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Atlas Arkhive #5
A Mammal's Notebook: Collected Writings of Erik Satie
This is the largest selection (in any language) of Erik Satie's writings yet to appear, and includes previously unpublished texts, drawings and photographs.
Dismissed as a bizarre eccentric by many, Erik Satie has come to be seen as a key influence on twentieth century music. His compositions include, among other pieces, the ubiquitous Gymnopedies, the 3 Pieces in the Form of a Pear, and the Dada opera Relache. In later life he gathered round him Les Six and the cream of the new generation of French composers. His influence has continued to widen; John Cage and the New York School composers hailed him as "indispensable," and more recently certain of his pieces have been seen as prefiguring both Minimalist and Ambient music.
His poignant, sly and witty writings embody all his contradictions. Included here are his "autobiographical" Memoirs of an Amnesic, and wryly comic musical commentaries; the gnomic annotations to his musical scores ("For the SHRIVELLED and the DIMWITS, I have written a suitably ponderous chorale ... a kind of austere, unfrivolous introduction ... I dedicate this chorale to those who do not like me."); the publications of his private church; his absurdist play Medusa's Snare; advertising copy for his local suburban newspaper, and the mysterious, elaborately calligraphed, "private advertisements" found stuffed behind his piano after his death.
Dismissed as a bizarre eccentric by many, Erik Satie has come to be seen as a key influence on twentieth century music. His compositions include, among other pieces, the ubiquitous Gymnopedies, the 3 Pieces in the Form of a Pear, and the Dada opera Relache. In later life he gathered round him Les Six and the cream of the new generation of French composers. His influence has continued to widen; John Cage and the New York School composers hailed him as "indispensable," and more recently certain of his pieces have been seen as prefiguring both Minimalist and Ambient music.
His poignant, sly and witty writings embody all his contradictions. Included here are his "autobiographical" Memoirs of an Amnesic, and wryly comic musical commentaries; the gnomic annotations to his musical scores ("For the SHRIVELLED and the DIMWITS, I have written a suitably ponderous chorale ... a kind of austere, unfrivolous introduction ... I dedicate this chorale to those who do not like me."); the publications of his private church; his absurdist play Medusa's Snare; advertising copy for his local suburban newspaper, and the mysterious, elaborately calligraphed, "private advertisements" found stuffed behind his piano after his death.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
27 people are currently reading
1362 people want to read
About the author
Erik Satie
455 books52 followersÉric Alfred Leslie Satie (17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925; signed his name Erik Satie after 1884) was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.
An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds") preferring this designation to that of a "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.
In addition to his body of music, Satie also left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist 391 to the American top culture chronicle Vanity Fair. Although in later life he prided himself on always publishing his work under his own name, in the late nineteenth century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as Virginie Lebeau and François de Paule in some of his published writings.
An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds") preferring this designation to that of a "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.
In addition to his body of music, Satie also left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist 391 to the American top culture chronicle Vanity Fair. Although in later life he prided himself on always publishing his work under his own name, in the late nineteenth century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as Virginie Lebeau and François de Paule in some of his published writings.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 20, 2024
4.5 ⭐
”Erik Satie… attracted attention in 1892 with some completely incoherent works: Sarabands, Gymnopédies, Preludes to the Son of the Stars etc. He also wrote some remarkably stupid fantasies: Genuine Flabby Preludes, Dried Embryos…
Monsieur Erik Satie is, quite rightly, taken for a pretentious cretin. His music is senseless and makes people laugh and shrug their shoulders.”
With my best wishes,
Erik Satie
Erik Satie (1866 – 1925), aka Monsieur Le Pauvre, aka The Velvet Gentleman, was, first and foremost, known to me as a French Pianist and Composer with a beautiful melancholic tone and a Minimalist, Avant-Garde style. I fell in love with his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes the moment I heard them. I should say when I heard them more recently and felt an unmistakeable familiarity with, particularly, the first movements of both works. I feel like most people will have heard these at some time and in some place.
