Léonide Massine ~ 1914
portrait by Léon Bakst
Showing posts with label Erik Satie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erik Satie. Show all posts
June 20, 2025
February 1, 2021
Pablo Picasso articles/mentions
Pablo Picasso - 1912
photographer unknown
mentions:
Josephine Baker, Cocteau, Hemmingway & Picasso
Pink Floyd ~ Pulse
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
Pink Floyd ~ Pulse
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
October 3, 2020
Jean Cocteau articles/mentions
~
Jean Cocteau - 1923
photographer unknown
mentions:
earRotator ~ The Metro - February 20, 2004
Martha Schlamme ~ The World Of Kurt Weill
Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
Jean Cocteau - 1923
photographer unknown
July 30, 2019
May 17, 2019
20,000 vinyl LPs 184: Erik Satie ~ The Irreverent Inspirations
~
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.
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.)
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
February 26, 2014
101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 47: Blood, Sweat & Tears
Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
Design: John Berg
Photography: Harrie George
detail photo by Styrous®
Design: John Berg
Photography: Harrie George
detail photo by Styrous®
I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes in addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling (see link below). Interested? Contact me by email please, not by a comment.
Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
Design: John Berg
Photography: Harrie George
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Originally formed in 1967 in New York City, Blood, Sweat & Tears is most known for the fusing of rock, blues, pop music, horn arrangements and jazz improvisation into a hybrid that came to be known as "jazz-rock".
Al Kooper, the group's initial bandleader, named the band "Blood, Sweat & Tears" after Johnny Cash's 1963 album Blood, Sweat and Tears. Kooper's fame as a contributor to various historic sessions of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and others was a catalyst for the prominent debut of Blood, Sweat & Tears in the musical counterculture of the mid-sixties. Kooper was forced out of the group in April 1968 and became a record producer for the Columbia label, but not before arranging some songs that would be on the second BS&T album.
The group replaced Kooper with David Clayton-Thomas, a Canadian singer, born in Surrey, England. Reportedly, folk singer Judy Collins
had seen him perform at a New York City club and was so taken and moved
by his performance that she told her friends Bobby Colomby and Steve Katz about him (knowing that they were looking for a new lead singer to
front the band).
With her prodding, they came to see him perform and were so impressed
that Clayton-Thomas was offered the role of lead singer in a
re-constituted Blood Sweat & Tears.
The band went on a United States Department of State-sponsored
tour of Eastern Europe in May/June 1970 but any voluntary association
with the government was highly unpopular at the time and the band was
ridiculed for it.
In retrospect, it is now known that the State Department
requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issuance of a
visa to Clayton-Thomas.
Blood, Sweat and Tears was a daring, innovative, fiery fusion of jazz and rock, blues and the classics. The band defied all boundaries, performing with consummate artistry in front of a symphony one night and thousands of rock fans the next. BS&T played the Metropolitan Opera, the Fillmore West and East, the Newport jazz Festival, and Caesar's Palace, all in the same year. It was the first contemporary band to break through the iron curtain with the historic 1970 tour of Eastern Europe, and headline at Woodstock, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
Design: John Berg
Photography: Harrie George
photo of album cover by Styrous®
BS&T's first album with David sold an amazing ten million copies and launched three gold singles, You've Made Me So Very Happy, And When I Die and Spinning Wheel.
The album won an unprecedented five Grammy awards, including album of
the year and best performance by a male vocalist. David's rendition of
Billie Holiday's God Bless The Child became a classic. Five successive gold albums and three more gold singles, Hi De Ho, Lucrative MacEvil and Go Down Gamblin' followed, and by 1972 BS&T's was at the very top of the music industry.
Blood, Sweat and Tears was a daring, innovative, fiery fusion of jazz and rock, blues and the classics. The band defied all boundaries, performing with consummate artistry in front of a symphony one night and thousands of rock fans the next. BS&T played the Metropolitan Opera, the Fillmore West and East, the Newport jazz Festival, and Caesar's Palace, all in the same year. It was the first contemporary band to break through the iron curtain with the historic 1970 tour of Eastern Europe, and headline at Woodstock, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
BS&T was a strange hybrid. The Julliard graduates, with their classical training, felt the band should aspire to loftier musical goals, and Bartók and Satie
became a part of the repertoire. The Berkeley grads were jazz purists,
and long improvised solos became a part of the show. Others were pure
rockers whose experience included The Blues Project and Frank Zappa's Mother's of Invention.
Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
Design: John Berg
Photography: Harrie George
detail photo by Styrous®
The group recorded songs by rock/folk songwriters such as Laura Nyro, James Taylor, The Band, the Rolling Stones, Billie Holiday and Erik Satie. Music from Thelonious Monk and Sergei Prokofiev was assimilated into their arrangements.
