirty‐nine

and thirty measures respectively). In addition, Wilfred Mellers discussed the function of the

melody with relation to the structure of the piece, noting that the complex structure of the

work is “created by continually placing lyrical phrases, sometimes of very disparate

emotional intensities, in fresh relationships, the one with the other, and by modifying the

character of the phrases themselves through shifting the elliptical harmonic patterns that

underlie them.”36 The lyrical phrases that would speak to the amateur audience—the

“‘vocal’ contour,” in Mellers’s words—were developed in a careful and innovative way to

appeal to the artistic, bohemian audience, and give the works musical depth.

Considering the Gymnopédies as a cohesive whole further reveals the intricacy

embedded into the pieces, and Satie himself commented on the obscured substance of his

work, writing, “I have always striven to confuse would‐be followers by both the form and

the background of each new work.”37 Within the set of Gymnopédies, the second has a form of A, A’, B, C, A’’, A’’’, B’, and the third has a form of A, B, C, A’, B’, C, which seems to prove

Satie’s claim to confuse, but Courtney Adams observes similarity between movements, commenting that “each movement has melodic material, metres and tempos similar to the others in the set…they are a single piece viewed from three different angles.”38

Alternatively, William Austin extends this observation and considers the work as a triple version of a single rhythmic idea: “A simple rhythmic pattern persists beyond the point of unintentional monotony to make a sort of hypnotic effect, yet without any dynamic

36 W. H. Mellers, “Erik Satie and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Music,” Music & Letters 23, no. 3 (July 1942): 213. 37 Erik Satie, Ecrits (Paris: Editions Champ Libre, 1981), 45. 38 Courtney S. Adams, “Erik Satie and the Golden Section Analysis,” Music & Letters 77, no. 2 (May, 1996): 247. 12 emphasis. In the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes this trait of rhythm is exaggerated to an immobility that seems either sublime or maddening.”39

Although a written record of responses by the bourgeois and other amateur audience members present at the Chat Noir for the early performances of the Gymnopédies

does not exist, the development of multiple levels of meaning likely contributed to the

positive reactions that must have taken place. Seigel suggests that the Gymnopédies

represented a style of music that was “determinedly revolutionary” with “directness and

simple humor [that] make it accessible,”40 and that the piece “made for as striking a musical

entrée into the cabaret as the title had made for a theatrical one.”41 The entire audience, the

bourgeoisie and the bohemians, would have experienced the striking, or even shocking,

impact of the works, as the bourgeoisie would have been happily surprised to hear popular,

familiar sounds within the confines of art music, and the more musically literate would have

been struck by the distinct break in art musical tradition. Also, as Whiting points out, Satie

furthered this contradiction by publishing each Gymnopédie separately: the first in a musical

periodical (accessible) and the third in an elaborate, gothic‐inspired setting matching the

décor of the Chat Noir (more modernist).

Audiences ascribed various identities and meanings to the Gymnopédies throughout

their transmission history, a process commenced and spurred on by Satie’s integration of

popular and modernist musical elements. As a result, there existed, and still exists, a wide

distance between the modernist qualities of the Gymnopédies and the expectations of the

less musically literate listener, which resulted in a vast potential of interpretations for

future transcriptions.

39 William Austin, “Satie Before and After Cocteau,” The Musical Quarterly 48, no. 2 (April 1962): 220. 40 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 322. 41 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 72. 13

Chapter Two: Transmission and Reception of the Gymnopédies through 1950

Following the premiere of the first Gymnopédie in December of 1888 (roughly one year after Satie was initially introduced as a gymnopédiste), Satie was offered the position of second pianist at the Chat Noir.42 Though this position was likely unpaid, and therefore very informal, it nonetheless elevated Satie’s status within the cabaret,43 and perhaps

indicated a positive reaction to his work; as Whiting hypothesizes, “the pieces must have

made for as striking a musical entrée into the cabaret as the title had made for a theatrical

one.”44 The only extant proof of success, however, is an advertisement for the third

Gymnopédie in the Chat Noir’s weekly publication. This was the first advertisement for any of Satie’s pieces, as the first and second Gymnopédies received no mention in the Chat Noir newspaper. Very likely written by Satie himself, this advertisement stated, “Newly available, at 6, boulevard Magenta, the third Gymnopédie of Erik Satie. We cannot recommend this essentially artistic work highly enough to the musical public. It may rightly be considered as one of the most beautiful of the century that has witnessed the birth of this unfortunate gentleman.”45 Mention of the third Gymnopédie also appeared in an

advertisement for his piano collection Ogives: “We wish Erik‐Satie a success similar to that

previously obtained with his Third Gymnopédie, presently under every piano.”46 This latter

42 Templier, Erik Satie, 12. 43 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 75. 44 Ibid., 72. 45 Ibid., 92. 46 Ibid., 93. 14 review was likely not written by Satie, but by Henry Gauthier‐Villars, a regular contributor to the Chat Noir and frequent Satie critic; his sarcastic use of use of “under [sous] every piano” instead of “on every piano” indicates that the third Gymnopédie may have sold

poorly, or that it sold well but was never played.47

Although it is likely that the Gymnopédies were received warmly at the Chat Noir, the

pieces were not successful as sheet music, and less successful in receiving repeat performances. Furthermore, since the Gymnopédies heralded a distinct departure from the

Wagnerian tradition, the performance of these works encouraged the bourgeois audience at

the Chat Noir to perceive the works as modernist—but outside of this context, the musical

modernist elements were superseded by the popular qualities. As a result, the Gymnopédies

may have appeared to be interesting experimental pieces that lacked any great substance,

as audiences most likely heard the pieces only once and did not analyze the techniques that

Satie used to construct their simplicity. This emphasis on the popular elements of the

Gymnopédies informed the primary perception and identity of the works as the audience

expanded beyond the cabaret. These audiences did not engage in a public discussion of the

nuances of Satie’s modernist aesthetic: perceptions of the Gymnopédies tended toward the

superficial.

As promoters of the Gymnopédies, Debussy and Ravel transferred the pieces from

the cabaret to the concert‐hall, orchestrating and performing respectively. These efforts

helped to elevate the pieces in listeners’ esteem, especially through the attachment of

Debussy and Ravel and their audiences, but skepticism surrounding Satie’s composition at

an aesthetic level ensued. When taken into the concert hall, the pieces were exclusively

meant to be intently listened to, according to absolute, modernist musical standards. But

47 Ibid., 93. 15 the focus on what made the Gymnopédies modernist contextually (instead of musically), and

the perception of the popular musical elements as dominant, caused aesthetic debates

surrounding the justification of inclusion of the works on concert programs.

Satie and Debussy: The First Changes to the Gymnopédies and Subsequent Response

Since there was difficulty in finding venues for repeat performances, Satie welcomed

Debussy’s interest in his pieces. Debussy worked to have Satie’s music performed outside

of Péladan’s Rosicrucian Order (with which Satie was heavily involved in the early 1890s),

and eventually succeeded in programming his orchestrated version of the Gymnopédies in a

concert of the Société Nationale.48 Debussy’s orchestrations of the first and third

Gymnopédies (which premiered on February 20, 1897, conducted by Gustave Doret), was

the first of many transformations of the Gymnopédies. This orchestrated version of the

Gymnopédies is of crucial significance for the history of their reception and transmission due

to the prestige associated with Debussy’s approval and the publicity they received from his

promotion.

Debussy remained closely within the confines of Satie’s original score, primarily

employing strings in place of the original left‐hand accompaniment role and selecting the

oboe, flute, or violins for melodic material. Changes include the selection of only two of the

Gymnopédies for orchestration, and his reassignment of the first Gymnopédie as the second

and the third as the first. Most significantly, Debussy inserted the performance instruction

“doux et expressif” (sweet and expressive) which corresponds with the melody in measures

5, 21, and 31. The reduction to two pieces is not a significant change in the music’s

meaning, since they were published separately and likely performed separately early on, yet

48 Ibid., 170. 16 the added performance instruction inserted Debussy’s voice into the abstract composition.

As shown in example 3, Debussy also added a cymbal stroke (for example, in mm. 2‐16) every sixth beat in Debussy’s second movement (Satie’s first), along with harp arpeggios.

EXAMPLE 3 – Gymnopédie no. 3 (orchestration by Debussy of Satie’s Gymnopédie no. 1), mm. 1­849

Furthermore, Debussy added density to the original texture, especially in the orchestrated first movement. Example 4 indicates the section where Debussy used the thickest texture.

Here, two flutes, solo violin, and viola are combined for the melody, and the first and second violins, violas, cello, and bass perform harmonic roles.

49 Erik Satie, Trois Gymnopédies, orch. Claude Debussy (New York: Broude International Edition). 17

EXAMPLE 4 – Gymnopédie no. 1 (orchestration by Debussy of Satie’s Gymnopédie no. 3), mm. 28­4050

In both of Debussy’s orchestrations, the basses’ only role is to add emphasis to the first beat

of each measure (of Satie’s left‐hand accompaniment) in pizzicato style. The harp primarily

fills out the harmony of beats two and three in Debussy’s orchestration of Satie’s first

Gymnopédie (Debussy’s second movement), whereas in the third Gymnopédie (Debussy’s first movement) the second violins and violas primarily take that role. Four horns are used

sparingly to add color and texture density, typically holding chord tones in Debussy’s first

movement (as in mm. 11‐13 or 18‐21), and are only given a more prominent role in the first

four measures of Debussy’s first orchestration, and mm. 27‐30 when all four horns fill out

50 Erik Satie, Trois Gymnopédies, orch. Claude Debussy (New York: Broude International Edition). 18 the right hand harmony. Remaining true to Satie’s exact repetition in his first Gymnopédie,

Debussy repeats measures 40‐49 in the same form as measures 1‐12 without orchestration alteration. Measures 61‐70 are also a repeat, and in fact, other than the flute added to double the violin melody, measures 52‐60 are also an exact repetition of previous material.

Debussy’s interest in the Gymnopédies might indicate that he held Satie and this music in high regard, since this was the only piece by another composer that Debussy ever chose to orchestrate. Doret, allegedly present for Debussy’s initial agreement to the orchestration project, recalled his perception of the interaction:

One Monday evening, Erik Satie brought me his Gymnopédies for piano, luxuriously

printed. Eye‐glasses poised for the assault, he seated himself at the piano. But his

defective playing did not display his compositions to their best advantage. ‘Hang on,

my old friend’, said Debussy. ‘I will let you hear your music.’ Beneath his miraculous

fingers, the Gymnopédies lit up with colours and nuances in an astonishing manner.

‘It only remains’, I exclaimed, ‘to orchestrate them thus.’ ‘Quite right’, replied

Debussy. ‘If Satie doesn’t object, I will start work tomorrow.’ You can imagine the

unexpected joy of the composer.51

Of course, as Robert Orledge argues, this is surely an exaggeration of not only the interaction between Satie and Debussy, but also of Satie’s talent as a pianist, which was

“certainly above the Grade IV standard needed to interpret his own Gymnopédies.”52

Regardless of this anecdote’s degree of truth, Debussy’s interest in the pieces would surely

improve their reputation among the listening public.

51 Gustave Doret, Temp et contretemps: Souvenirs d’un musicien (Fribourg: Editions de la Librairie de l’Université, 1942), 98, quoted in Orledge, Satie the Composer, 50. 52 Orledge, Satie the Composer, 51. 19

Satie’s lower compositional productivity in 1896 is probably a result of his interest

in, and approval of, the orchestration process; as Whiting speculates, Satie’s time was

probably spent in the “instructive experience of watching Debussy orchestrate two of the

Gymnopédies.”53 The instructive experience would have consisted not only of watching and learning, but also of copying out Debussy’s score and preparing the orchestral parts.54

Orledge interprets this situation with less optimism, however, asserting that in addition to the possibility of wanting to learn from Debussy’s orchestration, Satie needed money, which he would earn for his copyist services.55 Additionally, it is apparent that Satie supported the orchestration project, as evidenced not only in his sketchbooks, but also in his reference to the pieces as an orchestral suite on a composition list submitted as part of an application for a position in the Académie des Beaux‐Arts in June 1892.56 Satie seems to have felt the

Gymnopédies would achieve an elevated status in orchestrated form.

Satie’s notion that Debussy’s orchestration would improve the status of the

Gymnopédies was correct; like the apparently positive reaction toward the original piano

pieces, the reaction to Debussy’s orchestration must have been overwhelmingly positive,

with the help of Debussy’s celebrity status and Doret’s public appeal. This success is

apparent in Satie’s letters written to both Ernest Chausson (the President of the Société

Musicale Indépendante) and Doret. Satie thanked the former for “the welcome given by

them to My Gymnopédies orchestrated by the Venerable Claude A. Debussy”57; to Doret,

Satie wrote, “I embrace you my Brother. May my embraces, through their petrifying and

53 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 181. 54 Orledge, Satie the Composer, 51. 55 Ibid. 56 Templier, Erik Satie, 19. 57 Henri Borgeaud, “Trois lettres d’Erik Satie à Claude Debussy (1903),” Revue de musicology 48 (1962): 74, quoted and translated in Gillmor, 108. 20 consoling properties, preserve for Me the faithful companion that you are.”58 Here, Satie

may have been angling for a permanent relationship with the famous conductor.

But there was some controversy regarding the success of Debussy’s orchestration.

In 1897, Satie engaged in a written war, for either publicity or self‐expression, with

Gauthier‐Villars, which surely continued or even enlivened discussion of the Gymnopédies for anyone who was previously apathetic or ambivalent toward them.59 Gauthier‐Villars

wrote:

The paradoxical Doret will conduct, at the Exposition of Geneva, certain

Gymnopédies by Erik Satie, who has taken care beforehand to have them

orchestrated by Claude Debussy. That’s fine, but it’s not enough. To make

performable the music of that mystical sausage‐brain, it does not suffice to have it

orchestrated by a composer of talent; someone else would also have to rewrite the

melody. And even that would be worthless…60

Several months later he approached the subject again:

…as for the Gymnopédies, conceived by a mystical sausage‐brain, Debussy has

orchestrated them delicately, rendering quite tolerable, at least during the five

minutes that they last, this little fabrication whose slight left‐of‐centre raving

scarcely brings to mind the incidental music composed by this same Erik Satie,

ignoramus aboil…61

Gauthier‐Villars’s criticism of Satie reflected the negative response to the Gymnopédies that

would continue from well‐placed critics, from various perspectives, throughout the work’s

early transmission.

