10006 – Gymnopodie No 1

Eric Satie (1866-1925)

Arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Easy

Price: £20

Programme notes:

Eric Satie’s early career was relatively undistinguished. The naïve simplicity of his early miniature forms, including the Trois Gymnoedies (1888), with their directionless. Modal harmonies were just not fashionable. It was only in the second decade of the new century, after years of spent as a café pianist in Montmatre, and a second spell of study, that his music began to attract more notice. In particular, Jean Cocteau encouraged him to write his most ambitious scores, the ballets Parade, Mercure and Relache and the cantata Socrate, seeing him as the ideal of anti-romanticism. In differing ways the simplicities in his style had effects on the writing of Debussy, ravel and Poulenc.

Performance notes:

The accompaniment should retain an almost unexpressive feel, in spite of the very slight accent at the beginning of each note. The melody can be played with a more cantabile style, with a little vibrato and warmth, while avoiding over-indulgence. Take care to match the muted sound so that it provides additional textual colour, without becoming either intrusive or blurred.