5037 - 2 Marches

Eric Satie

Arranged by Martin Knowles

Difficulty: medium

Price: £20.00

Programme notes:
Rag-Time Parade : Le Picadilly
Satie was a highly imaginative original eccentric; this is demonstrated by his life and his work. For example he founded his own church and he valued his privacy so highly that he never let anyone see his apartment in Arceuil, where he lived for the last 27 years of his life. He only had one known relationship in his life - an intense love affair in 1893 with the model, painter and former trapeze artiste Suzanne Valadon. Satie lived as a true artist, for his music and his ideals. He had no respect for money and lived a poor life for many years. He was never afraid of expressing his true opinion. He was very creative and had a great influence on his colleagues Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc. Because his music was ahead of his time and regarded as timeless, he also has great influence on many modern composers. Satie was a forerunner to minimalism. He experimented with what he called furniture music, meant to be in the background rather than listened to. He composed music to be listened at different angles, similar pieces divided into several parts. Many of his compositions have influences from medieval music and from French composers. The earlier of the two pieces presented here, Le Picadilly was written in 1904. Since 1888, Satie had been a pianist in a number of Montmartre cafés (which were the meeting places of musicians as well as of writers and painters.) Around 1900, he produced several first-rate café songs. Le Picadilly is one of the music-hall pieces composed during this period. Rag-Time comes from the ballet Parade. This work has a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau, the theme being a publicity parade in which three groups of circus artists try to attract an audience to an indoor performance. The ballet was composed 1916-1917 for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The ballet premiered on May 18, 1917 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, with costumes and sets designed by Pablo Picasso, a choreography by Léonide Massine (who was also dancing), and the orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet.The Ragtime contained in Parade was later be adapted for piano solo, and attained considerable success as a separate piano piece. The premiere of the ballet resulted a number of scandals, including a classical music riot. According to the painter Gabriel Fournier, one of the most memorable scandals was an altercation between Cocteau, Satie, and an unnamed music critic who gave Parade an unfavorable review. Satie had written a postcard to the critic which read: "Sir and Dear Friend, You are not only an arse, but an arse without music. Signed, Erik Satie." The critic sued Satie, and at the trial Cocteau was arrested and beaten by police for repeatedly yelling "arse" in the courtroom. Satie was given a sentence of eight days in jail.

Performance note:
Keep the style light and jaunty - nothing too heavy or aggressive, even in the louder dynamics.