58 Ibid. 59 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 163‐6. 60 Willy, Echo de Paris, May 12 1896, quoted in Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 166. 61 Willy, Echo de Paris, February 22, 1897, quoted in Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 168. 21

It was not until 1911 that the Gymnopédies received further performances in a large enough European forum to receive some media attention. It is noteworthy, though, that these pieces received their American debut well before receiving repeat performances in

Paris, as they were performed by the Boston Symphony (Georges Longy conducting) at a concert of the Orchestral Club on January 4, 1905.62

Ravel as a Satie Advocate and Corresponding Broadening of Audience

Ravel harbored a clear adoration for Satie. Supporting Roland‐Manuel’s claim that

Ravel’s Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête from the Mother Goose suite (1910) were to be

considered the fourth Gymnopédie63 Ravel inscribed a copy of the score with “to Erik Satie,

grandpapa of the Conversations and other works, with the affectionate compliments of a

disciple.”64 Ravel, nine years younger than Satie, learned of him as a teenager through his father’s acquisition of the Gymnopédies and Sarabandes; extremely impressed, Ravel wanted

to meet Satie.65 Some years later, Ravel had the opportunity to actively promote Satie’s

compositions and “[bring] his works to the attention of a larger and more sophisticated

audience than he had ever known”66 on January 16, 1911, in a concert of the Société

Musicale Indépendante at the Salle Gaveau. There, he played the second Sarabande, the

Prelude to act 1 of Le Fils des étoiles, and the third Gymnopédie. According to Templier, this performance received a “friendly reception.”67 An unsigned note that appeared in the Guide du concert for the Société Musicale Indépendante mentioned this performance:

62 Gillmor, Erik Satie, 278n3. 63 Alexis Roland‐Manuel, Maurice Ravel (London: Dennis Dobson, 1947), 21. 64 Maurice Ravel, as inscribed on a copy of the score of “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast,” quoted in Gillmor, Erik Satie, 278n2. 65 Roland‐Manuel, Maurice Ravel, 21. 66 Gillmor, Erik Satie, 144. 67 Templier, Erik Satie, 32. 22

Erik Satie occupies a truly exceptional place in the history of contemporary art. On

the fringe of his age and in isolation he wrote, years ago, a few brief pages that bear

the stamp of an inspired pioneer. His works, regrettably few in number, astonish by

the way in which they anticipated the modern idiom and by the near‐prophetic

character of certain harmonic inventions… M. Claude Debussy paid a brilliant

tribute to the “explorer” when he orchestrated two of his “Gymnopédies,” which

have since been performed at the Société Nationale. Today, M. Maurice Ravel will

play the second “Sarabande,” which bears the astonishing date of 1887, and will

thus indicate what high esteem the most “progressive” composers have for the

creator who spoke, a quarter of a century ago, the bold musical “jargon” of

tomorrow.68

Rollo Myers described the general public’s reception to these pieces, remarking, “delighted

with these examples of Satie’s genius… the critics of the progressive school took Satie to

their hearts. Calvocoressi and others wrote enthusiastic articles and Satie thoroughly

enjoyed his triumph.”69 In February 1911, Michel D. Calvocoressi praised Satie as an

important influence on Ravel and Debussy, with his early piano works providing “an

extraordinary aural sensitivity, thanks to which a perfect artistic sensibility never ceases to preside over the elaboration of the most bizarre sonorous rarities.”70 However, Marcel

Orban’s review in Le Courrier Musical was not as positive, criticizing Satie’s music as having

“a great deal of harmony, and very little music.”71

68 Unsigned biographical notice from the January 16, 1911 concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante, quoted in Templier, Erik Satie, 32‐3. 69 Rollo Myers, Erik Satie, 42. 70 Michel D. Calvocoressi, “Aux concerts,” Comoedia illustré 3 (February 15, 1911), as quoted in Gillmor, Erik Satie, 144. 71 Marcel Orban, “La Quinzaine: Société musicale indépendante,” Le Courrier musical 14 (February 1, 1911): 100. 23

Satie himself expressed mixed feelings toward this performance, as Orledge describes him as “confused by enthusiastic reception for his early works amongst young anti‐d’Indyites, who found his recent work dull.”72 On the day after the performance

(January 17, 1911), Satie wrote to his brother, Conrad:

What have I been doing all this long time? Miracles, mon pauvrevieux! So many

things have happened to me that I don’t know where I stand…You know that I have

composed café­concert music. I gave this sort of music up long ago. That was no

field for me to be working in. It is more stupid and dirty than anything…What on

earth had I been doing with d’Indy? The things I wrote before had such charm! Such

depth! And now? How boring and uninteresting!73

The editor of Revue musicale S.I.M (with whom Ravel was closely involved), Jules

Écorcheville, arranged another concert highlighting Satie’s music at the beginning of March

in 1911. Nonetheless, as indicated in Satie’s letter to Ravel, he did not attend, perhaps due to

lack of appropriate dress. In this same letter, Satie credited Ravel with the Cercle Musical

concert, which also took place at the Salle Gaveau, in which Debussy conducted his

orchestrated movements on March 25, 1911.74 These performances and support by the S. I.

M. gave Satie previously unknown recognition, to which he responded with confusion and then ambivalence in letters to his brother:

[March 27, 1911]I’ve just had a great success: the Gymnopédies, splendidly

conducted by Debussy, were performed by the Cercle Musical Orchestra before an

ultra‐chic audience. It was very amusing. Because the concert consisted entirely of

works by Claude, the Gymnopédies figured as orchestrated by him. I was afraid of

72 Orledge, Satie the Composer, xxviii. 73 Ornella Volta, Satie Seen through His Letters, trans. Michael Bullock (London: Marion Boyars, 1989), 27‐28. 74 Ibid., 88‐9. 24

hostility towards them. None at all. The ‘Satistes’ knew how to make themselves

seen […] Now there are ‘Satistes’; they’re no more fun than the ‘Wagnerians’, but

they exist. Odd! […]75

Only two weeks later, in a letter composed to Conrad on April 11, 1911, Satie’s recollection of the concert shifted, as he noted, “The success achieved by the Gymnopédies at the concert conducted by him [Debussy] at the Cercle Music—a success which he did everything possible to turn into a failure—gave him [Debussy] an unpleasant surprise.”76 Regardless of

Satie’s attitude toward the attention, his Gymnopédies were well‐known in Paris by 1912,77 and continued to disseminate.

Although the support of Debussy and Ravel (as well as profiles and highlights written by Calvocoressi and Jules Écorcheville) contributed to Satie’s near‐celebrity status

and the early development of his legend, Satie also suffered a backlash. With his largely

expanded and more sophisticated audience, developing with the help of Debussy and Ravel,

came a number of critics skeptical of Satie and his elevated figure, due to the hype of his

stardom. For example, an unnamed New York Times reviewer on December 7, 1915 happily

referenced George Copeland’s recital as “…[presenting] a program [that is] interesting on

account of the unfamiliarity of music of it, and on account of the excellence of some of the

unfamiliar pieces, as well as of his admirable performance”; however, among a diverse

program of pieces by Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Chopin, and Scarlatti, the critic

wrote that there stood “a piece by Erik Satie called ‘Gymnopédie No. III,’ a singularly

unimportant contribution from a much‐heralded revolutionary.”78

75 Ibid., 144. 76 Ibid., 147. 77 Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 355. 78 “Mr. Copeland’s Recital. A list of Unfamiliar Pieces for the Pianoforte Played,” The New York Times, December 7, 1915. 25

Chenneviere and Martens elaborated upon this sentiment in the opening of their article, “Erik Satie and the Music of Irony,” emphasizing the mixed feelings critics harbored for Satie in the 1910s:

I say “works,” though the word is a lofty one to use for the strange, short pieces

which Satie—I am considering only the Satie antedating the Parade, his recent

ballet, with which I am not acquainted—offers us. And the expression “musical

works” would seem to be even less applicable, since Satie, who from the historic

point of view holds an eminent place in the evolution of the language of music, is at

bottom as little a musician as it is possible to be. Some have called Satie an

“ironist.”79

Satie’s response to this situation can be detected in a letter he wrote to a friend in the

1920s:

…these young people will be reproached for their youth...I composed my

“Sarabandes” at the age of twenty‐one, in 1887, and my “Gymnopédies” at twenty‐

two, in 1888. These are the only works that my detractors admire—those over fifty,

of course…To be logical, they should like the music I wrote as a mature man, as a

‘compatriot’. But no…80

Therefore, even by the 1910s, less than two decades after the premiere and publication of the Gymnopédies, the audience had expanded and shifted, from thrill‐seeking bourgeois amateurs in the Chat Noir and anti‐Wagnerian bohemian artists to a broader audience of classical music lovers drawn to and by Debussy and Ravel and the famous conductors and orchestras they could attract. The revolutionary qualities had already softened, as is

79 Rudhyar D. Chenneviere and Frederick H. Martens. “Erik Satie and the Music of Irony,” The Musical Quarterly 5, no. 4 (October 1919): 469. 80 Templier, Erik Satie, 49. 26 alluded to in the New York Times review, but the accessible, popular qualities retained a strong appeal for audiences.

Critics and scholars remained skeptical of the value of Satie’s work through the

1930s, because although the Gymnopédies retained their accessibility, they lost a perceivable modernist quality. After the anti‐Wagnerian polemics of the 1880s lost their relevance, these pieces seemed less innovative; and the works of members of Les Six, Ravel, and Stravinsky, defined modernism in novel ways. Critics and scholars were also unconvinced by the high status attributed to Satie by his supporters.

The Critical Reception of the Gymnopédies, 1918­1930

Debussy and Ravel were the first to promote Satie to the legendary status that the composer enjoyed in the last fifteen years of his life, and this standing was later augmented by the publication of Jean Cocteau’s Le Coq et l’Arlequin in 1918. Satie’s fame created at least two distinct reactions apparent in performance reviews and scholarly research. First, scholars and critics cast doubt on Satie’s musical competence and his historical importance; they often pointed to Debussy as the master who polished or completed the Gymnopédies with his orchestration. Some writers denigrated the Gymnopédies themselves, remarking that they did not live up to Satie’s reputation because of the stripped‐down modernist aesthetic he employed. Second, some listeners felt intrigued, with the desire to know more about Satie and have his music played more widely, at least in repeat performances of the

Gymnopédies.

In Le Coq et l’Arlequin, Cocteau responded to those writers who questioned the

Gymnopédies for their simplicity by vehemently defending the aesthetic of simplicity.

Cocteau became extremely influential as a public advocate for Satie, to an extent at

27

Debussy’s expense.81 Cocteau wanted to “clear away the musical murk of the past (Debussy

and Wagner in particular), and to establish certain basic principles which anticipate the

musical and literary neo‐classical style of the following years.”82 He also called for an emphasis on linear melody, which he considered more French, rather than a construction built from melodic fragments and complex harmonic colorings (as in Wagner and early

Debussy). In other words, he appreciated music that could be whistled on the streets, with

material and inspiration coming from everyday musical events such as the circus, cabaret,

music halls and especially trapeze artists, because they exhibit the “superb art of balance

and linear control.”83

Cocteau also directly criticized Debussy, accusing him of misunderstanding and mistreating the piano versions of the Gymnopédies, which were “so clear in their form and melancholy,” and therefore “confus[ing] them, wrapping their exquisite architecture in a cloud.” Cocteau continued:

More and more, Debussy abandons the point of departure set by Satie, and

everybody trails after him. The thick fog of Bayreuth, pierced by bolts of

lightning, becomes a light, snowy mist, flecked by the impressionist sun. Satie

speaks of Ingres; Debussy transposes Claude Monet à la russe.84

Myers supported these claims, writing that “although Debussy paid Satie the compliment of orchestrating the 1st and 3rd Gymnopédies, it must be admitted that in so doing he partially destroyed their character. The clear outlines and transparent texture are in fact obscured in

81 William Patrick Gowers, “Erik Satie: His Studies, Notebooks, and Critics” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1965). 82 David Bancroft, “Two Pleas for a French, French Music, I.” Music & Letters 48, no. 2 (April 1967): 111. 83 Ibid., 115‐6. 84 Jean Cocteau, Le Coq et l’Arlequin [The Cock and the Harlequin], trans. Rollo Myers (London, 1921), quoted in William Austin, “Satie Before and After Cocteau,” The Musical Quarterly 48, no. 2 (April 1962): 228. 28 a sort of impressionistic mist; the soft brush‐work of the painter has blurred the etcher’s delicate but incisive line.”85 He continued, referring to Cocteau’s Le Coq et l’Arlequin:

Many people are deceived by the extreme surface simplicity of Satie’s music which

they mistake for ‘poverty’; but as Cocteau has observed: ‘There are certain works of

art whose whole importance lies in their depth; the size of their orifice is of small

account.’ But in the ‘eighties and early ‘nineties, which Satie’s ‘still, small voice’ first

made itself heard, the public’s ears were tuned to strains of a very different kind,

and European music seemed definitely to be heading in a direction totally

opposed to the one to which this music of Satie’s seemed timidly to be pointing. In

the welter of over‐luscious, over‐complex sonorities which the late nineteenth

century so assiduously cultivated, what place could be found for anything quite so

tenuous and transparent as those modest Gymnopédies whose limpid cadences

evoke visions of barefooted dancers silhouetted on a Grecian urn?86

Shattuck continued the conversation, stating that “the blurred overloaded arrangements reveal that Debussy’s sympathies lay not with these simple compositions, but with the impressionist sonorities of other early works.”87

The aesthetics of simplicity that Cocteau, Shattuck, and Myers admired in the piano versions of the Gymnopédies was largely responsible for the works’ accessibility, and subsequently at the core of debates doubting the significance of the Gymnopédies, and the worth of their continued performance. But these writers were also responding to the

(largely true) speculation that Satie’s Gymnopédies were elevated and made famous by

Debussy’s touch. Referring to Debussy’s orchestration of the Gymnopédies, Myers admitted

85 Rollo Myers, Erik Satie, 71. 86 Rollo Myers, Erik Satie, 36. 87 Roger Shattuck as quoted in William Patrick Gowers, “Erik Satie: His Studies, Notebooks, and Critics,” 41. 29 that “that kindly and disinterested act on Debussy’s part has certainly added prestige to the modest Gymnopédies and has been the means of making them more widely known.”88

Cocteau’s effort to de‐emphasize Debussy’s contribution to the success of repeated performances and overall transmission of the Gymnopédies fueled further skepticism over the works by elevating Satie’s legendary status further.

For example, according to Wright Roberts, writing in 1923 (five years after the publication of Le Coq), the English considered Satie a

…musical humorist of a childish and affected type. He is the writer of little sets of

piano pieces with laboriously absurd titles; wisps of music plastered with facetious

directions and descriptive comments. Stacks of notes, attendant swarms of faithful

accidentals, are what we expect in modern music; Satie’s wisps are sometimes half

buried in verbal commentary. Often their queer look on paper is enhanced by the

absence of bar‐lines, key signatures and dynamic marks. This music has no interest

for the usual type of pianoforte virtuoso; it can never be popular in concert rooms.

That certain Parisian critics should vociferate about it, proclaim a musical gospel

according to Satie, and hail him father of a school, may be in the nature of things.

The more readily, on that account, will many English lovers of music turn

impatiently away.89

Arguments evaluating Satie’s music as merely childish and affected, and which claimed that

Satie was given too much importance and weight as a composer and innovator by his

promoters, were the most common among detractors from the 1920s. Though these

arguments were initially propelled by the legendary status created through the help of

88 Rollo Myers, Erik Satie, 71. 89 Wright Roberts, The Problem of Satie, 313. 30

Cocteau’s Le Coq, they were furthered throughout the twentieth century by a large literature about Satie, primarily in the form of performance and recording reviews, but also select biographies and music analyses. The inability to quash this debate over Satie’s significance as a composer, and therefore his music, simply became another form of fuel for the transmission of his most popular works, most significantly the Gymnopédies. These pieces found an American audience in the 1920s; this initial audience expanded and transformed in the following decades as the works evolved in their purpose and function.

