Erik Satie — Gymnopédies 1, 2, 3

Classical1 track

Satie began publishing the three Gymnopédies in Paris in 1888, aged twenty-two and working as a café pianist in Montmartre. They run on a device almost nobody else was using then: a chord pattern that declines to resolve, repeated slowly enough that the ear stops waiting for it to. Debussy orchestrated two of them a decade later, which is a good part of why they survived at all.

Satie later coined "musique d'ameublement" — furniture music, written to be present without being listened to — and was reportedly irritated when the audience at its premiere sat down and paid attention. That is a fair description of what this hour is for. He also scored René Clair's Entr'acte in 1924, one of the first purpose-written film scores, and cinema has been borrowing him back ever since: My Dinner with André, The Royal Tenenbaums, Mr Nobody.

  • erik satie
  • gymnopedies
  • classical
  • piano
  • minimalism
  • furniture music
  • paris
  • focus
  • calm
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