May 17, 2019

20,000 vinyl LPs 184: Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations

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Today, May 17, is the birthday of Erik Satie. He is predominantly remembered for his solo piano works,  Gymnopédies written in 1888 and Gnossiennes, 1889 - 97. Though they are indeed beautiful, he explored other forms of music.  
   
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
vinyl LP front cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


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.    
        

Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
vinyl LP front cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


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.       
 

Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
vinyl LP front cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


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).        

      


Works for piano and vocal

Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


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.      

       

Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
vinyl LP front cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


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.           











     
Tracklist:

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.)     
  
                  
     
     
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®




"Why attack God? 
He may be as miserable as we are."
                         ~ Eric Satie 


          
          
Styrous® ~ Friday, May 17, 2019        





        







       

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