Audience in the United States: Resurgence of the Perception of the Gymnopédies as Modern

After the U.S. premiere performance by the Boston Symphony in 1905, few if any subsequent performances of the Gymnopédies took place, recalling Satie’s experience in trying to find venues for repeat performances in the 1890s. However, on November 6,

1921, the Washington Post published an advertisement for a concert of the Philadelphia

Symphony, featuring works by Brahms, Berlioz, Wagner, and Satie, describing the

Gymnopédies as “an interesting novelty.”90 This description was echoed three days later in a

review of the performance: "the novelty of the program was Eric Satie's ‘Gymnopédies’ (the

first and third movements), orchestrated by Debussy—two fragile but most engratiating

bits of musical fantasy which were read by Dr. Stokowski with rare charm and

spontaneity."91 A reviewer discussing George Copeland’s 1928 performance of the piano works also revealed a fascination with the modernism in the Gymnopédies, especially as a

result of its distinct place within the program. The concert included works by Gluck, Bach,

and Chopin; “the audience, however, manifested its chief delight in the modern works,

90 “Coming Concerts,” The Washington Post, November 6, 1921. 91 “Zimbalist with Stokowski,” The Washington Post, November 9, 1921. 31 which comprised Erik Satie’s ‘Gymnopédie’ No. 3…” and pieces by Debussy, Chabrier, and

De Falla.92

The perception of the Gymnopédies as modern, combined with their popular and

accessible elements, made them a comfortable compromise for conductors and programmers more used to works from the standard repertory. For example, in an October

1923 article for the Chicago Tribune, Edward Moore transcribes a quote from Frederick

Stock:

“Many years ago,” says Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony

orchestra, “a music critic referred to me as the ‘conductor with an outspoken classic

bend.’ He very likely wanted to allude to what he considered to be my predilection

for things conservative and perhaps a little conventional in music. But the good man

had very little idea that, in spite of my great love for the classics, I am at all times

ready to take up the cudgels in defense of contemporaneous composers, be they

ever so modern or even futuristic in their tendencies, and that, if it were possible, I

would make many a program which contained nothing but novelties from beginning

to end.”

(In this program, the Chicago Symphony was to play the Gymnopédies, Honegger's Pastorale d'Été, Saint‐Saens’s Carnival, Vaughan Williams's Fantasia, and Goossens's Symphony Poem, among others.) In situations like these, the Gymnopédies became novelties with a modernist past and an ambiguously defined present identity, largely based on the context in which they were performed. Here, the works were easily accessible to the audience, but still acceptable to the conductor with more conservative tastes, and they still retained an

92 “George Copeland Returns,” The New York Times, December 9, 1928. 32 element of novelty as well as providing a definite contrast to the orchestral music Chicago concertgoers were used to hearing.

Debussy’s Elevation of the Gymnopédies

For many, Debussy’s orchestration of the Gymnopédies transformed the pieces from innovative yet insignificant piano pieces to an orchestral piece strong enough to stand next

to time‐tested established works. In 1924, Olin Downes of the New York Times provided evidence of his bias for orchestras to program and perform the Gymnopédies in Debussy’s orchestrated version in America (which was frequently the case through the 1920s):

“Debussy, rendering immortal homage, instrumented the “Gymnopédies” with the exquisite intuition and the master’s skill that he alone could summon; he took the rough stone and polished it into a perfect jewel.”93 Downes described the Gymnopédies as a “rare and welcome innovation” in his review of the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 3, 1929.

Revealing a distinct preference for Debussy’s orchestration and admiration for the changes that he made, he wrote:

…the “Gymnopédies,” as orchestrated by Debussy, offer an excellent example of the

capacities of the man of talent, as compared with the man of genius, whose power

sums up the ideas of lesser artists and signalizes an epoch…here Debussy examines

and modestly orchestrates, the simple and limited invention of Satie. He does so as

a master jeweler would polish and set some precious stone. In so doing he makes

clear to us the significance of an idea that Satie could entertain better than he could

perfect and capture… those who have played the “Gymnopédies” as piano pieces

know how far they remain from the beauty that Debussy achieves with only a few

93 Ibid. 33

instruments of the orchestra…Partly because of Satie’s obscurity at the time, but

also because of the fragmentary nature of his talent, the “Gymnopédies” by

themselves would have remained almost unknown and without special significance.

But the eye of a genius discovered them, and we, the living, with Satie, the dead,

have occasion to render thanks for Debussy’s passing glance…”94

Writing again in 1931, Downes reiterated his interest in the Gymnopédies, but still

considered them through the perspective of Debussy’s mastery, writing of the New York

Symphony performance: “It was good to hear again the Gymnopédies of Satie, sensitively

played, orchestrated with genius by Debussy.”95 His opinion remained unchanged as late as

1949.96

Music critic, Compton Pakenham, agreed with the notion that Debussy’s

orchestration enhanced the Gymnopédies. Referring to a recording including Ravel’s Bolero by the Boston Symphony, he wrote in The New York Times, “on the fourth side the same orchestra plays “Gymnopédie No. 1,” by a very subdued Erik Satie—if you are used to his

“Le Fils des Etoiles” or “Danse maigre”…Debussy’s orchestration, acknowledged on the record, has helped, and it is probably well that no attempt was made to back the “Bolero” with one of Satie’s jokes. Ravel’s own piece of wit has come off far better than any of them.”97

In contrast to the attention given to the Gymnopédies in Northeastern cities such as

Boston and New York, performances of the Gymnopédies in Chicago were delayed. Proof of performances in Chicago did not appear until the 1930s, and repeat performances were

94 Olin Downes, “MUSIC: Boston Symphony Orchestra,” New York Times, February 3, 1929. 95 Olin Downes, “Music in Review: Golschmann Stirs Audience in Brilliant Program with Philharmonic‐ Symphony,” New York Times, December 24, 1931. 96 Olin Downes, “Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall,” New York Times, March 20, 1949. 97 Compton Pakenham, “Recorded Music: Bach’s “Mass” Now Made Available to Al‐Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ Done by Bostonians,” New York Times, May 4, 1930. 34 infrequent, which was possibly a result of conductors’ national affiliations. While the

Boston Symphony developed a “French” sound through conductors Henri Rabaud (1918) and Pierre Monteux (1919‐1924), which was maintained by Russian conductor Sergei

Koussevitzky (1924‐1949), the Chicago Symphony was led by German conductor Frederick

Stock (1905‐1942) making the orchestra more “Germanic” in orientation. Still, reviews of these performances in the Chicago Daily Tribune did not doubt Satie’s significance as a composer or debate the amount of substance in the Gymnopédies as compared to the standard orchestral canon. Instead, reviewers noted their disappointment in the scarcity of performances. Edward Barry, for example, wrote that the Gymnopédies were “some of the best music neglected by orchestra,” and pointed out that “the hauntingly beautiful

‘Gymnopédies’ of Satie was introduced in the thirty‐third season, played again in the thirty‐ ninth. That was six years ago, and nothing else of Satie has ever appeared on the orchestra’s programs.”98 Cecil M. Smith, also of the Chicago Daily Tribune, expressed similar

disappointment, writing that “the Gymnopédies, whose parts have been gathering dust for

many seasons in the basement of Orchestra hall, are dainty trifles of pseudo‐Hellenic

ceremonial dance music. The orchestral score by Debussy is a model of economy and

chastity.”99 These Chicago reviews, then, hinted that the pieces were received with interest,

in spite of, or possibility due to, their simplicity and their contrast to works typically heard

in the orchestral setting.

Even by the end of 1943, the Gymnopédies were still described as “infrequently

programmed” in Washington D.C., as they had been in Chicago. A Washington Post review

described a performance where they were meant to “offset the familiar ‘Carnival Overture’

98 Edward Barry, “Critic Argues Both Sides of Symphony Program Question,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 23, 1936. 99 Cecil M. Smith, “Ravinia Likes Showy Concert of Golschmann,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 30, 1937. 35 of Dvorak.” However, Debussy’s influence on the perception of the works was still considerable at this time; the reviewer wrote that “the orchestration does wonders for these pieces by enveloping them in a tonal atmosphere of weird beauty and in so doing may express what the composer had in mind but could not project through the piano idiom.”100

Appearing in the middle of the program, followed by Brahms’s Symphony no. 2, the reviewer noted that Debussy’s orchestration enabled the Gymnopédies to reach a high enough status to hold up to large canonic works.

While many of the reviews of the Gymnopédies written between 1920 and 1950 were largely positive toward Debussy’s orchestrated setting, some critics still remained unimpressed with Satie’s pieces. These critics were doubtful about including the pieces within the tightly sealed canon of professional orchestras because the simplicity of the

Gymnopédies did not seem to live up to Satie’s reputation as an innovator or to the

substance of their late‐romantic orchestral favorites. For example, in 1923, Richard Aldrich

of The New York Times interpreted the Gymnopédies as a less‐than‐significant novelty: "Erik

Satie's "Two Gymnopédies (a word whose meaning is not revealed) are unpretentious and

straightforward, hardly seeming to contribute much to that marvellous record of ‘the whole

evolution of modern music’ which Mr. Milhaud finds in this composer's work.” Chenneviere

and Martens, writing in 1919, also found the music insubstantial and unfocused:

As soon as Satie begins to write (Ogives, 1886­Sarabandes, 1887­Gymnopédies,

Gnossiennes, 1890) he reveals in full liberty, one might even say in full anarchy, in

entire originality; and we shall see that all else may be denied him, save and

excepted the originality aforementioned. These initial compositions are slow and

solemn successions of seventh and ninth harmonies, indefinitely linked, occasionally

100 Ray C. B. Brown, “Swarthout Impresses Filled House,” The Washington Post, November 25, 1943. 36

yielding place to a processional of majestically perfect chords. Of plan of

construction there is not a trace. There seems to be no reason why these chords

might not continue for hours.101

These writers further underscore the critical doubt surrounding the worth of the

Gymnopédies.

In sum, the Gymnopédies struggled to find broad acceptance in the United States through the 1940s; despite largely positive reviews of the works, the audience was largely limited to season ticket holders and other regular orchestral concert attendees most likely to be present for specific performances. It is clear, then, that while some critics beginning

with Cocteau contended that Debussy’s orchestration perhaps tarnished the works’

aesthetic of simplicity, American reviewers tended to believe that Debussy’s work elevated

the status and sophistication of the Gymnopédies, and the orchestral version was certainly

instrumental in achieving the acceptance and longevity of the works.

From the perspective of 1948, Rollo Myers elegantly summarized the reception

history of Satie and his Gymnopédies in their first forty years of transmission.

The ideal of the neo‐classicists was, in fact, a return to that ‘simplicity’, that

dépouillement or stripping of nonessentials, which had characterized so much of

Satie’s music and which was first manifested in the Gymnopédies of 1886. Scoffed at

at first, and stigmatized as jejune and barren by those whose ears were intoxicated

with the over‐luscious harmonies and sophisticated refinements of nineteenth‐

century music, the Satie aesthetic gradually won acceptance in the most progressive

101 Rudhyar D. Chennevière and Frederick H. Martens, “Erik Satie and the Music of Irony,” The Musical Quarterly 5, no. 4 (October 1919): 470. 37

circles, and left its mark on a good deal of the music written during the ‘twenties and

early ‘thirties.102

Despite the debates surrounding their worth, then, the Gymnopédies clearly found acceptance by the late 1940s.

While a few repeat performances of Satie’s Gymnopédies in both piano and orchestrated forms took place before his death in 1925, the beginning of sure‐footed longevity began in the late 1920s‐1940s orchestral concerts in the United States. The

European reception history is less rich, noted most specifically by Templier’s description of

Debussy’s orchestrated Gymnopédies: “In this new form, they are played everywhere except

in France, and are recognized as being among the most perfect works of the French

school.”103 Debussy’s orchestration helped, even after both his and Satie’s deaths, to garner name recognition for both Satie and the Gymnopédies, and to break the works into the orchestral canon.

102 Myers, Erik Satie, 55‐56. 103 Templier, Erik Satie, 77. 38

Chapter Three: The Commercialization of the Gymnopédies (1950‐2010)

By the end of the 1950s and into the 1960s, the listening audience for the

Gymnopédies expanded from frequent classical concertgoers to a national audience of

amateur record consumers. The Gymnopédies attained a broader, less musically literate

audience that more closely resembled the bourgeoisie of the Chat Noir than the more sophisticated and specialized audiences of the preceding decades. Meanwhile, the modernist identity of the Gymnopédies as absolute music remained intact through concert‐ hall performances and recorded collections, most significantly Francis Poulenc’s Poulenc

Plays Poulenc and Satie, recorded in 1950, and Aldo Ciccolini’s 1957 Piano Music of Erik

Satie. Later, more pianists worked to elevate Satie’s piano compositions to highbrow art, as

in Jean‐Joël Barbier’s recording (1964), and Evelyn Crochet’s Evelyn Crochet Plays Satie

(1968). Later into the 1980s Satie‐only archival compilations were produced by Pascal Rogé

(1984), Anne Queffélec (1988), and Roland Pöntinen (1989).

While the Gymnopédies were primarily transmitted as concert pieces up to the

1950s, Satie’s concept of musique d’ameublement (or furniture music), as developed in the

1920s, provides an additional aesthetic perspective and function. The justification for

retroactively applying the concept of furniture music to the Gymnopédies (1888) began with

the possibility that the pieces were meant to be used as incidental music in a circus revue

written by Gabriel Astruc. For reasons Astruc could not recall, the production collapsed

39 before a performance would occur.104 Instead of merely presenting the works for the sake of the art itself, Satie’s agreement to this project opened the possibility that one should listen to the Gymnopédies more distantly, with less direct attention, as background music.

Furniture music evolved from Satie’s interest in “turning music into an object of commercial utility,”105 and was a result of his longtime interest in popular music and its

broad audience appeal. The purpose of furniture music was “to integrate music into

everyday life, eliminating it as performance so that it became simply an object that

facilitated other activities.”106 Satie explained this further to Fernand Léger, describing it as music “to soften both street sounds and the clicking of knives and forks in restaurants, filling up empty spaces in conversations, and making recourse to banalities unnecessary.”107

In sum, the concept served to “[fuse] Satie’s long fascination with publicity and commerce

with his campaign to displace music from its traditional roles and attachments.”108 Alan

Gillmor supports the association of even Satie’s earliest piano music with furniture music by pointing out tendencies apparent in the music that are consistent with Satie’s furniture music concept, including “total suppression of rhetorical gesture” and “profound impersonality.”109

After the 1950s, these ideas were superficially hinted at when, in addition to the perpetuation of the dual modernist and popular identities found in the Gymnopédies, commoditization and marketing campaigns were targeted toward amateur audiences, assigning new functions and meanings to the Gymnopédies that were wholly separate from

104 Gabriel Astruc, Pavillon des fantômes: Souvenirs (Paris: B. Grasset, 1929), 99‐100, 102, as quoted in Whiting, Satie the Bohemian, 463. 105 Seigel, Bohemian Paris, 330. 106 Ibid. 107 Ibid., 331. 108 Ibid. 109 Gillmor, Erik Satie, 45. 40 careful listening to the pieces themselves. The pieces were marketed for purposes such as

sleep, exercise, weddings, or simply light accompaniment to everyday activities.

