ERIK SATIE French Composer (1866-1925) Erik Satie free midi download

ERIK ALFRED LESLIE SATIE
17^th May 1866 --- 1^st July 1925

Erik Alfred Leslie Satie (born 1866, Honfleur, Calvados, France--died 1925, Paris), French composer whose spare, unconventional
often witty style exerted a major influence on 20th-century music, particularly in France.

Satie studied at the Paris Conservatoire, dropped out, and later worked as a café pianist. About 1890 he became associated with
the Rosicrucian movement and wrote over several works under its influence, notably the Messe des pauvres (Mass of the Poor
composed in 1895). In 1893, when he was 27, Satie had a stormy affair with the painter Suzanne Valadon. From 1898 he lived
alone in Arcueil, a Paris suburb, cultivating an eccentric mode of life and permitting no one to enter his apartment. He studied at
the Schola Cantorum under Vincent d'Indy and Albert Roussel for three years. About 1917 the group of young composers known
as "Les Six" adopted him as their patron saint. Later the School of Arcueil, a group including Darius Milhaud, Henri Sauguet, and
Roger Désormiere, was formed in his honour.

Satie's music represents the first real definite break with 19th century French Romanticism, and even stands in opposition to
Impressionism. Being closely allied to the Dada and Surrealist movements in art, it refuses to become involved with grandiose
sentiment or transcendent significance, disStevenards traditional forms and tonal structures, and characteristically takes the
form of parody, with flippant a very titles, such as Trois morceaux en forme de poire (Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear) and
Embryons Desséchés (Desiccated Embryos), and had directions to the player that mock those of the Impressionists, "with much
illness" or "light as an egg".

Satie's flippancy and eccentricity, an intimate part of his musical aesthetic, epitomized the avant-garde ideal of a fusion of art
and life into an often startling but unified personality. He sought to strip pretentiousness and sentimentality from music and
thereby reveal an austere essence. This desire is reflected in piano pieces such as Trois Gnossiennes (1890), notated without
bar lines or key signatures. Other early piano pieces, such as Trois Sarabandes (1887) and Trois Gymnopédies (1888), use then
novel chords that reveal him as a pioneer in harmony. His ballet Parade (1917, choreographed by Léonide Massine, scenario by
Jean Cocteau, stage design and costumes by Pablo Picasso) was scored for typewriters, sirens, airplane propellers, ticker tape
and a lottery wheel and anticipated the use of jazz materials by Igor Stravinsky and others. The word Surrealism was used for
the first time in Guillaume Apollinaire's program notes for Parade. Satie's masterpiece, Socrate (1918), for four sopranos and
chamber orchestra, is based on the dialogues of Plato. His last, completely serious piano works are the five Nocturnes (1919).
Satie's ballet Relâche (1924) contains a Surrealistic film sequence by René Clair, the film score Entr'acte, or Cinéma, serves as an
example of his ideal background, or "furniture," music.

Satie was dismissed as a charlatan by musicians who misunderstood his irreverence and wit. They also deplored the nonmusical
influences in his life during his last 10 years his best friends were painters, many of whom he had met while a café pianist.
Satie was nonetheless deeply admired by composers of the rank of Darius Milhaud, Maurice Ravel, and, in particular, Claude
Debussy of whom he was an intimate friend for close to 30 years. His influence on Impressionism, although he mocked it, and on
the later school of Neoclassicism was profound.
Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated on 2021
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thanks to Philip DeWalt for the music below.
New (3193)"Veritables Preludes Flasques, pour un chien". Sequenced by Philip DeWalt.

(947)"La Diva de l'Empire (1919)". Sequenced by Philip DeWalt
Thanks to Niclas Fogwall for the music below.
New (3192)"Allegro, 1884". Sequenced by Niclas Fogwall.

New (3191)"Balancoir from, Sports et Divertisse, 1914". Sequenced by Niclas Fogwall.

New (3190)"Modere No.1". Sequenced by Niclas Fogwall.

(948)"Danse de travers No.1,(1897)". Sequenced by Niclas Fogwall
(944)"Gnossienne No.5,(1889)". Sequenced by Niclas Fogwall
Thanks to B.S. Lengton for the music below. Email (mb.lengton@12move.nl)
(2680)"Gnossiènne No.1". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2681)"Gnossiènne No.2". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2682)"Gnossiènne No.3". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2683)"Gnossiènne No.4". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2684)"Gnossiènne No.5". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2685)"Gnossiènne No.6". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2615)"Cinq grimaces pour le songe d'une D'été, No.1, Préambule". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2616)"Cinq grimaces pour le songe d'une D'été, No.2, Coquecigrue". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2617)"Cinq grimaces pour le songe d'une D'été, No.3, Chasse". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2618)"Cinq grimaces pour le songe d'une D'été, No.4, Fanfaronnade". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

(2619)"Cinq grimaces pour le songe d'une D'été, No.5, Pour sortir". Sequenced by B.S. Lengton.

Thanks to Geoff Retallick for the music below. Email (g.retallick@btinternet.com")
(2652)"My Intro and Ending to Gymnopedie in Real Time". Sequenced by Geoff Retallick
(1746)"Ogive No.1". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1747)"Ogive No.2". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1748)"Ogive No.3". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1749)"Ogive No.4". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1750)"Sarabande No.1". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1751)"Sarabande No.2". Sequenced by David Cooke
(1752)"Sarabande No.3". Sequenced by David Cooke
(943)"Le Piccadilly (1904)". Sequenced by John Cowles
(632)"Gnossienne No2". Sequenced by Mats Asplund
(473)"Gymnopedie No.1". Sequenced by Mats Asplund
New (3194)"Kimiga". Sequencer unknown.

(945)"Gymnopedie No.2". Sequencer unknown.
(946)"Gymnopedie No.3". Sequencer unknown.

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