Eccentricity and Composers I: Erik Satie

(Unatributed painting of Satie, from the Bibliothèque nationale de France)

        The word eccentric fits Satie better than perhaps any other composer of his generation. He come of age performing in the famous Le Chat Noir cabaret in Montmartre, became the official composer for Joséphin Péladan’s Rosicrucian sect, The Mystic Order of the Rose + Cross, founded his own Christian sect, The First Church of Jesus Christ, Conductor (of which he was the sole member), spent eight days in jail for insulting a writer critical of his ballet Parade, got into a fistfight with the music critic Henry Gauthier-Villars, all the while composing his own brand of delicate, spiky, Medieval-ish music, often designed to upset critics and audiences alike. Satie also, in 1917, single-handedly created a type of music intended not be listened to, Musique d'ameublement.

Debussy once referred to Satie as “a gentle medieval musician lost in this century”, reflecting on the popular image of Satie as the gently satirical court jester of the Paris establishment. There is surely more to Satie than this image, more to his music than merely the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, so often heard in movies and TV shows. Much of his music is passionate and his absurdist titles sometimes disguise music of great intellect and craftsmanship. His ballets especially show a higher degree of craftsmanship and (occasional) seriousness, which contradicts the common opinion of Satie. 

        Satie’s aesthetic choices and life also has implications for musicians of today. Debussy’s depiction of Satie as a “gentle medieval musician” points to his anti-Romantic views on music and performance. Although Satie did not leave behind a manifesto of his aesthetic or compositional style, his life story reveals a performer unbound by traditional norms and the Romantic dogma of the artist as “prophet” or “hero” or “saint.” 

We are very familiar with this dogma, and comfortable with the image of the artists as alienated genius, especially of the Austro-Germanic tradition, but Satie’s entire life was a refutation of this idea. Satie left the Paris Conservatory and did most of his learning on the job in the cabarets and salons of Paris, thereby allowing himself to stand outside the tradition of higher learning, which was as constricting then as it is now. He despised Wagner (whose music was enjoying a surge in popularity in Paris during Satie’s early years) and wrote music which was made for pure enjoyment, rather than quasi-religious ecstasy. 

In short, Satie was a great eccentric, and a talented composer of an un-Romantic type. It’s certainly not for nothing that his music is enjoyed in so-called “popular” art the world over, from transcriptions by world music ensembles, to those hackneyed wedding classics and music for relaxation recordings. Perhaps we could learn something from Satie’s challenging aesthetic and humble attitudes. And perhaps we need a few more eccentrics in our art form.

Visit peladan.org for more information and artwork by the artist. 

Satie on wikipedia.

Visit Satie's grave in Arcueil. 

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