Additionally, the Gymnopédies are also used as ambient music; a term developed by Brian

Eno, ambient music is “defined as an atmosphere, or a surrounding influence: a tint.”110 His

goal was to create music for specific occasions, which would become a “small but versatile

catalogue of environmental music suited to a wide variety of moods and atmospheres.”111

In other words, the music would function “to simulate or enhance an environment,”112 and

in aesthetic terms could be employed “without being in any way compromised.”113 These uses bear a superficial resemblance to furniture music, yet they depart from Dadaist artistic and political goals. According to Peter Bürger, the historical avant‐garde, of which Dadaism was a part, aimed to bring art closer to reality by destroying the institutions of art

(including art’s production, distribution, and reception) that had been in place since the eighteenth‐century. 114 In other words, Satie’s furniture music concept dismantled the

institution of concert music. With the Gymnopédies, the retroactive application of the idea of

furniture music and the subsequent marketing of these pieces displaced the avant‐garde

quality of the Dadaist anti‐bourgeois attitude. Instead of a destruction of the institution of

art, the concept of functional music was absorbed into mainstream culture and exploited for

capitalist ends. Nonetheless, the concept of furniture music remained present, stripped

from its original context and given new meaning after the 1950s.

In the realm of experimental transcriptions, especially the arrangement by Blood,

Sweat and Tears, Satie’s aesthetic identity was more than misapplied; sometimes, it was

110 Brian Eno, Music for Airports / Ambient 1, LP, PVC, 7908 (AMB 001), ℗ 1978, Liner notes. 111 Ibid. 112 Michael Jarrett, Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), 11 113 Brian Eno, Music for Airports / Ambient 1, Liner notes. 114 Peter Bürger, Theory of the Avant­Garde, 47‐49. 41 even completely supplanted by influential performers. Without attending to Satie’s personal aesthetics or role as a composer, performers applied new and personal meanings to the pieces. Therefore, in this era, the Gymnopédies still maintained a presence in the concert hall and on formal piano recordings, but this identity has largely been overshadowed by the commercialization of the pieces, which imbued them with specific functions such as sleep and romance. In addition, new transcriptions of the pieces have nearly erased Satie’s presence from the perception and identity of the works.

Impact of Positive Writing on Reception in Concert and on Recordings

In the 1940s, before large‐scale commercialization took effect, a wave of scholarship

influenced the perception of the Gymnopédies, including studies by Rollo Myers (1948), and

Wilfrid Mellers (1942). The influential writings of Pierre‐Daniel Templier (1932, English

translation in 1969) and Roger Shattuck (1955) likely contributed to the production and

subsequent independence of the Gymnopédies by encouraging continued interest in the

pieces during a time when records were being made less expensively and met by a much

larger audience (as evidenced by the success of Columbia’s long‐playing LP in 1948). These

studies surely contributed to regular programming of the Gymnopédies in the concert hall

setting. Attesting to Satie’s substance as a composer, Mellers opened his essay, “Erik Satie

and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Music,” in forceful defense of his subject:

Probably no other figure in modern music has been subjected to such persistently

ignorant denigration as Erik Satie. Fear of responding to something which is

genuinely new or disturbing to their complacency has led people with only the most

superficial acquaintance with his work to dismiss Satie as an incompetent blagueur,

an eccentric who wrote odd sentences over his music, whose compositions can be

42

ignored with cheerful irresponsibility or at most dismissed with some such epithet

as “thin.”115

Retrospectively applying high modernism to Satie, Mellers here expressed Greenbergian concerns over mass culture’s inability to understand modernist music. In 1948 Myers offered another example of support and respect: “1887 saw the publication of the three exquisite Gymnopédies… the first works of Satie which were to reveal his genius. Indeed they made musical history, because it is on these works that his reputation as a harmonic innovator and a ‘forerunner’ of the music to come principally rests.”116 Darius Milhaud,

quoted in Myers, additionally wrote that “developments since 1900 owe the same debt to

the Gymnopédies as those since 1920 owe to Parade.” This, according to Myers, “[asserts] that each work of Satie’s has foretold the lines on which French music of the last fifty years was going to develop.”117 These critics attempted to elevate the Gymnopédies by refocusing

attention away from the popular qualities written into the pieces to their modernist and

innovative qualities. While this goal was largely left unaccomplished, as the popular

elements and identity shaped most of the discourse about the Gymnopédies after the 1950s,

the positive writings did likely propel and influence the recording and programming of the

pieces in the 1950s and beyond.

The 1950s saw a significant rise in the production and distribution of records, as

well as the success of the earliest recording releases of the Gymnopédies from the 1930s,

such as the Boston Symphony’s recording of the first Gymnopédie with Serge

Koussevitzky.118 This, along with well‐received concert performances, enthusiastic scholarly

115 Mellers, “Erik Satie and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Music,” 210. 116 Myers, Erik Satie, 19 117 Ibid. 118 Erik Satie (orch. Claude Debussy). Gymnopédie No. 1. Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Serge Koussevitzky (conductor), LP, Victor, 49‐0771, ℗ 1950. 43 support of the works in the 1940s, and the brevity and accessibility of the pieces, encouraged performers to add the Gymnopédies to recorded programs. 119 The inclusion of

the pieces on these recorded programs was warmly received. For example, in reference to

the Koussevitzky recording, Paul Hume of The Washington Post went so far as to celebrate the record as an ideal medium for listening to Satie’s music: “We still need some real Satie music on records. Aside from the Casadesus’ two‐piano album and a few foreign recordings of his better songs, this genius of the intimate and exquisitely fashioned is neglected on records. Yet records are the most satisfactory place for his fragile but clear art.”120 Surely

such an enthusiastic review ignited further interest to buy this successful album. In fact, it

is likely Hume again who continues this exceptionally positive tone in describing Poulenc’s

collection of recordings, which includes a group of Satie’s works: “The reverse side of the

record is that kind of honest, deserved tribute one composer often enjoys paying the genius

of another. Erik Satie was one of the principal influences on ‘Les Six,’ of which Poulenc was

a member. And the two composers wrote music that has a common insistence upon not

being too profound, too pretentious, or of trying to say more than it has to say.”121 Whether

many others agreed with Hume that the Gymnopédies and Satie’s other works were best

suited for recording, or whether they were influenced to listen to the pieces due to positive

publicity about Satie’s music, is unclear. Regardless, the Gymnopédies promptly became

popular items to include on records—much more quickly than they became canonical

works in the concert hall. The audience and exposure for the Gymnopédies rapidly expanded

throughout the 1950s, a development that would build in momentum and accelerate

throughout the rest of the twentieth century.

119 Claudia Cassidy, “On the Record,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 16, 1950. 120 Paul Hume, “Weissenberg’s Piano Hard, Fast, Fiery Tone,” The Washington Post, April 23, 1950. 121 “Boyce Symphonies Handled Beautifully,” The Washington Post, July 22, 1951. 44

The positive outpouring from Satie scholars helped to cement the Gymnopédies’ place in the orchestral repertoire, as well. American orchestras had programmed Debussy’s orchestration of the Gymnopédies since the first decades of the twentieth century, but initially met some resistance from critics. By the 1950s, however, the Gymnopédies were frequently incorporated on orchestral concerts, at least as part of predominantly French programs, or as a representative of modernist French music within a dominantly nineteenth‐century program. For instance, a 1951 all‐French program at New York City’s

Lewisohn Stadium, performed in honor of the 2000th anniversary of Paris, included

orchestral music by Berlioz, Satie, Debussy, Milhaud, Ravel, and Dukas.122 Also, Seymour

Raven’s 1952 advertisement for Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra illustrates the beginnings of the trend to select the Gymnopédies as a canonic French feature on orchestral programs. Raven noted that the Gymnopédies would not dominate the program, because Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony and Liszt’s Les Préludes were to be performed;

yet Ormandy would present “French music in sharp focus.” A “respectful” and “clever” nod

is given to “the French and their modern music history” with Ravel’s transcription of

Debussy’s “Danse” and Debussy’s orchestration of Satie’s Gymnopédies:

There you have three fairly important names, Debussy, Ravel and Satie. If Satie

means very little, don’t blame yourself. He wrote very little, and what he wrote is

played very seldom… So you’ll see, Mr. Ormandy, no ignoramus, is doing something

better than slapping together a program when he plays Satie, as orchestrated by

Debussy, and Debussy, as orchestrated by Ravel. Satie, who wrote very few large

works, liked putting his note down in red ink, and did away with bar lines in some of

122 ”French Program Given at Stadium: Mrs. Guggenheim Gets Medal and a Kiss,” New York Times, July 11, 1951. 45

his scores. But despite his small output and his eccentricities, he did earn respect as

an innovator in harmonic and melodic affairs.123

Reflecting on the availability of Satie’s music in Chicago, Raven wrote that “what Chicago

knows of Satie may be found in a few piano pieces on sale in the music stores, a handful of

phonograph records, and a couple of Chicago Symphony performances in the days of

Frederick Stock, with a brief refresher now from Eugene Ormandy.”124 By the late 1950s,

then, the Gymnopédies secured a respected modernist identity in the concert hall as a canonical French piece largely free from aesthetic debate.

Marketed Use as Furniture Music and Early Repurposing

In orchestral concerts prior to the 1950s, the Gymnopédies played the role of either a

French interlude with two short movements placed between larger Russian and Germanic

Romantic works, a French novelty piece, or a short encore showing the subtlety and expressivity of orchestral musicians. Regardless of the specific function they performed within the concert program, the Gymnopédies were offered to audiences as modernist pieces. But in recorded form, the works reached a broader and less musically sophisticated audience who questioned the purpose of the work, especially when pianists compiled collections limited to Satie’s music, or consisting of only French music of similar styles.

Listeners who enjoyed the Gymnopédies in concert and wished to listen at home on a recording, but were bored by the similarity in style throughout the album, likely related to the perspective of this 1958 reviewer, who addressed a then‐new recording produced by pianist Aldo Ciccolini:

123 Seymour Raven, “Symphony to Play Work of French ‘Zany,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 24, 1952. 124 Ibid. 46

A cross‐section of Satie's piano music including, in addition to the "Trois morceaux,"

the "Heures seculaires et instantanées," three nocturnes, three “Gymnopédies,"

three "Gnossiennes," and the three "Valses" distinguées de precieux dégoute." This

is all very precious stuff, of undoubted historical importance but too limited in

technical and emotional resource to sustain interest for long. Ciccolini plays

competently and the recording is good.125

In other words, the progressively larger audiences that the Gymnopédies attracted through

frequent performances and recordings included amateurs who expected program variety to

maintain their interest in the music. With a greater concentration of Satie’s music,

especially in recorded form, some amateur listeners were discontented with the

Gymnopédies as absolute, modern music.

Writing in the late 1940s, Virgil Thomson offered a response to this sentiment.

Thomson’s comments coincided with Satie’s furniture music concept: he remarked that the

Gymnopédies are great music to appreciate while engaged in a task that allows for listening,

but not intent, careful listening such as washing dishes.126 Thomson’s ideas seem at odds

with Paul Hume’s opinion that recording is the best medium for Satie’s music (as absolute,

modernist music), but not necessarily opposed to Satie’s Dadaist aesthetic. Alan Gillmor

addresses this issue, supporting Thomson’s position:

Although Satie’s concept of musique d’ameublement was to be a much later

development, the tendencies already apparent in the early dance suites—the total

125 “Comments in Brief on New Disks,” New York Times, February 16, 1958. 126 Allen Hughes, “New Releases Highlight Music in the French Manner,” New York Times, May 23, 1982. 47

suppression of rhetoric and the profound impersonality—suggest that all of the

composer’s music falls into the category of “furnishing music.”127

Other critics agreed with Thomson’s and Gillmor’s assessment of the Gymnopédies as

furniture music. Allen Hughes wrote in 1982 that the concert hall is not an adequate

performance venue for the Gymnopédies; instead, he suggests that recordings allow the

Gymopedies to function as background music, providing a “pleasingly uncomplicated

musical experience” for inattentive listening.128

Hughes‘s recognition of the importance of recordings for the transmission of Satie’s work underscores how essential recordings were for the Gymnopédies’ prolonged life as incidental music. The appropriateness of this music to “background” use is reflected in the plethora of activity‐based CDs first appearing in the early 1990s—More Stress Busters

(1992) with the National Philharmonic, The Lullaby Album (1993) with the Toulouse

Orchestra—and saturating the market by the early 2000s with items such as Peter

Dickinson’s Satie for Relaxation (2000), Lorraine Alberts’s Romantic Wedding Music on the

Harp (2001), and For Yoga (2004) with the Montreal Symphony. Here existed the space for

record producers to commercially exploit Satie’s furniture music concept, absorbing the idea of background music while discarding the avant‐garde political and historical implications of furniture music.

Although the superficial use as furniture music became the most commercially successful repurposing for amateur audiences, suggestions for the use of the Gymnopédies also developed in the realm of teaching supplements. In 1958, for example, Shirley and

Donald Sonnedecker, after acknowledging the general tendency to view Satie as an

127 Alan Murray Gillmor, “Erik Satie and the Concept of the Avant‐Garde.” The Musical Quarterly 69, no. 1 (Winter 1983): 84. 128 Allen Hughes, “New Releases Highlight Music in the French Manner,” New York Times, May 23, 1982. 48 eccentric or humorist and citing Debussy’s orchestrations as justification for Satie’s significance, claimed that his music was useful to pedagogues:

With such an acknowledgement of Satie’s stature, it seems strange that we of

following generations have failed to recognize and utilize the best of his

compositions – if only for teaching purposes. Compositions most often performed

from the early twentieth century French school are by Debussy and Ravel, (i.e., Clair

de Lune, Rèverie). Needless to say, the repertoire chosen for the high school piano

student, at grade level 4‐5, is necessarily limited because of the technical difficulties

inherent in the works of both Ravel and Debussy. Thus it appears that many of

Satie’s compositions should be welcome, since they contain comparatively few

technical hurdles.129

The simple and clear homophonic texture, repetitive form, and easy‐to‐follow melody offer

rewarding training for an intermediate pianist. Additionally, this re‐assignment of the use

for the works indicates the beginning of a trend to separate Satie’s modernist aesthetic

affiliation from the Gymnopédies, an attitude that encouraged transcriptions and alterations in various styles over the following decades. For example, one of the earliest arrangement efforts after Debussy’s orchestration was “Dances for Two Pianos” (1955), in which Arthur

Austin Whittemore and Jack Lowe performed an arrangement of the second Gymnopédie for two pianos. While not in a contrasting style, or particularly daring in instrumentation, this was one of the first new arrangements of the work, foreshadowing dozens more in the coming decades (see appendix).

