eric satie: gnossiennes number one

like so many of the musicians whose work i have come to know and love, i am not entirely certain when i first heard eric satie’s music but i do remember the first time that i realized how beautiful it was. it was a late autumn evening and i was at university in a room filled with candles. to that point the music had consisted of king crimson’s “starless and bible black”, a smattering of tangerine dream circa “ricochet” and “rubicon”, and eno’s “here come the warm jets”. the appearance of satie’s simple gossamer threads of piano, held together by the finest filigree of air in the relatively vast spaces between notes held me enthralled.
eric satie was born on the 17th of may, 1886 in a beautiful little port on the coast of normandy named honfleur. honfleur has figured in the paintings of (among others) courbet, monet, and jongkind. here are two of monet’s paintings . . .
“towing a boat, honfleur”. 1864 . . .
“rue de la bavolle, honfleur”. 1864 . . .
satie’s life has been documented and analyzed in detail and makes for fascinating reading if only because while the music is undoubtedly the richest thread, there are so many other aspects of his life that could easily be termed “unique” and “unusual”. of particular interest to some might be his interest and immersion in the esoteric, one part of which resulted in him becoming the official composer and chapel-master of the rosicrucian order or the "ordre de la rose-croix catholique, du temple et du graal", led by sâr joséphin péladan.

that satie would emerge as a player or writer of music appears in retrospect to have been an inevitability. there was an inclination on the part of his family towards music that saw him taking organ lessons as a young boy and then, when his father remarried (after the death of his first wife) a pianist, he was no doubt aware of and to some degree influenced by their work in writing and publishing compositions of their own. it was in 1879 that satie entered the paris conservatoire where he was labelled untalented by his teachers. this seems to happen more often than not with musicians and composers who later flourish through developing systems of composition, or details of practice and performance that while not consonant with the times are ultimately of infinitely greater value.

in 1887, satie left his home to move into lodgings in montmartre. it is here that he published the works he is most widely known for - the gymnopedies, the ogives, and the gnossiennes among others. here is a painting by maximillian luce entitled, “paris seen from montmartre”. 1887 . . .
here then is gymnopedie no. 1 . . .

and here is gnossiennes no. 1 - lent . . .

and finally here is guitarist john williams rendering gnossiennes no 1 . . .