Music Banter - Erik Satie

Erik Satie (born Eric in 1866 and changed his name on a whim else to sound more Germanic) was one of the most unusual composers who ever lived. A man so far ahead of his time that his true genius was largely unrecognized in life and he made most of his money playing for salons and cabarets and dance halls. A fighter, a newspaper article from that time records him getting into a fist fight with one of his many critics.

Hailed as a complete nut, or a genius of extraordinary ability by the folks around him, one modern writer wrote that Satie is more important for his influence on other composers than his music itself (a comment I heartily disagree with). Satie's trademark was to dispense with measures and write the notes consecutively with no time signatures (yet the pieces definitely had tonality...some even Neo-Classical in the true sense). His other trademark was the use of rather odd names for his pieces including Flabby Preludes (four a dog-pour un chien), Dessicated Embryos et. al.

His style is unlike any other composer and while he lived at the time of Debussey the great impressionist composer and Ravel a master of many styles and also primarily impressionist. While Debussey considered Satie to be a freak and nutcase, Ravel regarded Satie with an emotion akin to worship!

Satie's influence has not waned since his death in the early 20th century (around 1925 or so) and seems to be gaining strength. The wise pianist would include a Satie piece as an encore as several really good ones are out there with their unusual harmonies.

P.S. Check out Neo-Classical Jazz (musicofthegods.com) which is my own Neo-Classical website with over five hours of downloadable MP3(WMAs) primarily instrumental solo piano, with synth orchestration. Mostly Neo-Classical (in the true sense of modern compositions in older styles split into three primary types Neo-Romantic resembling the music of Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Neo-Classical resembling Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Neo-Baroque resembling Vivaldi, Bach, C.P.E Bach etc.

There are a number of organ solos and a piano/cello duet and two full Piano Concerti (about 25 minutes apiece) and two mini Concerti one of which Japonica is only five minutes long with mix style blending classical, oriental and modernist into one piece.

I'm a fan of blending styles ( a good example is the Caprice in G minor in the miscellaneous group which starts out a fugue in four voci of a very advanced type, but the second part is solidly Classical with some Romantic elements and resembles Beethoven to some extent.

This blending of Baroque, Romantic, Modern, sometimes Jazz and Pop elements in one piece sometimes leaves people puzzled or else amazed. It's a thing of mine, perhaps my trademark to work in virtually every musical element from the Middle-Ages to the present day.

Check it out (it can't hurt) and you'll get no commercials and no web-ads!