I should make it clear, off the bat, that this is not an (auto)biography of Erik Satie’s life, nor is it any kind of structured, coherent collection of thoughts or philosophies based on his beliefs. It is a ragtag collection of his writings, some written for performance (texts to be read aloud, not read aloud, sung, staged etc.), some for publication (Epistles, Memoirs of an amnesiac, articulated articles, talks and advertisements), and some just the private writings of a brilliant, eclectic and hilarious individual, complimented with a catalogue of his works with commentary from the man himself.
Rather than give you a full bio, as those who already know him won’t need it and those who don’t know him won’t care enough to read one, I will just paint a portrait with words that the name Erik Satie evokes: 19th Century France, Piano, Velvet, Surrealism, Absurdism, Dada, Cubism, Minimalism, Eccentricity, Originality, Irony, Sarcasm, Freedom of Thought…
Hopefully this will suffice, at the very least, as a silhouette of a rather complicated man. The first tip-off to Satie’s eccentricity, for me, was the performance indications on some of his sheet music that I own. It is common for sheet music to have directions for how a piece is to be played at the beginning of the piece and/or above and below the bars. Usually, they are to do with tempo or the style/feel that you are trying to achieve; things like, Andante (medium-slow), Vivace (lively and brisk) or rallentando (gradually slowing). In typical Satie fashion, he rejects such generic instructions, instead opting to adorn his works with indications such as “with tears in your fingers”, “take your hand off and put it in your pocket”, or “with your head between your hands”. This kind of idiocy is my bottom-line (commonly referred to as a bum crack) and it carries through into his collection of writings which often have very serious titles such as, ’Three Elegant Waltzes By a Squeamish Pansy’ or simply ’[Trilogy]’… for a collection containing just two works.
One thing I really love about reading books written by, or about, musicians is that there are often cameos by other musicians that I really enjoy. In this case, Satie has quite a few interesting things to say about the greats such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and others, but the most wholesome stuff emerges from his evidently close friendships with Claude Debussy and Igor Strawinsky and a distaste for Wagnerism (not for Richard Wagner himself). Satie wasn’t a prolific critic. Included in this collection is a scathing, tongue-in-cheek dismantling of the relevance/importance of critics, titled ’A Eulogy of Critics’ which is both hilarious and undeniably accurate:
”I am dazzled by the presence of a critic, he shines so brightly that I blink for more than an hour afterwards… I kiss the footprints of his slippers… I drink in his words from a big stemmed glass, out of politeness…”
Despite this, his writings include two most favourable critiques (advertisements really) for the works of Debussy and Strawinsky. As completely biased as these “articles” are, they shed fascinating light on these musicians and are proof of two very endearing friendships:
”One characteristic of Strawinsky’s music is it’s sonorous “transparency”. This is the quality one always finds in the pure masters, who never leave “residues” in their Sonority – residues that you will always find in the “musical matter” of the Impressionist composers, and even, alas! In that of some romantic composers.”
”[Debussy’s] arrival in the Musical Arena – if I may use the term – was a rather disagreeable event for some, and a very happy one for others. These “others” formed a tiny minority, while the “some” made up a huge mass – as sticky and slimy as one could wish. As always, the opinion of the “tiny minority” triumphed (following time-honoured custom) over the “huge mass” - which itself became stuck in the mud of it’s own blindness. Poor dear “Huge mass”!... once again it had energetically put it’s foot in it – on principle, wouldn’t you say? And out of a sort of stubbornness.”
His distaste for cult-like worship and unoriginal thought is clear in his denunciation of the “Wagnerians”:
”… in those days, Wagner's genius was miserably worshipped by Mediocrity and Ignorance together, followed by a sheep-like crowd. You can imagine how difficult it was to be a Wagnerian! - even joking, one only had to say aloud: "Oh, oh... How lovely!" to be taken for an expert or... an imbecile.”
