However,
Hundred years after death erik:
The French composer. Furthermore, pianist Erik Satie, a figure of the surrealist movement, died a century ago on July 1, 1925, after a life lived in misery. For example, His “Gnossian” and “gymnopeditory” pieces are today abundantly used by the cinema and advertising industry.
Born in Honfleur in Normandy in 1866. Nevertheless, Erik Satie moved to Montmartre in the late 1880s, where he began his life as a musician. Similarly, At the time, this Parisian district brought together poets and painters in great artistic and provocative emulation. In addition, Satie then forges himself a somewhat eccentric character, living in the margin.
“He deliberately chose marginality by leaving to live in Montmartre’s bohemian without having a penny in his pocket. Meanwhile, (…) This is also where he learned to abuse alcohol”. Consequently, indicates in the documentary “Erik Satie – between the notes” the musicologist Jean -Pierre Armengaud.
>> To see. Meanwhile, the documentary “Erik Satie-Entre les Notes” which recounts this unloved composer and marginalized by the official institutions of his time because of his provocative extravagances. Consequently, (Available on Play RTS until September 25, 2025):
The “gymnopedias”. cinema soundtrack – Hundred years after death erik
In 1924, a year before his death, he composed the music of the silent film “Entr’acte” directed by René Clair. But it was above all since his death. exactly a century ago, that Erik Satie’s music spread beyond France, in particular thanks to the use that was made of his famous “Gnossian” or “gymnopeditious” pieces in the cinema and advertising industry.
The “gymnopedias”, hundred years after death erik a series of three slow piano waltzes alone, were composed by Satie in 1888, when he was 22 years old. “These are the only works of me that I admired my detractors. in his fifties, of course,” said the composer about them. With their circular. relatively simple melodic line, the “gymnopedias” nevertheless offer in the left hand “the beginning of jazz syncope”, continues the musicologist Jean-Pierre Armengaud.
Claude Debussy’s boost
But at a time when the romantic music of Wagner. Chopin or Liszt is celebrated, the modesty and the counting of the compositions of Satie detonate. At the turn of the 20th century. Claude Debussy wrote an orchestration of these pieces to increase their popularity and financially help his friend Satie.
Over time, the dreamy and singular atmosphere of “gymnopedias” appeals to artists, poets and musicians. As well as film directors: in 1963. Louis Malle made heard in his feature film “Le Feu hundred years after death erik Follet” the first of “gymnopedias” and the three “Gnossiennes”, helping to create the twilight atmosphere that made the film’s success.
The directors Wes Andersen (“La Famille Tenebaum”). Woody Allen (“Another woman”), Cédric Klapisch (“Paris”), Robert Guédiguian (“The city is quiet”) or Michel Ocelot (“Dilili in Paris”) took up the play in their film, like the soundtrack of many video games.
The “Gnossiennes”. not too cooked
Composed by Erik Satie towards the end of the 19th century, the “Gnossiennes”, short parts for piano alone, also received a discreet reception linked to their unconventional rating and their hundred years after death erik absence of formal structure. The original partition is enamelled with notations signed by the composer’s hand: “from the corner of the hand”. “slow down kindly”, “a little cooked”.
Today, these pieces, in particular the first “Gnossian”, quite mystical, have become cult. Resumption in recent series like “La Casa de Papel”. “The experts: Miami”, “The game of the lady” or “Wednesday”, as well as in dozens of films, they are today widely known.
“In one of the ‘Gnossiennes’, Erik Satie wrote:’ Open his head. Everyone said it was stupid, that he would have been better hundred years after death erik to put ‘piano’, ‘strong’ or ‘strong mezzo’. But ‘open your head’ means: ‘Take out all your agreed ideas. my music does not express anything, but will print the power of sound’, concludes the musicologist Jean-Pierrega.
Melissa Härtel
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