129 Shirley and Donald Sonnedecker, “The Unappreciated Erik Satie,” Music Journal 16, no. 1 (January 1958): 44, 97. 49

Early Commercialization

In an extension of the furniture music identity of the works, one of the earliest

instances in which the Gymnopédies were commercialized for an amateur audience interested in music to accompany their life activities is Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s production and compilation of Gymnopédie no. 1, for their album of various artists entitled

Sleepytime Songs. Recorded in 1968, this album situated Satie’s first Gymnopédie among child‐friendly and easy‐to‐listen‐to tunes such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” Pachelbel’s

Canon in D, and Brahms’s Lullaby. Additionally, the late 1960s marked the appearance of gimmicks and function‐driven compilations that broadened the identity of the Gymnopédies from a modernist or novelty piece to a commercialized entity marketed for specific use or with a specific image. One advertisement for a collection by Aldo Ciccolini and another album by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra proclaimed: “Satie is a hippie! Have a ‘listen‐in’ to the ‘in’ music of our time.”130

The Blood, Sweat and Tears arrangement “Variations on a Theme by Eric Satie” likely carried the Gymnopédies securely into a mainstream audience, inspired countless other recordings, and became ubiquitous over the next decade. This transcription bookended their second album, released in 1969, and may have been inspired by Herbie

Mann’s recording of the second Gymnopédie on his LP Nirvana with Bill Evans in 1964.

Enthusiastic reviews of this arrangement are plentiful, and this version served as many listeners’ introduction to Satie and the Gymnopédies. The transcription received critical

130 “Display Ad 161,” New York Times, May 12, 1968. Usually give the title/header and page number of the ad; the label Display Ad 161 is only accessible in online databases, not in the actual newspaper. 50 acclaim, as well: in the same year, the group won a Grammy for Best Contemporary

Instrumental Performance.131 One reviewer wrote:

Most of all, it carries, among other things, three Halligan arrangements that lift

BS&T way out of any usual consideration. First comes the now celebrated

"Variations on a Theme of Erik Satie." With Halligan's great gifts turned to the

organ, one of the famous Satie Gymnopédies takes on a luster that easily rivals what

Debussy did for it when he was its first orchestrator.132

Gillmor also addressed the Gymnopédies’ relationship to the concept of furniture music and

Satie’s imagined response to the Blood, Sweat, and Tears arrangement:

Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies… are deservedly among his best‐known works, having

served more than any other of his creations to make him known to the general

public. One can imagine the secret delight of the originator of musique

d’ameublement had he known that one day his slender “Greek” dances would serve,

in countless arrangements, as a sonic backdrop for television commercials: coffee

(Maxwell House) and cosmetics; and most surely the great mystifier would have

approved of Dick Halligan’s recent adaptation of two of the Gymnopédies for the rock

group Blood, Sweat and Tears.”133

The Blood, Sweat and Tears arrangement begins quite close to Satie’s score for the first

Gymnopédie, cutting only the first two measures. A guitar covers the left‐hand material and flute the right. By measure thirteen in Satie’s score, however, instead of repeating the

melody directly, a second flute is added to perform a countermelody above Satie’s written

melody. After a pause, a brass interlude including material from the opening melody of

131 Blood, Sweat & Tears, “Bio,” Blood, Sweat & Tears Official Website, http://www.bloodsweatandtears.com/bio.html (accessed February 5, 2011). 132 Paul Hume, “Lend‐Lease Blood, Sweat & Tears,” The Washington Post, September 27, 1970. 133 Gillmor, “Erik Satie and the Concept of the Avant‐Garde,” 79. 51

Satie’s first Gymnopédie, is arranged in dissonant harmonies. This fanfare style is greeted with drums and cymbals, gradually moving into a faster tempo with more melodic material from the second Gymnopédie. In sum, Blood, Sweat and Tears transformed the Gymnopédies by combining the first two into one movement, thickening the texture with percussion and countermelodies, new instrumentation, and employing harmonic and tempo variation.

Hume’s assessment of the significance of Halligan’s arrangement does not seem to be an exaggeration. Newly marketed toward fans of rock music, the Gymnopédies met an audience previously unfamiliar with the pieces. For example, one enthusiastic anonymous reviewer on Amazon.com wrote: “My introduction to the Gymnopédies was hearing Blood

Sweat and Tears rendition on their 2nd album. I've been entranced by them ever since. I've collected the purist renditions of the work.”134 Second, while Debussy was a contemporary

and friend of Satie, and closely followed Satie’s original score, Blood, Sweat, and Tears

lacked all of these considerations. Because of this performance’s chronological distance

from Satie, its imprecise interpretation of the score, and its extreme divergence in style—

and because it reached an audience not formerly interested in the pieces—this performance

acts to supplant Satie and his role in establishing aesthetics for the pieces. The Blood, Sweat

and Tears arrangement became an important inspiration for future transcriptions,

especially numerous jazz arrangements, such as Jacques Loussier Trio’s Satie: Gymnopédies

Gnossiennes (1998), which featured four variations of Satie’s first Gymnopédie for piano,

bass, and drums; Hubert Laws’s recording of the first Gymnopédie on his album In the

Beginning (1997); and Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen’s “The Satie Project” (2010). These

134 R. A Chinn. “Review for Satie: Gymnopédies/Gnossiennes/Jacques Loussier Trio,” Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Satie‐Gymnopédies‐Gnossiennes‐Jacques‐Loussier/product‐ reviews/B000007NGR/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 (accessed February 10, 2011).

52 more pragmatist approaches separate the Gymnopédies completely from Satie’s identity as modernist composer.

Therefore, from the late 1960s forward the Gymnopédies developed an identity separate from any previous contexts or perspectives, inviting interpretations and arrangements inspired by this particular performance. Even though many interested performers and listeners likely consulted the original when they made new arrangements, for some, the Blood, Sweat & Tears recording served as a new model that granted a freedom of interpretation and perception, unfettered by anxieties associated with historical presence and tradition.

Explosion of Arrangements 1970­1990, Marketed Purpose and Listener Expectations

The number of recordings of the Gymnopédies doubled in every decade between the

1950s and 1980s (in the 1950s, the number of recordings of the Gymnopédies almost

doubled all recordings made in previous years). Despite the profusion of new transcriptions and arrangements of the Gymnopédies that appeared during and after the 1970s, the

popularity of piano recordings did not falter; in fact, piano recordings of the Gymnopédies

appeared twice as frequently as orchestral recordings. Continuing the trend started twenty

years prior, performers would often include the Gymnopédies on compilations of Satie’s

music, or sometimes albums of French works. For example, piano recordings from this era

include Salvadore Camarata’s The Velvet Gentleman the Music of Erik Satie (1970), Frank

Glazer’s Piano Music of Eric Satie (1970), Pierre Huybregt, pianist (1970), Cécile Ousset’s

French Piano Music (1971), John McCabe’s Piano Music (featuring only works by Satie,

1974), Laurence Allix’s Selected Piano Music (all Satie, 1975), Yuji Takahashi’s L’oeuvre pour

piano (all Satie, 1976), Albert Ferber’s French Piano Music (1979), and Bill Quist’s The Piano

53

Solos of Erik Satie (1979). A sample of orchestral recordings includes those by the Royal

Philharmonic Orchestra (1971), London Philharmonic (1971), City of Birmingham

Symphony Orchestra (1974), and National Philharmonic Orchestra (1978).

Despite the impact of the Blood, Sweat, and Tears recording in the late 1960s, however, there is minimal documentation (in the form of newspaper reviews) regarding

Gymnopédie recordings through the 1970s. Further, arrangements were seldom reviewed in newspaper columns or other written sources, despite the abundance of arrangements written in this period. Some of the quietly appearing LPs include a recording of Patricia

Stenberg and Gary Wolf’s English horn and piano recital, which offered arrangements of the first two Gymnopédies; Linda Grieser and Janice Bishop’s “Portrait of a Harp” (1970); Roger

Bourdin and Annie Challan’s “Les duos d’amour” for flute and harp, which includes

Gymnopédie no. 1 (1972); Peter Kraus and Mark Bird’s “Satie for Two,” featuring transcription for two guitars (1974); Pièces pour la harpe,” with Martine Géliot (1975);

Christopher Parkening’s “Parkening and the Guitar” (1976); Keith Chapman’s “Airs &

Arabesques” for organ (1976); Frank Evans’s “Noctuary” for guitar (1976); “Unexplored

Territory” performed by the Canadian Brass (1978) in jazz arrangement; and Groupe Des

Six’s “Erik Satie,” featuring a sextet (piano, bassoon, clarinet, flute, horn, oboe) playing albums including only Satie’s music (1979).

These arrangements transformed the works in interesting ways, revealing the freedom claimed by performers in the wake of the Blood, Sweat & Tears version of the

Gymnopédies. Although many of the recordings listed above are now rare items, the

Canadian Brass and Christopher Parkening’s arrangements remain prominent. In the

Canadian Brass’s jazz arrangement, the first striking difference from Satie’s original piece is its extension; this version lasts four minutes and twenty‐five seconds (as opposed to a 54 traditional performance of the first movement, which generally last less than three and a half minutes), despite using a quicker tempo. The arranger added frequent interludes between sections, repetitions of the melody (for example, mm. 21‐22 and 65‐66 of Satie’s score), and guest pianist Don Gillis’s improvisation on the melodic material in mm. 40‐47).

The texture of the piece is extended to include a percussion part and arpeggios and other embellishments in the piano part. Additionally, especially after m. 21, Satie’s accompaniment falls into the background, when the full brass harmonization of the melody eclipses the chords that had fallen on the second beat of each bar.

Another noteworthy recording from the 1970s is Christopher Parkening’s interpretation of the first Gymnopédie, reflecting less variation in arrangement of pitches, harmonies, and ensemble, but more deviation from Satie’s aesthetic stylistically. While simple in texture, the most prominent changes include the overall quick tempo and frequent use of rubato, a performance device that deviated sharply from Satie’s anti‐sentimental and stripped‐down aesthetic. Bradford Marsalis’s arrangement for saxophone and orchestra emphasized the accessible qualities of the Gymnopédies through liberal use of rubato and heightened melodic expressivity: by making the piece more lyrical through nuanced inflection and making the melody more prominent in the texture, Marsalis’s arrangement reflects the late nineteenth‐century tradition that Satie opposed, rather than remaining within the tradition of Satie’s stripped‐down aesthetics.

In the 1970s the Gymnopédies were included on more recordings marketed toward amateur audiences with distinctly advertised purposes for use. Examples include Joy! The great composers’ hits for the 70’s with unnamed orchestras, including Gymnopédie no. 1

(1972), Romance: favorite melodies for the quiet hours, performed by the Columbia

Symphony (1972), and Great Hits You Played When You Were Young, Vol. 3, featuring Morton 55

Estrin on piano (1974). These applied functions are clear: comfortable familiarity, romance, relaxation, and nostalgia. Further, these albums represent the important marketing strategies that were expanded upon and pursued even more extensively throughout the

1980s and especially the 1990s. In the 1970s, performers and producers still largely assumed that the listener will listen to the music (though perhaps not carefully). In other words, the marketed purposes in the compilations of the 1970s imply greater attention to the music playing in the background, even requiring some listening for the listener to glean

the effect of nostalgia or familiarity. The assumed level of listening diminishes throughout

the 1980s to the 2000s as the works are marketed as background or ambience for more

active purposes, such as exercise and weddings, or are used in television advertisements

and movies.

Reviews from the 1980s indicate a strong sense of familiarity with the Gymnopédies, and predictably so, as by this time dozens of recordings and many more performances had contributed specific notions of how the Gymnopédies should be interpreted. Further, reviewers consistently wrote confidently about what they expected from the music and from a performer’s particular interpretation, whether it corresponded with Satie’s conception or not. At times, these expectations demanded execution of the works according to ideals of purity and clarity attributed to Satie’s original intentions. Peggy Horrocks’s

1986 review of the Omaha Symphony’s performance for The Omaha World­Herald: “in the orchestral version, the sparse simplicity of Erik Satie's ‘Gymnopédie No.1’ is difficult to obtain and requires a cleaner performance than it received.”135 Reviewers also expressed an expectation of the execution of style, as with Joseph McLellan’s 1988 review for The

Washington Post:

135 Peggy Horrocks, “Omaha Symphony Challenged Torme Delights,” The Omaha World­Herald, October 25, 1986. 56

…For this music, as for the Satie "Gymnopédie" that was the first encore, the

orchestra was in top form—rhythmically incisive and precisely together in phrasing.

The sound was balanced with a distinctively French and highly piquant flavor—

transparent string tone allowing the woodwinds, brass and percussion to register a

vivid presence.136

These reviews look back to Satie’s original aesthetics as transformed by Debussy’s orchestration, perpetuating the modernist identity of the works.

Other critics and general listeners had a more open‐ended set of expectations, however, allowing for an acceptance of less predictable interpretations and a focus on the performer him or herself. This reveals a developing trend in the 1980s: considering the

Gymnopédies as a vehicle for exhibiting a performer’s musically expressive capacity. For

example, John Kraglund, writing in 1979 of Trio Toronto (a group performing on harp, flute, and cello), stated that “the three Satie Gymnopédies were a marvellous vehicle for Miller's slow, expressive cello.”137 And, in a discussion of a Memphis Symphony performance 24

years later, Bill Ellis conceived of the Gymnopédies as a vehicle for delicate and lyrical

playing:

Debussy's orchestration of Satie's Gymnopédies No. 1 and 3 began the night in an

appropriate hush of gossamer beauty. Loebel coaxed the gentlest of notes from his

players, the most delicate of dances that suggested this group may well make a

name for itself with French repertoire.138

Although this approach directly contradicted Satie’s modernist, objective aesthetics of

simplicity, beginning in the 1970s, the Gymnopédies were sometimes marketed as romantic

136 Joseph McLellan, “Monte Carlo’s Warming Trend,” The Washington Post, April 19, 1988. 137 John Kraglund, “Appealing Trio Launches Noon Series,” The Globe and Mail, October 4, 1979. 138 Bill Ellis, “Director Loebel Plucks Finest From Orchestra: Guest Guitarist Isbin Performs Vibrantly,” The Commercial Appeal, March 16, 2003. 57 love pieces with intriguing harmonies, mysterious melody, added rubato, and, in some arrangements, vibrato. Despite these new interpretive tendencies, Valerie Scher remained unconvinced by Aldo Ciccolini’s more romanticized interpretation of the first Gymnopédie:

He treated Satie's best‐known composition, the "Gymnopédie No. 1," as if it was a

hyper‐romantic work by Chopin instead of an alluring little piece. He speeded up,

then pulled back, overusing the expressive device of rubato. His playing was so

mannered it was as if he did not trust the simplicity of the score.139

Whether we embrace it or not, this romanticizing interpretation reveals a fully commodified

Gymnopédies, detached from historical connections and interpretive constraints.