In great contrast to the mostly frenetic tone of the
album, Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie (1st Movement) is a languid, relaxing, and lovely tune recorded on October 9,
1968. It serves as both the introduction and finale to this, the second album, released December 11,
1968 on Columbia records. Titled "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie"
(1st and 2nd Movements), it was adapted from Satie's Trois Gymnopédies
and arranged by Dick Halligan, who played the flute.
Blues – Part II has a very long organ intro (4:30) by Dick Halligan. It goes into a jazzy instrumental with drums and percussion by Bobby Colomby and alto saxophone by Fred Lipsius that is right up there with the best of them. Eventually, about 9 minutes into the piece, David Clayton-Thomas enters with a slow, blusey feeling ballad reminisent of Janice Joplin.
The commercial and critical acclaim enjoyed by the band in 1969 culminated in an appearance at the Woodstock Festival, in which the band enjoyed headliner status. The Woodstock Movie camera crew caught the band's opening number, More and More, as they took to the stage but the band's manager at the time, Bennett Glotzer, ordered the movie crew to turn off the cameras and leave the stage since the band had not agreed or been paid to be filmed.
The commercial and critical acclaim enjoyed by the band in 1969 culminated in an appearance at the Woodstock Festival, in which the band enjoyed headliner status. The Woodstock Movie camera crew caught the band's opening number, More and More, as they took to the stage but the band's manager at the time, Bennett Glotzer, ordered the movie crew to turn off the cameras and leave the stage since the band had not agreed or been paid to be filmed.
photo by Styrous®
The album, Blood, Sweat & Tears, hit the top of the charts, winning Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards over The Beatles' Abbey Road, among other nominees. Blood, Sweat & Tears spawned three major hit singles: a cover of Berry Gordy and Brenda Holloway's You've Made Me So Very Happy, Clayton-Thomas' Spinning Wheel, and a version of Laura Nyro's And When I Die. All three singles reached #2 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart.
Three of the songs charted on the Billboard 100.
| Year | Single | Chart | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | And When I Die | Adult Contemporary | 4 |
| 1969 | And When I Die | The Billboard Hot 100 | 2 |
| 1969 | Spinning Wheel | Adult Contemporary | 1 |
| 1969 | Spinning Wheel | R&B Singles | 45 |
| 1969 | Spinning Wheel | The Billboard Hot 100 | 2 |
| 1969 | You've Made Me So Very Happy | R&B Singles | 46 |
| 1969 | You've Made Me So Very Happy | The Billboard Hot 100 | 2 |
detail photo by Styrous®
Track list:
Side 1
- "Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie" (1st and 2nd Movements) – 2:35
- Adapted from "Trois Gymnopédies"; arr. by Dick Halligan
- Recorded October 9, 1968
- "Smiling Phases" (Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood) – 5:11
- Recorded October 15, 1968
- "Sometimes in Winter" (Steve Katz) – 3:09
- Recorded October 8, 1968
- "More and More" (Vee Pee Smith, Don Juan) – 3:04
- Recorded October 15, 1968
- "And When I Die" (Laura Nyro) – 4:06
- Recorded October 22, 1968
- "God Bless the Child" (Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Jr.) – 5:55
- Recorded October 7, 1968
Side 2
- "Spinning Wheel" (David Clayton-Thomas) – 4:08
- Recorded October 9, 1968
- "You've Made Me So Very Happy" (Berry Gordy Jr., Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson) – 4:19
- Recorded October 16, 1968
- "Blues – Part II" (Blood, Sweat & Tears) – 11:44
- Recorded October 22, 1968
- Interpolating "Sunshine of Your Love" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown, Eric Clapton) and "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon)
- "Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie" (1st Movement) – 1:49
- Recorded October 9, 1968
- The footsteps and door slam heard at the end of the track are those of model Lucy Angle
Personnel:
- David Clayton-Thomas – lead vocals except as noted
- Lew Soloff – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Bobby Colomby – drums, percussion, vocals
- Jim Fielder – bass
- Dick Halligan – organ, piano, flute, trombone, vocals
- Steve Katz – guitar, harmonica, vocals, lead vocals on "Sometimes In Winter"
- Fred Lipsius – alto saxophone, piano
- Chuck Winfield – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Jerry Hyman – trombone, recorder
Credits:
- Producer: James William Guercio
- Engineers: Fred Catero, Roy Halee, Robert Honablue
- Arrangers: Dick Halligan, Fred Lipsius, Al Kooper
- Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
- Photography: Harrie George
- Design: John Berg
Music links:
Blood, Sweat & Tears (full album) on YouTube
Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie (1st Movement) on YouTube
Spinning Wheel (live) on YouTube
And When I Die on YouTube
Sometimes in Winter on YouTube
More and More on YouTube
Blues – Part II on YouTube
on YouTube
reel-to-reel listings on eBay
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, February 25, 2014
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