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Early 20th century was a time when rebellion was in the air, and the person who stirred the pot quite a bit was Erik Satie (Erik with a k, as he would insist on signing his name instead of the common/bourgeois Eric with a c). At a time when big dramatic scores still reigned supreme, Satie broke into the music scene with weird little tunes, miniatures for piano, defying musical conventions of the time. He quickly became a favorite with the bohemian scene and inspired many other innovators in music, such as Debussy, the father of musical impressionism, Stravinsky and later in the 20th century, American 'experimentalists' such as John Cage and 'minimalists' such as Philip Glass. When you listen to Satie's work, be on the lookout for repetition and loops, broken harmonies, elements of jazz and ragtime. Think for a second of how much of his works' DNA floats inside the music we listen to every day.
Personal favorites - Gymnopedie #1 and Gnossienne #1. The story here is that one day as I was listening to Gymnopedie #1 I decided that within the next 6 months I would be able to play it on the piano (having played the piano for about a year when I was maybe 5 years old). I bought an electronic piano, found a teacher and 5 months later I was performing the Gymnopedie and the Gnossienne in front of an audience of 4-10 year old kids and their parents at the Greenwich community art center. No corporate presentation or meeting had ever made me as nervous as going out to play in front of a bunch of kids. Since then I moved on to playing the guitar but this remains a nice story and i can still swing some passages from these works if a piano is nearby.
Finally, the fact that completely blew my mind just now. I am going to quote straight from wikipedia:
Janet Jackson released the single "Someone to Call My Lover" in 2001 from her seventh studio album, All for You. The chorus of the song includes a loop of Gymnopédie No. 1 played in 4/4 time instead of the original 3/4. Jackson had loved the Gymnopédie since childhood and wanted to incorporate its theme into one of her own songs."
I have just listened to it and it's right there in the chorus. Crazy.
Download link here: https://www.hightail.com/download/bXBhSkhld0E1R013anNUQw
Personal favorites - Gymnopedie #1 and Gnossienne #1. The story here is that one day as I was listening to Gymnopedie #1 I decided that within the next 6 months I would be able to play it on the piano (having played the piano for about a year when I was maybe 5 years old). I bought an electronic piano, found a teacher and 5 months later I was performing the Gymnopedie and the Gnossienne in front of an audience of 4-10 year old kids and their parents at the Greenwich community art center. No corporate presentation or meeting had ever made me as nervous as going out to play in front of a bunch of kids. Since then I moved on to playing the guitar but this remains a nice story and i can still swing some passages from these works if a piano is nearby.
Finally, the fact that completely blew my mind just now. I am going to quote straight from wikipedia:
Janet Jackson released the single "Someone to Call My Lover" in 2001 from her seventh studio album, All for You. The chorus of the song includes a loop of Gymnopédie No. 1 played in 4/4 time instead of the original 3/4. Jackson had loved the Gymnopédie since childhood and wanted to incorporate its theme into one of her own songs."
I have just listened to it and it's right there in the chorus. Crazy.
Download link here: https://www.hightail.com/download/bXBhSkhld0E1R013anNUQw
also featured in one of my favorite movies of all time - The Royal Tenenbaums: https://youtu.be/oRZlASC2d6U?t=42s
ReplyDeleteSatie's Gymnopedies are really unique too me.
ReplyDeleteI agree they are extremely innovative and I think there was nothing much like it at this time... This is contemporary to Tchaikovsky 1st concerto for piano!!!
And it might the only classical piece of music that I remember exactly when I listened to for the 1st time, where I was and what I was reading!!!
So in my mind, I associate it totally to Paul Auster's New York Trilogy that I was reading in September 1995!
I really enjoyed listening to them again.
There were a few E. Satie pieces that I did not know, and I must say that I did not enjoy them as much as the Gymnopedies and the Gnossiennes.