- Claude Debussy (left) and Erik Satie (right)
This is a book that I think will have a 50/50 split between those who absolutely love it for its absurdity, its ridiculousness and its abundance of music-related content, and those who dnf it 10 pages in….. for its absurdity, its ridiculousness and its abundance of music-related content. I’m in the love category. This book actually made me lol on multiple occasions due to its unpredictable randomness and loose characters. Given how quick a read it was, I’m sure I’ll come back to this one again in the future. Now, I’ll leave you with a few short lols, though I am conscious that many of these won’t be nearly as funny taken out of context as they lose the element of randomness. Thanks for reading and remember, next time you’re playing one of Chopin’s gentle Nocturnes, play it ”like a nightingale with a toothache”.
”Where was I now?... Let me see… Five plus three makes eleven… take four leaves six… two plus seven makes eighteen.
That’s right… *thinks* God dammit… I am sixty thousand francs down! I cannot understand it. *He counts under his breath*”
”You shall have a bit. Do you like chocolate? Let it melt in your mouth.”
“Mummy, there is a bone in it.”
“No, my love, it is an almond.”
”How does one become a musician? It is quite simple:
One finds a teacher – a music teacher… if possible.”
”I have continued to have a soft spot for animals. There are many that I love very much: lobster, for instance; but it gives me a stomach-ache, unfortunately for it, otherwise, I would eat it more often.”
”What is that lovely thread of water running through this soft land?
It is so shy.
It hides under the ground.
Is it a smile from the landscape?
Is it an anonymous gift of nature?
Is it an exquisite tear, wrung from the rocks?
I do not think so: it is the main sewer.”
”Erik Satie… attracted attention in 1892 with some completely incoherent works: Sarabands, Gymnopédies, Preludes to the Son of the Stars etc. He also wrote some remarkably stupid fantasies: Genuine Flabby Preludes, Dried Embryos…
Monsieur Erik Satie is, quite rightly, taken for a pretentious cretin. His music is senseless and makes people laugh and shrug their shoulders.”
With my best wishes,
Erik Satie
Erik Satie (1866 – 1925), aka Monsieur Le Pauvre, aka The Velvet Gentleman, was, first and foremost, known to me as a French Pianist and Composer with a beautiful melancholic tone and a Minimalist, Avant-Garde style. I fell in love with his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes the moment I heard them. I should say when I heard them more recently and felt an unmistakeable familiarity with, particularly, the first movements of both works. I feel like most people will have heard these at some time and in some place.
I should make it clear, off the bat, that this is not an (auto)biography of Erik Satie’s life, nor is it any kind of structured, coherent collection of thoughts or philosophies based on his beliefs. It is a ragtag collection of his writings, some written for performance (texts to be read aloud, not read aloud, sung, staged etc.), some for publication (Epistles, Memoirs of an amnesiac, articulated articles, talks and advertisements), and some just the private writings of a brilliant, eclectic and hilarious individual, complimented with a catalogue of his works with commentary from the man himself.
Rather than give you a full bio, as those who already know him won’t need it and those who don’t know him won’t care enough to read one, I will just paint a portrait with words that the name Erik Satie evokes: 19th Century France, Piano, Velvet, Surrealism, Absurdism, Dada, Cubism, Minimalism, Eccentricity, Originality, Irony, Sarcasm, Freedom of Thought…
Hopefully this will suffice, at the very least, as a silhouette of a rather complicated man. The first tip-off to Satie’s eccentricity, for me, was the performance indications on some of his sheet music that I own. It is common for sheet music to have directions for how a piece is to be played at the beginning of the piece and/or above and below the bars. Usually, they are to do with tempo or the style/feel that you are trying to achieve; things like, Andante (medium-slow), Vivace (lively and brisk) or rallentando (gradually slowing). In typical Satie fashion, he rejects such generic instructions, instead opting to adorn his works with indications such as “with tears in your fingers”, “take your hand off and put it in your pocket”, or “with your head between your hands”. This kind of idiocy is my bottom-line (commonly referred to as a bum crack) and it carries through into his collection of writings which often have very serious titles such as, ’Three Elegant Waltzes By a Squeamish Pansy’ or simply ’[Trilogy]’… for a collection containing just two works.