Status of Ubiquity and Expansion of Marketing Strategies 1980­2010

After three decades of frequent recording, new marketing strategies to reach a

larger audience, and a wide variety of arrangements in contrasting styles, the Gymnopédies

easily achieved a secure mainstream status in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Reviews of

new recordings during this time began to reflect some exhaustion due to frequently

repeated listening. These comments range from the easy‐going, as with Joseph McLellan’s

observation that Satie's Gymnopédie no. 1 is among "the world's most popular short piano

pieces,"140 to more frustrated accounts of the pieces as overplayed:

Bernstein went for the best‐known works of the period, pointedly ignoring works

and composers noted in their day but to us just "famous" names. So the chance of

hearing Florent Schmitt or Charles Koechlin, Louis [Paul] Dukas or any of a dozen

other significant composers was exchanged for, say, pleasing performances of—yet

139 Valerie Scher, “Piano Concert Quirky, Oddball,” The San Diego Union­Tribune, March 17, 1986. 140 Joseph McLellan, “Classical Recordings; For the Best in CD Bargains, Go Buy the Book,” The Washington Post, November 29, 1992. 58

again—the inescapable "Gymnopédies," Nos. 1 and 3, by Satie in Debussy's

arrangements, performed at one reverential tempo…141

This 1986 Robert Commanday review for The San Francisco Chronicle indicates a sense of

exasperation with the Gymnopédies—or at least, the work as presented through Debussy’s

much‐performed arrangement written eighty‐nine years earlier.

This exasperation did not slow the commercialization of the Gymnopédies, however.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the ubiquitous Gymnopédies had unquestionably

oversaturated the market, record companies confidently and frequently included the pieces

in compilation CDs, re‐assigning the function of the music to fit album themes. These

purposes include the same trends that were set in place from the 1960s forward, as they

were marketed for nighttime moods (like sleep and relaxation), children, comfortable

familiarity (greatest hits compilations), romantic settings, and nostalgia. In addition, the

1980s and 1990s also saw compilations featuring the Gymnopédies as wedding music, as

music to accompany exercise (like Pilates or yoga), as soundscape collections, or even as

music for pets. These marketed functions seem to indicate to the amateur consumers that

the pieces were originally written or always used for the purpose indicated by the album

packaging.

For example, the most prominently marketed functions for the Gymnopédies,

conceived that way as early as the 1960s with Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s

compilation, are relaxation and sleep, especially for children. These uses became

immediately associated with the mention of the Gymnopédies, appearing in performance

and recording reviews even for compilations not marketed for those purposes. For

example, in a 1993 review of a performance that focused on works by Ligeti, Scott Duncan

141 Robert Commanday, “The Good Old Days of Paris,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1986. 59 of The Orange County Register writes, “As a fitting prelude to this emotional work, pianist

Cheng played three simple ‘Gymnopédies’ by Erik Satie – rock fans know the first from the

original ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ album. They were soothing lullabyes before Ligeti's

storm.”142 Here, Duncan indicates the pervasive and commercialized relaxation or sleep‐

time identity of the Gymnopédies, as well as the impact of the Blood, Sweat & Tears arrangement.

As in Duncan’s review, terms such as soothing, lullaby, bedtime, relaxation, and sleep became targeted marketing devices to attract potential consumers. And while they were first marketed this way in the 1960s, these types of compilations gained in popularity in the 1990s and beyond, partially perpetuated by certain interpretative elements. For example, in 1996, pianist Reinbert de Leeuw released a recording of the Gymnopédies at an unusually slow tempo, which became a common interpretation of the pieces in collections designed for sleeping:

Reinbert de Leeuw… made a strange and hypnotic recording of Satie piano pieces

some years ago for Philips. With its staggeringly slow tempos, its atmosphere of

time suspended, it became something of a cult item. Mr. de Leeuw returns to similar

repertory on an excellent new Philips CD (446 672‐2). Concentrating on the early

Satie, he plays ''Ogives,'' ''Sarabandes,'' the famous ''Gymnopédies'' and

''Gnossiennes.''143

Manipulating tempo for the purpose of successful sleep‐inducing compilations is described in detail by a promotional article for the Bedtime Beats album:

142 Scott Duncan, “Last Night/Trio Masters Daunting Ligeti Pieces,” The Orange County Register, February 26, 1993. 143 Alex Ross, “4 Pianists Focused on Extremes,” New York Times, August 29, 1996. 60

In creating Bedtime Beats, Cindy Bressler and Lisa Mercurio of Smash Arts selected

music of the same tempo of 60‐80 BPM. This first installment of Bedtime Beats

series comprises over 120 minutes of classical music that meets this criterion and

includes works by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi,

Puccini, and others. To make the CDs as soothing as possible, the music was

meticulously mastered to reduce variations in tempo and volume. People of all ages

can benefit from the package, provided they listen daily for at least two weeks at the

outset and begin listening to the CDs at least 15 minutes before bedtime.”144

These types of musical manipulation apparently worked on the public:

Their digital trickery worked. I tested the CDs out on my infant son. I put one on just

before naptime. Hardly a well‐devised scientific experiment, but the kid slept for a

glorious hour and a half while I wandered around the house to the strains of Erik

Satie’s Gymnopédie Number 1, feeling pleased with myself, slightly poetic and at

loose ends.145

Nevertheless, radically slow tempi piqued some listeners’ interest in the Gymnopédies.

Joshua Kosman indicates this response in his review of pianist Naida Cole’s performance:

“…as an extra treat after intermission, there was the first of Satie's "Gymnopédies," in a startlingly slow—and startlingly beautiful—rendition that seemed to stop time in its tracks.”146 For others, the association of the Gymnopédies with sleep became a part of its identity; as Marc Shulgold writes of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, “Shao opened the

144 Lellie Capwell, “Smash Arts and Rhino Entertainment Release Bedtime Beats (TM): The Secret to Sleep; First‐ Ever All‐Classical Music Package Based on Scientific Findings Demonstrating the Power of Soft Music as Sleep Remedy Due in Stores September 12,” PR Newswire, September 7, 2006. 145 Sarah Bardeen, “A Classical Soundtrack to the Land of Nod,” review of Bedtime Beats: The Secret to Sleep, National Public Radio, September 12, 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6061569. 146 Joshua Kosman, “Violinist Upstaged in Recital/Pianist Naida Cole the Bright Note in All‐French Program,” The San Francisco Chronicle, February 24, 2003. 61 evening with two of Satie's famed keyboard Gymnopédies, as arranged by Debussy. An odd way to open matters. Usually, you want your audience to sleep after the concert.”147

The function of the Gymnopédies was also expanded to include romantic situations.

This advertisement justifies the use of Satie and Debussy for such occasions:

For gentler lovemaking or romantic contemplation, the evocative piano music of

Debussy and Satie provides a tender counterpoint. Satie's "Gymnopédies," inspired

by Grecian vase paintings, and Debussy's "Arabesques" are elegant, cool and

melodically sensuous pieces, perfect for late weekend afternoons. Debussy was an

early proponent of the subtle eroticism found in Japanese ukiyo‐e prints. ”148

Another example of the transformation of the Gymnopédies from objective and modern to

warm and romantic can be seen in McLellan’s 1991 Washington Post review of clarinetist

Richard Stoltzman’s recording. McLellan writes that Stoltzman’s performance of the

Gymnopédies, as well as Debussy’s “The Girl with Flaxen Hair” and two of his Arabesques,

possessed the “singing voice in its inflections and phrasing” required for effectively

romantic instrumental music.149

The identity of the Gymnopédies expanded further in the 1990s; by this time, the pieces had a significant, century‐long history as popular and recognizable works, such that

Donald Vroonin labeled them an “old favorite” in his review for the American Record Guide, alongside works like Beethoven’s Für Elise, Brahms’s Waltz in A‐flat, Debussy’s Claire de

Lune, and Mozart’s Turkish Rondo. Other albums that classify the Gymnopédies in this accessible fashion (as one might categorize popular hits, or “oldies”) include Piano Greatest

Hits 3 (1990), Largo II: Piano Classics (1991), Best Loved Classics 11 (1991), Great Musical or

147 Marc Shulgold, “’Firebird’ Lifts Hall Skyward,” Rocky Mountain News, November 19, 1994. 148 Steven J. Law, “Music for Fur Rug and Fireside,” The Washington Post, August 19, 1988. 149 Joseph McLellan, “Classical Recordings; Music to Put Romance Into Your Valentine's Day,” The Washington Post, February 10, 1991. 62

Classical Melodies (1992), and Piano Classics: Popular Works for Solo Piano (1992), to name just a few.

These examples, which continue the freedom of transcription separate from Satie’s aesthetic identity that was largely started by the Blood, Sweat, and Tears arrangement, indicate that the commercialization of the Gymnopédies encouraged tremendous flexibility of interpretation among both arrangers and listeners. The debates during Satie’s lifetime and throughout the 1920s and 1930s questioned where, and in what context, the pieces should be performed (if at all), and asked whether Satie’s original piano pieces were finished or whether they should be performed only in Debussy’s orchestrated form, gave way to listeners from the 1960s onward identifying, interpreting, and approaching the

Gymnopédies freely, eliminating the need to justify choices and changes to the works. That the Gymnopédies were mainstreamed and commercialized by the late 1980s allowed and encouraged listeners to participate in purchasing re‐packaged interpretations, based on their choice of instrumentation, style interpretation or arrangement, and musical function.

Boundaries of Interpretation

In the 1980s, and especially the 1990s and 2000s, some listeners responded to this

free identification by questioning where the boundaries for experimentation reside. In

other words, how much can be changed before the piece is altogether different, or is lacking its essential elements? Dialogue regarding the acceptability of performance interpretation resurfaced. For example, Allen Hughes wrote disapprovingly of Giovanni De Chairo’s guitar arrangement:

Satie's works, especially those included here, are understandably appealing to

transcribers, but these guitar transcriptions cannot be recommended. Although the

63

performer made them himself, they do not flatter the instrument, and they do not do

justice to Satie either.150

In another example, one reviewer reveals displeasure for John Williams’s guitar

arrangement, noting that “the arrangement of Erik Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 3" quite spoils

the piece by inventing figurations that supply movement where the music implies a

hovering between movement and stasis.”151 Betsy Kline also denounced a pop arrangement

of the Gymnopédies, expressing her opinion that “the only attempt at originality—

superimposing Erik Satie's ‘Trois Gymnopédies’ on the mellow melody of the 1964 Gerry

and the Pacemakers' hit ‘Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying’ – is so superficial it's

embarrassing. Why bother when the originals sound fresher?”152

In a review of saxophonist Branford Marsalis’s CD release, the reviewer is more than

pleased with the new interpretation and arrangement of the Gymnopédies:

If this collection of jazz‐tinged "classical" works, in arrangements for solo

saxophone and orchestra, was as strong as the opening track, we'd have a winner.

Branford Marsalis starts by playing a lush and glowing soprano saxophone solo in

Eric Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 3"—making a part intended for oboe his own—and

Orpheus backs him with a spare, subtle touch.153

This is high praise within the context of the rest of this review, which included criticism of

these arrangements of Ravel’s “Pavane,” and describes Debussy’s “Golliwogg’s Cake‐Walk”

as “squishy” and “annoying.”154 Others remained skeptical, but generally accepting, of the

more distantly related styles and arrangements; for example, Valier Scher wrote that

150 Allen Hughes, “New Releases Highlight Music in the French Manner,” New York Times, May 23, 1982. 151 “John Williams the Guitarist; Sony Classical,” Boston Globe, November 5, 1998. 152 Betsy Kline, “Recording Review,” Pittsburgh Post­Gazette, December 11, 1994. 153 “MUSIC: Folk and Blues Recordings Add Juice to History Feed Your Machines: What You Need to Know About New Releases – and What's on the Web,” Atlanta Journal­Constitution, April 12, 2001. 154 Ibid. 64

“though Erik Satie's ‘Gymnopédie No. 1’ was a little delicate for the mariachi method, it received the same care that distinguished such vibrant fare as ‘Viva Veracruz’ and

‘Guadalajara.’”155

With the Gymnopédies repurposed and marketed for specific functions, and the

pieces detached from Satie as composer and the work’s original context and meaning, these

positive and negative reviews reveal that even the boundaries of the piece are blurred. In

other words, through their fragmented or extended use in arrangements, TV commercials,

or movies, and as works often only partially listened to while performing other activities

(sleep, exercise, wedding rituals) the piece as an entirety became an unknown, as listeners

familiar with only small portions of the work could not garner the meaning of the whole

work. For example, Florence Fisher of the Sarasota Herald­Tribune commented on a 2000

performance of the Gymnopédies in a concert hall that met a confused reaction from the

audience: “Erik Satie's ‘Gymnopédie’ No. 1, which followed, with its gently swaying rhythm

and inconclusive ending, escaped the audience—which failed to applaud it, worthy though it

was.”156 This review indicates that many listeners lack an understanding of the entire piece, which is so omnipresent in popular culture, as cohesive whole. Furthermore, in a twenty‐

first century culture of purchasing individual tracks as mp3 files and a variety of

commercial functions that use only a few measures of a single Gymnopédie, many listeners

know not the entire piece but merely a repeated fragment.

While many pieces of Western art music have reached a commodified mainstream

status, like Pachelbel’s Canon and Beethoven’s Für Elise, Satie’s Gymnopédies are an

interesting case due to their origin. Satie constructed the Gymnopédies to appeal to diverse

155 Valerie Scher, “Festival Pops 2001 Starts Out in Latin style,” The San Diego Union­Tribune, July 30, 2001. 156 Florence Fisher, “Bad Boy Kennedy Charms,” Sarasota Herald­Tribune, April 1, 2000. 65 audiences, giving the pieces both modernist and popular identities. These parallel identities

helped to perpetuate the works throughout the twentieth century through their present

status as nearly ubiquitous commercialized works. The modernist identity of the

Gymnopédies was preserved in the concert‐hall setting and piano recordings, while a

popular identity, which appealed to amateur audiences, led to commercialized compilation

sets designated with specific purposes (illustrating Satie’s furniture music concept). In

addition, experimental transcriptions of the Gymnopédies actually supplanted Satie’s

aesthetic authority, stretching the boundaries of the identity conception of the Gymnopédies,

and encouraging widespread interpretations of the pieces.

66

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Seigel, Jerrold. Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaires of Bourgeois Life, 1830­ 1930. New York, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986.

Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant­Garde in France 1885 to World War I. New York: Vintage Books, 1968.

Sonnedecker, Shirley and Donald. “The Unappreciated Erik Satie.” Music Journal 16, no. 1 (January 1958): 44, 97.

Templier, Pierre‐Daniel. Erik Satie. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969.

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Volta, Ornella. Satie Seen through His Letters. Translated by Michael Bullock. London: Marion Boyars, 1989.

