To listen to a complete general midi version click here:
Gnossienne No 1 - Soundcloud

 

10128- Gnossienne No 1

Eric Satie

arranged for 10-piece brass ensemble by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Medium

Price: £20.00

Programme note:

Eric Satie's early career was relatively undistinguished. The naive simplicity of his early miniature forms, including the Trois Gymnopédies (1888), and the 6 Gnossiennes (1890) with their directionless, modal harmony were just not fashionable. It was only in the second decade of the new century, after years spent as a cafe 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 Relâche 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 note:

Trumpet 1 is best on a smaller (E flat) trumpet. Play simply but, nevertheless, with expression. The melody can be slightly free in feel and the accompaniment should always be shaped away with a light 4th beat. forte dynamics should be warmer in sound but never forced.