One thing I really love about reading books written by, or about, musicians is that there are often cameos by other musicians that I really enjoy. In this case, Satie has quite a few interesting things to say about the greats such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and others, but the most wholesome stuff emerges from his evidently close friendships with Claude Debussy and Igor Strawinsky and a distaste for Wagnerism (not for Richard Wagner himself). Satie wasn’t a prolific critic. Included in this collection is a scathing, tongue-in-cheek dismantling of the relevance/importance of critics, titled ’A Eulogy of Critics’ which is both hilarious and undeniably accurate:
”I am dazzled by the presence of a critic, he shines so brightly that I blink for more than an hour afterwards… I kiss the footprints of his slippers… I drink in his words from a big stemmed glass, out of politeness…”
Despite this, his writings include two most favourable critiques (advertisements really) for the works of Debussy and Strawinsky. As completely biased as these “articles” are, they shed fascinating light on these musicians and are proof of two very endearing friendships:
”One characteristic of Strawinsky’s music is it’s sonorous “transparency”. This is the quality one always finds in the pure masters, who never leave “residues” in their Sonority – residues that you will always find in the “musical matter” of the Impressionist composers, and even, alas! In that of some romantic composers.”
”[Debussy’s] arrival in the Musical Arena – if I may use the term – was a rather disagreeable event for some, and a very happy one for others. These “others” formed a tiny minority, while the “some” made up a huge mass – as sticky and slimy as one could wish. As always, the opinion of the “tiny minority” triumphed (following time-honoured custom) over the “huge mass” - which itself became stuck in the mud of it’s own blindness. Poor dear “Huge mass”!... once again it had energetically put it’s foot in it – on principle, wouldn’t you say? And out of a sort of stubbornness.”
His distaste for cult-like worship and unoriginal thought is clear in his denunciation of the “Wagnerians”:
”… in those days, Wagner's genius was miserably worshipped by Mediocrity and Ignorance together, followed by a sheep-like crowd. You can imagine how difficult it was to be a Wagnerian! - even joking, one only had to say aloud: "Oh, oh... How lovely!" to be taken for an expert or... an imbecile.”
- Claude Debussy (left) and Erik Satie (right)
This is a book that I think will have a 50/50 split between those who absolutely love it for its absurdity, its ridiculousness and its abundance of music-related content, and those who dnf it 10 pages in….. for its absurdity, its ridiculousness and its abundance of music-related content. I’m in the love category. This book actually made me lol on multiple occasions due to its unpredictable randomness and loose characters. Given how quick a read it was, I’m sure I’ll come back to this one again in the future. Now, I’ll leave you with a few short lols, though I am conscious that many of these won’t be nearly as funny taken out of context as they lose the element of randomness. Thanks for reading and remember, next time you’re playing one of Chopin’s gentle Nocturnes, play it ”like a nightingale with a toothache”.
”Where was I now?... Let me see… Five plus three makes eleven… take four leaves six… two plus seven makes eighteen.
That’s right… *thinks* God dammit… I am sixty thousand francs down! I cannot understand it. *He counts under his breath*”
”You shall have a bit. Do you like chocolate? Let it melt in your mouth.”
“Mummy, there is a bone in it.”
“No, my love, it is an almond.”
”How does one become a musician? It is quite simple:
One finds a teacher – a music teacher… if possible.”
”I have continued to have a soft spot for animals. There are many that I love very much: lobster, for instance; but it gives me a stomach-ache, unfortunately for it, otherwise, I would eat it more often.”
”What is that lovely thread of water running through this soft land?
It is so shy.
It hides under the ground.
Is it a smile from the landscape?