Whiting, Steven Moore. Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

69

Appendix: Selected List of Gymnopédies Recordings, 1985‐2010

Year Album Title Performer Instrumentation Label 1985 Johannes Cernota Plays Erik Satie Johannes Cernota Piano JARO Richard Clayderman: Concerto Richard Clayderman/Royal Phil Piano and Orchestra Sony BMG Music Ent. 1986 Cernota Plays Erik Satie Johannes Cernota Piano unknown Romances for Saxophone Marsalis/Eng. Chamber Orch Saxophone/Orch Sony BMG Music Ent. 1987 Guitar Heartsongs Stevan Pasero Guitar 6th of 10 Ten String Spectacular Vincenzo Macaluso 10‐string Guitar Klavier Pops in Love Boston Pops Orchestra Orchestra Philips 1989 Satie: Trois Gymnopedies Anne Queffelec Piano Wea Corp 70 Richard Clayderman Concerto Richard Clayderman/Royal Phil Piano with Strings Sony 1990 Erik Satie: Works for Piano, Vol. 1 Aldo Ciccolini Piano Angel Records Romances for Saxophone Branford Marsalis Saxophone/Orchestra Sony Adagio Eng. Chamber Orch, Conn, Calderley Guitar/Orchestra Polygram Records Pleasure Songs Ransom Wilsom Flute and Piano Capitol A Touch of Class: Pop Classics Angel Romero Guitar Telarc Vaughan Williams etc. St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Telarc Pops in Love Boston Pops Orchestra Orchestra Philips Satie: 3 Gymnopedies Pascal Roge Piano Decca Satie: Jack in the Box Angela Brownridge Piano Capitol Fete Fancaise Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Polygram Records Piano Greatest Hits 3 Philippe Entremont Piano Sony The French Album Philadelphia Orchestra Orchestra Sony Humeresque Columbia Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Sony 1991 Strauss, Francaix, Satie London Symphony Orch, Delancie Orchestra RCA

Romance Vallecillo‐Gray, Stoltzman, Allen Clarinet, Harp, Piano RCA Largo II: Piano Classics Pascal Roge Piano Celestial Harmonies Best Loved Classics 11 Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Capitol Carlos Barbosa‐Lima: Impressions Carlos Barbosa‐Lima Guitar Concord Records Habanera: John Harle John Harle and John Lenehan Saxophone and Piano Hannibal 1992 Satie: Piano Works Daniel Varsano Piano Sony Summertime Simon Wynberg and John Anderson Oboe/Guitar Chandos Greatest Musical/Classical Mel. National Philharmonic Choir Orchestra RCA Piano Classics: Popular Works John O'Conor Piano Telarc Satie: Piano Music Frank Glazer Piano Vox (Classical) Largo II ‐ A Special 2 1/2 Hour Coll. Klara Kormendi Piano Celestial Harmonies A Musical Voyage Atlantic Brass Quintet Brass Quintet Summit (Classical) 71 Piano Collection Aldo Ciccolini Piano Angel Records Erik Satie Anne Queffelec Piano Virgin Records Us French Piano Music Kun Woo Paik Piano Virgin Records Us Inspirations Insolites Monte Carlo Conseratory Orchestra Orchestra EMI More Stress Busters National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Satie: Piano Works Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics 1993 Woody Allen Classics Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra Sony 3 Gymnopedies etc Yitkin Seow Piano Hyperion UK Parents The Lullaby Album Toulouse Orchestra Orchestra Angel Records Clear Out of Touch With Time Kuskin, Kessler, Bender Flute, Oboe, Guitar Boston Skyline Marquis Sampler Robert Aitken and Erica Goodman Flute and Harp Marquis Music Erik Satie by Michel Legrand Michel Legrand Piano Erato Pieces for Piano Yuji Takahashi Piano Denon Records Piano Works: Satie Yuji Takahashi Piano Denon Records Murray Khouri and Rosemary Clarinet Bon Bons Barnes Clarinet and Piano Continuum

Encores You Love Halle Orchestra Orchestra Classics for Pleasur Artistry of Christopher Parkening Christopher Parkening Guitar EMI Classics Sugo Collection 1 Stevan Pasero Guitar Sugo Records Classical Bouquet Stevan Pasero Guitar Sugo Records Monte Carlo Philharmonic Famous Romances & Adagios Orchestra Orchestra Elektra/Wea Satie Toulouse Orchestra Orchestra Capitol Satie: Piano Works Klára Körmendi Piano Naxos Cinematic Piano Michael Chertock Piano Telarc Romantic French Music Gerald Garcia/CSSR State Phil. Orchestra and guitar Naxos Encores 2 Julius Drake and Emma Johnson Clarinet and Piano Asv Living Era Piano Music: Erik Satie Peter Dickinson Piano Conifer

72 Cinema Classics 8 Klara Kormendi Piano Naxos E. Satie Roland Pontinen Piano Bis Piano Classics (Box Set) unknown Piano Madacy Records Pianoforte, Opus 1 Christopher Peacock Piano Pure & Simple 25 TV Commerical Classics Pro Arte Guitar Trio Guitar Asv Living Era Lollipops Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra Polygram Records The Romantic Flute Robert Aitken and Erica Goodman Flute and Harp Marquis Classics Remembered Charles Schlueter, Roberto Diaz Flute and Piano North Star Sounds of Seine Glorian Duo, Milanovich, Lucas Flute and Harp Delos Records Victoria: Musical Moments, Garden Toulouse Orchestra Orchestra Angel Records Saxophone Serenade J. Michael Leonard and Becker Saxophone and piano Asv Living Era Conducts Ravel & Debussy Boston Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Pearl Sensual Classics 2 Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orch Orchestra Elektra/Wea Night Music 7 CSR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Naxos Night Music 9 Czecho‐Slovak Radio Sym. Orch Orchestra Naxos Night Music 6‐10 CSR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Naxos

The Flute Album Michael Parloff and Jones Flute and Piano Essay 1995 G'Night Wolfgang Ric Louchard Piano Music Little People Fur Elise: Romantic Piano Music Klára Körmendi Piano Naxos Greatest Hits: Romance Riri Shimada Piano Sony World's Most Beautiful Melodies London Promenade Orchestra Orchestra Sony Special Project Czecho‐Slovak Radio Symphony The Romantic Approach, Vol 2 Orch Orchestra Celestial Harmonies Yoshiko Okada: A French Recital Yoshiko Okada Piano Ongaku Records After Dinner Relaxation Pro Arte Guitar Trio Guitar ASV Living Era Piano Favorites Dame Moura Lympany Piano EMI Classics Classics for Lovers Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Favourite Collection Angela Brownridge Piano Classics for Pleasur

73 Everlasting Tranquility Halle Orchestra Orchestra Classics for Pleasur Sounds of Remembered Dreams Morelli, Jolles, Lucarelli Oboe/Bassoon/Harp Vox (Classical) Satie: with Ocean Sounds Chacra Artists Added ocean sounds Chacra Records Piano Works VI Bojan Gorisek Piano Audio Legends Greatest Hits: Satie Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records The Most Beautiful Mel for Harp Lunaire Ensemble with Shinozaki Orchestra/Harp Denon Records Piano Works: Satie Mauro Masala Piano Nuova Era Dolby Surround Wendy Herner Lucas Harp Delos Records The Essential Hyperion New London Orchestra Orchestra Hyperion UK 1996 Erik Satie Reinbert de Leeuw Piano Philips After the Rain…Sounds of Satie Pascal Rogé Piano Decca Night Tracks Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orch Orchestra Teldec Moonlight: Classics for a New Age Peter Dickinson Piano RCA Classical Erotica 2 Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Rising Star The Romantic Harp Sunita Staneslow Harp unknown Complete Piano Music Olof Hojer Piano Swedish Society

Beethoven: Fur Elise, etc John Ogdon Piano Carlton/IMP Classics French Bonbons Grimethorpe Colliery Band Brass Chandos Reverie: Romantic Music Quiet Stevenson and Rosen Cello and Piano John Marks Records Family Circle Music National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Family Circle Weekday Soothers National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Best Ever Classics Sampler National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Reveries Saxophone & Organ V J.P. Rorive and A. Lamproye Saxophone and Organ Pavane Famous Piano Music Klara Kormendi Piano Naxos Piano French Greatest Hits Riri Shimada Piano Sony The Best Classical Album…Ever! Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Integrale De La Musique Jean‐Joel Barbier Piano Accord Diamond Settings: Hommage Satie Seattle Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Koch Schwann 74 Zodiac/Scorpio Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orch Orchestra Angel Records Decaf Classics National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Day at the Beach Kerrilyn Renshaw Piano with Waves Sugo Records Piano Favorites Per Fomsgaard Piano Danica Records 1997 …such stuff as Dreams Carol Rosenberger Piano Delos Records 25 Romantic Moods Frank Glazer Piano Vox (Classical) Baby Sleep Thomas Hampson Piano Erato Air ‐ Recorder and Guitar Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal Recorder and Guitar RCA French Music for Harp Marcus Klinko Harp Angel Records Harp Recital Mariko Anraku Harp EMI Masterpiece Collection: Romance Joao Paulo Santos Piano Unison Records Liebert: Leaning Into The Night Ottmar Liebert Guitar/Strings Sony Piano Interludes Raymond Spasovski Piano Compendia Coffeehouse Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Classics for Lovers Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records

Weekend Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Classical Guitar 3 Matteo Campanella Guitar Public Music Emi Centennial Edition 7 Aldo Ciccolini Piano Angel Records Best Loved Classics 11 Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Angel Records Best Loved Piano Classics 2 Dame Moura Lympany Piano Angel Records Mother Goose Cleveland Orchestra Orchestra Sony Dukas etc. Orchestre National de France Orchestra EMI Romantic Melodies of the Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Piano Works Mari Tsuda Piano Jvc/Xrcd Pavane etc Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon Romantic Harp II Sewell, Silverman, Staneslow Harp unknown Piano for Dummies Aldo Ciccolini Piano Angel Records 75 The Essential Classics Collection Daniel Varsano Piano Sony 1998 Satie: Gymnopédies Gnossiennes Jacques Loussier Trio Piano, bass, drums Telarc Dance of the Blessed Spirits Nora Shulman and Judy Loman Flute and Harp Naxos Duets for Mandolin and Guitar Butch Bladassari Guitar and Mandolin Soundart Recordings Piano Works Yuji Takahashi Piano Denon Records Satie Piano Music Peter Lawson Piano Classics of Pleasur Classical Lullabies Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Discover the Classics, Vol. 2 unknown Orchestra Naxos The Guitarist John Williams John Williams Guitar, Small Orchestra Sony Mod ‐ Afw Line Classical Passion 1 Richard Clayderman Piano with orchestra Polygram Records Satie Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Piano Intersound Records Satie Compositeur de Musique Teodoro Anzellotti Accordian Winter & Winter 5 Plain: Collage Oren Fader Guitar Psycho Acoustical Relaxing with the Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records The Complete Wedding Album Michael Chertock Piano Telarc

Harp & Soul Richard Harvey and Georgia Kelly Harp and Saxophone Seventh Wave Satie: The Early Piano Works Reinbert de Leeuw Piano Philips Quietude Rolf Lindblom Piano Proprius Records Piano Greatest Hits Raymond Spasovski Piano Compendia The Most Relaxing Classical…Ever! Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Angel Records Satie: Piano Works Gerhard Erber Piano Berlin Classics The Romantic Hours National Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra RCA Copeland: The Victor Recordings George Copeland Piano Pearl Lullabies For Lovers Detroit Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Philips Sensual Classics George Mann Piano Intersound Records Classical Relaxation: Piano Kerrilyn Renshaw Piano with waves Soundecor Music Klezmer Nutcracker Shirim Klezmer Orchestra Klezmer ensemble Newport Classic 76 1999 Satie: Orchestral Works Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique Orchestra Naxos Meditation: The Greatest Hits Raymond Spasovski Piano Compendia The Ultimate Recorder Collection Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal Recorder and guitar RCA Transcripts. Chromatic Harmonic Harmonica and Piano Harmonica and Piano Agora Illuminations Merv and Gervase de Peyer Clarinet, Strings, Piano Radiant Mastery French Impressions Pascal Rogé Piano Decca The Best of Piano Greats unknown Piano Masterpiece Records Sony: Great Perf. 1903‐1998 John Williams Guitar Sony Classical Surroundings Vol. 5 Harp Elizabeth Murphy, Nella Rigel Harp and Flute Pamplin Music Gymnopédie Tommy Smith and McLachlan Saxophone/Piano Linn Records 3 Gymnopedies Chantal de Buchy Piano Ild Classics Classics for a Rainy Day unknown Piano Intersound Records Unforgettable Classics: Piano Aldo Ciccolini Piano Classics for Pleasur Piano: Greatest Hits Raymond Spasovski Piano Compendia Weekend Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Compendia

Berceuse: Music of Calm, Peace Czecho‐Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Naxos The Romantic Approach (Box Set) Czecho‐Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Celestial Harmonies Music for Reading Raymond Spasovski Piano Classical Heritage French Orchestral Favorites Orchestre National de France Orchestra EMI Classics Liszt‐Wagner Philadelphia Orchestra Orchestra Magic Master An A to Z Guide to Classical Music Reinbert de Leeuw Piano Philips Carillon Music Jacques Maassen Chimes Eramus Records Bolero Jacques Loussier Trio Piano, Bass, Drums Telarc The Most Relaxing Classical…Ever! Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra EMI Classics Unforgettable Classics: Ads Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Classics for Pleasur Unforgettable Classics: Relaxation Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Classics for Pleasur Unforgettable Classics: Relax Piano Angela Brownridge Piano Classics for Pleasur 77 Desire: Music for Romance Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Dreams of Love Pascal Roge Piano Decca Adagio: Classical Music for Yoga Peter Davison Flute and piano Healing Arts Publishing 2000 Satie Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI France The Best of Erik Satie Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique Piano, Orchestra Naxos Passport to Serenity Liona Boyd Classical Guitar Moston Records Satie for Relaxation Peter Dickinson Piano RCA Classical Forest: Mother Nature London Symphony Orchestra Piano with Bird Sounds Echo Bridge Home Ent. Adagios for After Hours Academy of St. Martin‐in‐the‐Fields Orchestra Philips Romantic Adagios Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca Piano Works Complete Jean‐Pierre Armengaud Piano Harmonia Mundi USA Most Unforgettable French Classics Peter Lawson Piano Classics for Pleasur Sentimental English Horn Kevin Olson, Laurie Van Brunt Eng. horn, piano, nature Madacy Guitar Favourites Gerald Garcia/CSSR State Phil Guitar and Orchestra Amadis Badinerie Jean‐Claude Gerard Flute and piano Signum

Musique de Nuit Lajos Lencses and Herbert Oboe and Harp Audite Helge Antoni: Piano Experience Helge Antoni Piano Qualiton Imported Bedtime Songs: Cradle Songs unknown Guitar Direct Source Label Bedtime Songs For Babies unknown Guitar Direct Source Label Guitar and Piano Masterpieces Northstar Musicians Guitar Direct Source Label Grand Piano & Nature (Box Set) Northstar Musicians Piano/Seagalls/Waves Direct Source Label Wave: Grand Piano and Nature Northstar Musicians Piano/Seagalls/Waves Direct Source Label Masterpiece Recital Francisco Tarrega Guitar Direct Source Label Classical Guitar: Variations Francisco Tarrega Guitar Direct Source Label Kun Woo Paik Kun Woo Paik Piano Virgin Classics Claire De Lune Kun Woo Paik Piano EMI Classics Imports Lifestyle Classics: Candlelight Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records 78 Lifestyle Classics: Classics Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records The Essential Emma Johnson Emma Johnson and Julius Drake Clarinet and Piano Asv Living Era Classical music for you & your dog Wendy Herner Lucas Harp Delos Records Music for Dining Raymond Spasovski Piano Intersound Records Greatest Piano Collection Ronan O'Hora Piano Intersound Records Gentle Classics unknown Harp St. Clair Records Best of Piano Music Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Adagio: Classical Music for Yoga Peter Davison Flute and Piano Gaiam Baby's First Classics, Vol. 2 unknown Harp St. Clair Entertainment Best of the Millennium: Top 40 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Utv Records Harmony Collection Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Virgin Records US Classic Kennedy English Chamber Orch/Kennedy Violin with Orchestra EMI Classics Satie: Popular Piano Works Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Prelude to a Kiss ‐ Romantic Pascal Roge Piano Rhino/Wea Classical Peace London Symphony Orchestra Piano Platinum Disc

