This album, The Irreverent Inspirations, showcases work for piano and voice that has never been recorded before as well as his work for comedic theater, Baron Medusa's Trap, which is the real gem on this album.
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations libretto, front page
photo by Styrous®
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations libretto pages
photos by Styrous®
Works for piano and vocal
His music was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. This recording includes Le piège de Méduse ("Medusa's trap") a short play of which Satie
wrote both the text and the incidental music. The text of the play was
written as a "comédie lyrique or Opéra comique" in one act, February-March 1913. In June
of the same year Satie added the music, a set of seven little dances,
originally composed for piano. The piano version of the music was first
published in 1929, a few years after his death. The
orchestral score was not published until 40 years later.
The comically surrealist plot involves the elderly (and very confused)
Baron Méduse (his name means Medusa in French), his daughter Frisette
(to whom the Baron actually refers as his "fille de lait", which would
imply that the Baron was Frisette's wet-nurse), Frisette's young suitor
Astolpho, and the Baron's recalcitrant valet Polycarpe. There is also a
mechanical monkey, named Jonas, dancing to the intermittent music. The
nine scenes of the play develop as a funny succession of non requiters
and misunderstandings, ending in an amicable hug of the protagonists.
The play was privately staged a few months after its completion in 1913, in the salons of the parents of Roland-Manuel,
who played Baron Méduse's role. Later live performances of the play
would become rare, although a notable one, in an English translation by M. C. Richards, took place in the summer of 1948 at Black Mountain College in North Carolina: John Cage (link below) suggested the project and played the music; Buckminster Fuller played the role of the Baron Medusa; Merce Cunningham (link below) danced the part of the mechanical monkey; Willem de Kooning designed the set and Elaine de Kooning played Frisette; and the play was directed by Arthur Penn.
The performance is spoken and sung in French. If you understand French, you're ok. If you don't, not a problem, there is a 12" by 12" libretto included with the text in French and English.
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations libretto, front page
photo by Styrous®
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations libretto pages
photos by Styrous®
Satie wrote his absurdist play some 15 years after the first Ubu play by Alfred Jarry had been premiered in Paris. Ubu Roi was later to become the most cherished and first example of surrealism in theatre (which would develop into the Theatre of the Absurd).
The original program for the performance on August 14, 1948, of The Ruse of Medusa: a lyric comedy in one act by Erik Satie included: Buckminster Fuller, Isaac Rosenfeld, William Shrauger, Elaine de Kooning, Merce Cunningham (link below), and Alvin Charles Few. The direction was by Helen Livingston and Arthur Penn. Dance was choreographed by Cunningham and music performed by John Cage (link below).
The original program for the performance on August 14, 1948, of The Ruse of Medusa: a lyric comedy in one act by Erik Satie included: Buckminster Fuller, Isaac Rosenfeld, William Shrauger, Elaine de Kooning, Merce Cunningham (link below), and Alvin Charles Few. The direction was by Helen Livingston and Arthur Penn. Dance was choreographed by Cunningham and music performed by John Cage (link below).
Works for piano and vocal
The works for piano and vocal on side one are sung by coloratura soprano Mady Mesplé, tenor Nicolai Gedda (link below) and baritone Gabriel Bacquier. The Choses Vues À Droite Et À Gauche (Sans Lunettes) is beautifully performed by Yan Pascal on violin accompanied by Aldo Ciccolini on piano who is conductor for all the works.
An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies.
Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning
"someone who measures sounds"), preferring this designation to that of
"musician."
With Jean Cocteau, whom he had first met in 1915, Satie started work on incidental music for a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, resulting in the Cinq grimaces pour Le songe d'une nuit d'été. From 1916, he and Cocteau worked on the ballet Parade, which was premiered in 1917 by the Sergei Diaghilev Ballets Russes, with sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Léonide Massine. Through Picasso, Satie also became acquainted with other cubists, such as Georges Braque, with whom he would work on other, aborted, projects.
drawing by Pablo Picasso
After years of heavy drinking (including consumption of absinthe), Satie died at age 59, on July 1, 1925, from cirrhosis of the liver. After his death, Satie's friends discovered his apartment in
squalor and chaos. Among many other unsorted papers and miscellaneous
items, it contained a large number of umbrellas, and two grand pianos
placed one on top of the other, the upper instrument used as storage for
letters and parcels. They discovered compositions that were either thought to have been lost or totally unknown. The score to Jack in the Box
was thought, by Satie, to have been left on a bus years before. These
were found behind the piano, in the pockets of his velvet suits, and in
other odd places, and included Vexations; Geneviève de Brabant and other unpublished or unfinished stage works; The Dreamy Fish; many Schola Cantorum
exercises; a previously unseen set of "canine" piano pieces; and
several other works for piano, many untitled. Some of these would be
published later as additional Gnossiennes, Pièces froides, Enfantines, and furniture music.
Side 1:
A1 - Les Pantins Dansent - 2:10
A2 - Tendrement - 2:57
Ludion, Cinq Poèmes De Léon-Paul Fargue
A3 - Air Du Rat - 0:29
A4 - Spleen - 0:47
A5 - La Grenouille Américaine - 1:14
A6 - Air Du Poète - 0:56
A7 - Chanson Du Chat - 0:44
Trois Poèmes D'amour, D'Erik Satie
A8 - Ne Suis Que Grain De Sable - 0:34
A9 - Suis Chauve De Naissance - 0:34
A10 - Ta Parure Est Secrète - 0:45
Choses Vues À Droite Et À Gauche (Sans Lunettes)
A11 - Choral Hypocrite - 1:00
A12 - Fugue À Tâtons - 1:35
A13 - Fantaisie Musculaire - 1:27
Quatre Petites Mélodies
A14 - Élégie - 1:05
A15 - Danseuse - 0:33
A16 - Chanson - 0:28
A17 - Adieu - 0:36
-
A18 - Prélude De La Porte Héroïque Du Ciel - 3:25
Side 2:
B - Le Piege De Meduse (Baron Medusa's Trap) - 25:30
Credits:
Composed By – Erik Satie
Conductor – Aldo Ciccolini
Liner Notes – James Ringo
Orchestra – Orchestre Des Concerts Lamoureux
Erik Satie – The Irreverent Inspirations Of Erik Satie
Label: Angel Records – S-2-36173
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Book
Country: US
Released:
Genre: Classical
Style: Modern
Viewfinder links:
John Cage
Merce Cunningham
Nicolai Gedda
Net links:
Flypaper ~ Satie Weirder Than You Realize
The Guardian ~ Erik Satie: a life less ordinary
NPR ~ Guitarists Discover Timelessness of Erik Satie
NY Times ~ The Irreverent Inspirations of Erik Satie review
WXQR ~ Why Satie Is Still New Music
YouTube links:
Ludion, Cinq Poèmes De Léon-Paul Fargue
Quatre Petites Mélodies
Trois Poèmes D'amour, D'Erik Satie
Choses Vues À Droite Et À Gauche (Sans Lunettes)
Le piège de Méduse ("Medusa's trap") Part 1 (12 minutes)
Le piège de Méduse ("Medusa's trap") Part 2 (13 min., 32 sec.)
"Why attack God?
He may be as miserable as we are."
He may be as miserable as we are."
~ Eric Satie
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