# Erik Satie was eccentric.



## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

case in point:
http://www.ubu.com/papers/satie_day.html


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

He wasn't eccentric, he was totally bonkers! After Satie died, the composer Darius Milhaud visited his flat, maybe to clean out all the junk (there was probably heaps of it there). From his account, there were two upright pianos in the apartment, one on top of the other, both unplayable. The sheets on the bed had obviously not been changed in years if not decades. There was a kind of doona with glass wine bottles attached which Satie would apparently fill with hot water to warm him as he lay in bed during the winter (there was no heating in the apartment). There were clothes and newspapers on the floor, but that is not very different to some of the mess in my room, or many of our rooms here (unless one is totally an*l but I won't venture further!). :lol:

Satie would walk to Paris city to do his business every day from his flat which was in a suburb that was a very long way away, on the outskirts. By the time he arrived back home there was very little time to spend at home, so soon he would set out to walk back to the city. I don't know how the man got any sleep, or at least as much as he needed.

His only romantic relationship was with the artist's model and painter Suzanne Valadon (mother of Maurice Utrillo who would become another famous painter).

Having said that, due to Mr Satie's quirkyness, I've read heaps more about him and listened to very little. Last night I heard a piece everyone on the planet knows, his_ Gymnopedie #1_. It was an arrangement for violin with orch. played by Isaac Stern. This must be one of the most arranged and transcribed works in the entire canon.

I've got a cd of his music waiting in the wings which I hope to get into sometime. It's on Philips Eloquence and played by Reinbert de Leeuw. I have seen a disc of part of his 24 hour marathon the _Vexations_, only an hour or so of it, but I'm balking, I think I'd go mad due to the repetition and end up like him!!! I would be interested in his ballet _Relache_. I also have some of his songs which I remember hearing and they were exquisite but very very short. He is the opposite of Romanticism on steroids - eg. Wagner - and I really like that anti-authoritarianism in some ways.

In a word he was great, but kind of like the guy he influenced John Cage, known for less of his actual music and more for his ideas and the way he was a nonconformist and misfit, a rebel (without a cause?)...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Satie was barking - in addition to the pianos and clutter I gather he collected umbrellas by the score and had a penchant for expensive green velvet clothes however dire his financial situation (i.e. often). Nevertheless, he was a character and a half and I think his music is great, however trivial, flippant, irreverent or illogical. I think every generation needs at least one composer like him but, with the possible exception of Ives in his more unshackled moments (who was a near-contemporary anyway), has there actually been one?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^ I forgot the umbrellas or clothes. The only other similar guy I can think of is John Cage as I said, & Ives probably fits the bill as well in some ways. Maybe Harry Partch as well, he used to be a hobo. AS for what I said before re Satie only being with one woman, that's not necessarily wierd, many people then were faithful to just one or two partners, it wasn't as promiscuous as now. But it just says that he didn't find the right woman after Ms Valadon, and that he was a lonely man...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Alkan was pretty nutty as well. I believe that when a committee came to give him a medal, he told them off saying, "Gentlemen, at this hour, I digest." And closed the door. I mean what is this? A Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot? Why?


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

With facial hair:








Most awesome looking person on the planet.

Without facial hair:








Least awesome looking person on the planet.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

He met Germaine Tailleferre (of Les Six) by knocking on her door when he heard her playing one of her compositions because it impressed him so much. He called her his "musical daughter."


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Hi Sid. If you are thinking of checking out Relache then I can wholeheartedly recommend the Naxos release which features two other shortish stage works of equal singularity, Mercure and Parade. He collaborated with the likes of Picasso and Cocteau for some of his works for the theatre so no doubt you can imagine in your mind's eye/ear what they are like! The disc is fleshed out with the orchestral transcriptions of his three Gymnopodies.

Good call about Partch although I can't say I've heard anything by him but anyone namechecked by Tom Waits and (I think) Frank Zappa has to be worth looking out for. Cage was a total oversight on my part(ch).


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I love everything by Satie except for the trois gymnopèdies. They are far to overrated. But Satie's best work is by far "Relâche"


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I think the Gymnopédies are fine but far too much emphasis is placed on them. There are literally hundreds of great pieces by Satie that barely see the light of day because of those things.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I love everything by Satie except for the trois gymnopèdies. They are far to overrated.


No, they aren't overrated, they're simply incredibly popular.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

So Satie was eccentric. He was not the only one. I offer Scriabin as an example but there were many others. That should not stop one from enjoying their music.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

When I went to art school, there were students who worked very hard at being "bohemian". That's what we called it when someone spent great amounts of energy on their image... goth hair, mannerisms, clever eccentricities, wild clothes... Generally, they ended up doing very little in the way of work because they were so busy at crafting an image. Satie is like that.


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## gmubandgeek (Jun 8, 2010)

I still can't believe you wrote a piece about dried up embryos...


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Anecdote: Eric Satie attended the premiere of Debussy's La Mer, the first part of which is titled _From dawn to noon on the sea_. After the performance, Debussy asked Satie what he thought about the new work. Satie replied, "I liked the bit about quarter to eleven."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

clavichorder said:


> ... I mean what is this? A Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot? Why?


Some people get very attached to their pets


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

Satie was an absolute legend.

They disliked him at the Paris conservatoire, so he left to join the army. After a few months, he didn't like it so he purposely caught bronchitis.

Love the Gnossiennes, the striking Six Pieces froides and the Croquis et Agaceries in particular.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

This made me laugh out loud.

The premiere of the ballet _Parade_ resulted in a number of scandals, including a classical music riot. According to the painter Gabriel Fournier, one of the most memorable scandals was an altercation between Jean Cocteau, Eric Satie, and music critic Jean Poueigh, who gave _Parade_ an unfavorable review. Satie had written a postcard to the critic which read, "Monsieur et cher ami - vous êtes un cul, un cul sans musique! Signé Erik Satie" ("Sir and dear friend - you are an ****, an **** without music! Signed, Erik Satie."). The critic sued Satie, and at the trial Cocteau was arrested and beaten by police for repeatedly yelling "****" in the courtroom. Satie was given a sentence of eight days in jail.

Interestingly, Pablo Picasso is credited with the costume and set design for the ballet's premiere.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Lunasong said:


> This made me laugh out loud.
> 
> The premiere of the ballet _Parade_ resulted in a number of scandals, including a classical music riot. According to the painter Gabriel Fournier, one of the most memorable scandals was an altercation between Jean Cocteau, Eric Satie, and music critic Jean Poueigh, who gave _Parade_ an unfavorable review. Satie had written a postcard to the critic which read, "Monsieur et cher ami - vous êtes un cul, un cul sans musique! Signé Erik Satie" ("Sir and dear friend - you are an ****, an **** without music! Signed, Erik Satie."). The critic sued Satie, and at the trial Cocteau was arrested and beaten by police for repeatedly yelling "****" in the courtroom. Satie was given a sentence of eight days in jail.
> 
> Interestingly, Pablo Picasso is credited with the costume and set design for the ballet's premiere.


 Jean Cocteau and Satie did not get along. Satie was much more drawn to Picasso artistically and deferred to him to Cocteau's great annoyance and jealousy. This matter is gone into more detail in the documentary "Paris: The Luminous Years - The Birth of the Modern." Highly recommended.


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