Classical Guitar, Vol. 3 Tarrega and Campanella Guitar x2 Platinum Disc Lieder und Geschichten Froboess, Beringer & Knabenchor Saxophone and Voice Rondeau Production Sketches of Satie Steve and John Hackett Flute and Guitar Camino Records 2001 Quietude Yolanda Kondonassis Harp Telarc Enchantment Charlotte Church Voice, Guitar, Violin Sony For a Rainy Day Pascal Rogé Piano Decca French Music for Harp and Strings Ellen Sejersted Boedtker Harp Naxos Eroica Classical Encanto por los Clasicos Glenn H. Strauss Guitar Recordings Prelude CSSR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Naxos Sonata CSSR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Naxos Dream World Kirsten Agresta Harp High Strung Productions

79 Ultimate Relaxation Album Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca Piano Works Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Imports Cadenza Alain Lefevre Piano Musica Viva The Canadian Brass/Encore Canadian Brass Brass with Percussion Musica Viva Music for Romance Pro Arte Guitar Trio Guitar Griffin (Qualiton) Meditation: Music for Relaxation Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca Traumerei: Romantic Piano Music Pascal Rogé Piano Decca Bubble Bath Classics Apollonia Symphony Guitar/Piano/Waves Direct Source Label Blue Solitude Peter Schindler Piano Qualiton Imported 25 Greatest Classics unknown Harp St. Clair Entertainment Music for Babies (And Their Moms) John Novacek Piano Garden City Music Romantic Wedding Music (Harp) Lorraine Alberts Harp The Orchard French Piano Music Caio Pagana Piano Soundset Recordings Vocalise Haruki Mino and Joe Sakimoto Harmonica and harp Camerata Satie: Works for solo piano Anne Queffélec Piano Virgin Classics The Most Relaxing Piano…Ever! Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics

A French Collection Martyn Hill Piano Meridian Naida Cole Naida Cole Piano Decca Ave Maria Joe Sakimoto Harmonica and harp Camerata Duo Bergerac: Elegie Duo Bergerac Two Guitars Thorofon Musique Francaise Alfred Genovese and Peter Serkin Oboe and Piano Boston Records 2002 The Magic of Satie Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca Reveries Minnesota Orchestra Orchestra Reference Records A Bride's Guide to Wedding Music Nora Shulman Harp and Flute Naxos #1 Piano Album Pascal Roge Piano Decca Montana Skies Jennifer and Jonathan Adams cello and guitar Sonic Grapefruit My Ballerina Album Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon Baby Needs Beauty Moscow Chamber Orchestra Harp Delos Records 80 Satie Daniel Varsano Piano Sony Moonlight Moods Frank Glazer Piano Vox (Classical) Serenity Anne Queffélec Piano EMI Classics Imports Sketches of Satie Steve and John Hackett Flute and Guitar Inside Out U.S. Satie Jean Joel Barbier Piano Ades Records Satie Michel Legrand Piano Erato/Warner Classics Satie Michel Legrand Piano Les Incontournables Les Introuvables Aldo Ciccolini Piano Angel Records Satie: Piano Music Peter Lawson Piano Class. For Pleas. US Potpourri Jennifer and Jonathan Adams cello and guitar Eroica Classical Classical Chillout Angela Brownridge Piano EMI Classics Classical Chill Pro Arte Guitar Trio Guitar trio Metro Music What Does Your World Sound Like Riri Shimada Piano Sony Satie: Piano Works Riri Shimada Piano Sony Girl With the Flaxen Hair Sarah Beth Hanson and Jan Grimes Flute and Piano Centaur

Music for a Perfect Day: Wedding Yolanda Kondonassis Harp Telarc Classical Music to Relax To unknown Orchestra Naxos Discover Your Genius Nora Shulman and Judy Loman Flute and Harp Spring Hill Piano Bajo Canilejas unknown Piano Spj Music Satie: L'Oeuvre Pour Piano Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Keyboard Classics The Swingle Singers All Singers The Swingle Singers 2003 Guitare Passion Pierre Laniau Guitar EMI Classics France Musique & Art Nouveau: Christina Ariagno Christina Ariagno Piano Arts Music KDFC Islands of Sanity, Vol. 2 unknown Piano Naxos Heavenly Adagios Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca Piano Passion Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics France

81 Satie: Piano Works (Box Set) Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Pure Classics Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca Learning Your Classical Music unknown Guitar/Harp St. Clair Records Erik Satie: Piano Works Reinbert de Leeuw Piano Deutsche Grammophon Very Best of Classical: Relaxation Apollonia Symphony Orchestra Guitar and waves Direct Source Label Dinner Party Apollonia Symphony Orchestra Guitar Direct Source Label The Very Best of Relaxing Classics Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Umvd Labels Barbirolli Conducts Concertgebouw Orchestra Orchestra Testament UK The #1 Adagios Album Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Umvd Labels Satie: The Complete Solo Piano Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca Satie: Piano Works Michel Legrand Piano Erato Simply the Best Classical Passion Michel Legrand Piano Warner Classics Midnight Adagios Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca The Most Relaxing Classical Music Alexander Borodin Piano Denon Records Satie: Piano Music Daniel Varsano Piano Sony 25 Ultimate Classics Frank Glazer Piano Vox (Classical)

Oboe Sensual Keiko Andres Oboe and guitar Madacy Records Corno del Alma Kevin R. Olson Eng. Horn, piano, wave Madacy Records Nigel Kennedy's Greatest Hits Kennedy & English Chamber Orch Violin with orchestra EMI Classics Piano Dreams Kun Woo Paik Piano EMI Classics Jeux a Deux Robert Aitken and Erica Goodman Flute and Harp Marquis Music The Most Relaxing Classical Music Yuji Takahashi Piano Slg, Llc Satie Patrick Cohen Piano Glossa Looking for the Light George Cables Jazz combo Musefx Records Bride's Guide to Classical Wedding Music Barrymoore Chamber Orchestra Guitar Clifton Bishop Records 2004 For Yoga Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca Chill with Satie Czecho‐Slovak Radio State Phil Orch with Guitar, Piano Naxos

82 Beau Soir Pahud and Anraku Flute and Harp EMI Classics Piano: Greatest Hits Pascal Roge Piano Decca Yitkin Seow Plays Erik Satie Yitkin Seow Piano Hyperion UK Ravel & Satie: Piano Works Anne Queffélec Piano EMI Classics Piano Classics Attila Fias Piano/bird and wind Solitudes James Galway: Wings of Song London Symphony Orch/Galway Flute with orchestra Deutsche Grammophon Defining Moments in Recordings Aldo Ciccolini Piano EMI Classics Lullaby Classics Simon Wynberg and John Anderson Oboe and guitar Chandos Peaceful Classics; Guitar Classics unknown Guitar St. Clair Records Humoresque: Violin Encores Issac Stern Violin with orchestra Sony Floating World Riley Lee and Marshall McGuire Bambo Flute and Harp New World Music Radiance 2: Tranquil Impressions unknown Piano Denon Records Classics on TV Benedikt Koehlen? Piano Denon Records Music for Harp Mariko Anraku Harp EMI Classics Ultimate Relaxing Classical Angela Brownridge Piano EMI Classics Classics for Relaxation Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Madacy Records

Tranquil Impressions Yuji Takahashi? Piano Denon Records Relaxing Cinema Classics Angela Brownridge Piano EMI Import Shapes Shapes Guitar/Orch Decca Erik Satie Piano Visions Linda Burman‐Hall Piano MSR Classics The Best of Ravel and His Time Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Golden Classics Zen Garden: Inspiring Creation unknown Piano with Birds Compendia Love Moods: The Most Romantic Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon Romantic Strings Romantic Strings Orchestra Oboe and Orchestra Reader's Digest 2005 Satie: Gnossiennes; Gymnopédies Anne Queffélec Piano Virgin Classics Breathe: The Relaxing Piano Jacques Loussier Trio Piano, bass, drums Telarc Total Classics Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca Be Mine: The Ultimate Romance Montreal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Decca 83 The Ultimate Guitar Collection John Williams Guitar Sony Budget Amazing Babies/Brilliant The Hit Crew Piano Turn Up the Music The Most Relaxing Harp Album Mariko Anraku and Markus Klinko Harp Angel Records The Most Relaxing Flute Music Pahud, Anraku, Klinko, Fromanger Flute and Harp Angel Records Piano Favourites Kun Woo Paik Piano Virgin Classics Peter Fletcher Plays Erik Satie Peter Fletcher Guitar Centaur The Classical Album 2005 Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca Comfort Kirkpatrick, Davison, Hiltzik, Kent Piano and Flute Gaiam 50 Most Loved Piano Classics unknown not provided with set Piano Capitol Bizet, Grieg St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Telarc Music to Renew Your Soul unknown Piano Denon Records Weekend Favorities Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon The Most Relaxing Classical Music Anne Queffélec Piano EMI Movie Classics: The Ultimate Ronan O'Hora Piano Rajon Enchantment: 40 Peaceful Classics Matthew Freeman Piano Crimson Productions

Spa Music Therapy (Box Set) unknown Guitar/waves Direct Source Label La Belle France St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Telarc Global Classical Relaxation Exper. Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Orchestra Angel Works UK Romantic Classics unknown Piano Asv Living Era The Very Best of Classical Music Apollonia Symphony Orchestra Guitar/waves Direct Source Label Complete Classical Collection St. Cecelia Symphony Orchestra Guitar Direct Source Label Baby Box (Box Set) unknown Guitar Direct Source Label Baby's Classical Lullaby Box unknown Guitar Direct Source Label 25 Mellow Piano Favorities Frank Glazer Piano Vox (Classical) Sleepy Time Baby unknown Guitar Direct Source Label Essential Piano: The Ultimate Pascal Roge Piano Decca Total Classics Jean‐Yves Thibaudet Piano Decca 84 The Best of Classics Royal Phil. Orch/Clayderman Orchestra with Piano Brilliant Classics Unforgettable Evenings Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Piano Compendia Nirvana Herbie Mann & The Bill Evans Trio Piano, bass, drums Atlantic Recording Corp. 2006 Satie: 3 Gymnopédies Pascal Rogé (remastered), 1990 Piano Decca All the Sax You've Ever Dreamed West Coast Saxophone Quartet Saxophone Quartet Cambria Records Erik Satie: 3 Gymnopedies Jan Kaspersen Piano Scandinavian Classic Maestro Celebre: Stokowski Philadelphia Orchestra Orchestra History Perfect Romance Nora Shulman Flute and Harp Naxos Believe Emile Pandolfi Piano MagicMusic Prod. Bedtime Beats unknown Orchestra Rhino Entertainment Breathe: The Relaxing Harp Yolanda Kondonassis Harp Telarc International Relaxing Classics, Vol. 1 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra The Reader's Digest Ass. The Troubadour's Table Peter Pupping Guitar GuitarSounds 2007 Gymnopedies Jean‐Joel Barbier Piano Accord Satie: Gymnopedies Stephanie McCallum Piano ABC Classics

The Art of Johnny Cowell Toronto Symphony Orch/Cowell Orch/Trumpet Doremi Records Of Love and Music Francine Kay Piano Analekta Satie/Ravel Francine Kay Piano Analekta West Coast Serenade Brad Prevedoros Guitar Pacific Music Canada The Ultimate Most Relaxing Yuji Takahashi Piano Slg, Llc Reader's Digest Music unknown Orchestra The Reader's Digest Ass. Relaxation of Piano Music Sakura Yanase Piano MUSICANOVA 2008 Erik Satie Claire Chevallier Piano Zig Zag Territories Gymnopedies Hakon Ausbo Piano unknown Chilled Classics Performed Paul Brooks Piano K‐Tel UK Gymnopedies Anne Queffelec Piano Virgin France Mellow Jazz Café Michael Silverman Piano Autumn Hill Records 85 The 50 Most Essential Pieces Frank Glazer Piano X5 Music Group Pure Chillout Gold Miami DJ Collective Piano/Vocal EML Man on Wire (Soundtrack) Pascal Roge Piano Decca Music Group Ltd. Most Essential Classical for Baby Frank Glazer Piano X5 Music Group 50 Hits: Classical Favorites Marylene Dosse Piano Madacy Special Products Countdown Media 100 His: Greatest Classical Frank Glazer Piano BmbH The Most Relaxing Collection unknown Guitar Big Eye Music 2009 Satie Anne Queffelec Piano Virgin Classics Poulenc Plays Poulenc & Satie Francis Poulenc Piano Sony Classical French Festival CSSR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Naxos A Gift of Piano Raymond Spasovski Piano CreateSpace Jazz for a Rainy Day Michael Silverman Piano Autumn Hill Records Classical Chillout Volume 1 unknown Piano AP Music Relaxing Jazz for Quiet Moments Michael Silverman Piano Real Jazz/Autumn Hill The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Finghin Collins Piano X5 Music Group

Music for Meditation and Yoga Frank Glazer Piano X5 Music Group 111 Classical Masterpieces Frank Glazer Piano Menuetto Classics Essential Classical Relaxation unknown Guitar Big Eye Music Classical, Baroque, Spanish Guitar unknown Guitar Classical Guitar Music Erik Satie Katia and Marielle Labeque Piano KML Jambossa Stevan Pasero Guitar SOLEA The Tranquility of Classical Music David Duenas Piano Splendor Media LLC Tender Lullabies: Soothing Classic Phyllis Plotkin? Piano BeFit‐Mom Satie: Avant‐dernieres pensees Alexandre Tharaud Piano harmonia mundi Radio Relaxing Music unknown Piano/cymbals Winter Hill Records Twilight Piano Moods Michel Simone Piano Lightsource Music Countdown Media

86 Satie: The Essential Piano Works Frank Glazer Piano GmbH 2010 Edward Cullen Eclipse EP unknown Piano Seiko Recordings The Best Spanish Guitar Music Francisco Tores Guitar Hambra Modern Lifestyle Jazz Relaxation for Massage, Yoga Michael Silverman Piano Records Jazz 101: Piano Jazz Michael Silverman Piano Autumn Hill Records Music for Babies unknown Piano Big Eye Music SPA & Nature unknown Piano Equilibrium Music for Meditation and Yoga unknown Piano Aqua Purha The 100 Most Essential Pieces Finghin Collins Piano X5 Music Group Jazz on a Summer's Day: Relaxing Michael Silverman Jazz Piano Trio Piano Autumn Hill Records 101 Songs to Help you Relax unknown Orch/Nature Relax Me 111 Classical Masterpieces Movies Marylene Dosse Piano Menuetto Classics Classical Music for Babies Bright Baby Classical Ensemble Piano Winter Hill Records