Is it an anonymous gift of nature?
Is it an exquisite tear, wrung from the rocks?
I do not think so: it is the main sewer.”
January 3, 2008
Erik Satie did nothing wrong in his life. He wrote great music, invented muzak, and had a great sense of humor - like wearing only brown velvet suits and buying an umbrella everyday. Also when he died, they found the piano in his apartment upside down. And then there is the story that he only ate food that was the color 'white.'
Nevertheless his writings, his little poems, correspondence are fantastic pieces of literature. Debussy loved him and Picabia was crazy about this guy. If he was still alive he would have been friends with Syd Barrett and Scott Walker!
Nevertheless his writings, his little poems, correspondence are fantastic pieces of literature. Debussy loved him and Picabia was crazy about this guy. If he was still alive he would have been friends with Syd Barrett and Scott Walker!
September 6, 2018
Es imposible no terminar más encariñada aún que antes de Satie, después de leer este pequeño libro. Siempre he sabido que era un excéntrico, pero esto suma mucho a la imagen que tengo de el, su sentido del humor, sus ideas. Era un personaje, y este libro es maravilloso para acompañar su música, y sus ideas. Muy recomendado.
Me encantó una frase suya que viene en la cronología de su vida, con comentarios suyos, que es:
"En el arte no se precisan esclavitudes. Siempre me he esforzado por confundir a los seguidores, por la forma y por el fondo, en cada nueva obra. Es el único medio de que un artista no haga escuela, es decir, de que no se convierta en un pedante. "
Me encantó una frase suya que viene en la cronología de su vida, con comentarios suyos, que es:
"En el arte no se precisan esclavitudes. Siempre me he esforzado por confundir a los seguidores, por la forma y por el fondo, en cada nueva obra. Es el único medio de que un artista no haga escuela, es decir, de que no se convierta en un pedante. "
Read
September 2, 2011Erik Satie, what a strange and lovable man you were. In both music, and apparently letters, you toed the fine line between genius and retard, and came out on the right side of that line. Well done, sir.
I think I read this book the wrong way. Or maybe it wasn't meant to be read as a book. I loved each paragraph, but I had to read it in very short bursts. Otherwise, the absurdism would lose its value. I'm calling this poetry because I don't know what else to call it. It's not fiction or nonfiction, it's not memoir, and the parts that are plays don't really seem like plays.
Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and only eat white foods. When I die of Vitamin A deficiency, you'll know I did it for you, Satie.
I think I read this book the wrong way. Or maybe it wasn't meant to be read as a book. I loved each paragraph, but I had to read it in very short bursts. Otherwise, the absurdism would lose its value. I'm calling this poetry because I don't know what else to call it. It's not fiction or nonfiction, it's not memoir, and the parts that are plays don't really seem like plays.
Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and only eat white foods. When I die of Vitamin A deficiency, you'll know I did it for you, Satie.
December 1, 2019
This collection offers quite an expansive range of material from the eccentric French composer and writer Erik Satie. The book is divided into pieces written for performance, pieces written for publication, and private writings. Certain of the performative pieces are not as lively on the page, but that is to be expected. Also, to be fully appreciated, some of the humor requires knowledge of late 19th century popular music in France (the specific details of which are, in fairness, included in the comprehensive notes). That said, there is plenty to be enjoyed on a surface level, particularly Satie's little absurdist rhymes and songs, some of which are accompanied by drawings from Charles Martin. The absurdist play 'Medusa's Snare' is also a highlight in this first section.
Among the pieces for publication, there are various fragments, talks, and more formal articles, essays, etc. Satie shares both serious and less serious thoughts on music theory and philosophy; opinions on art criticism and its purveyors; and insights into some of his contemporaries, including Debussy (a close friend), Stravinsky (another friend), and Ravel (of whom he was not a big fan).
Finally, in the private writings are included excerpts from Satie's 'A Mammal's Notebook' column, which was meant to be a collection of scribblings to himself. These include various pithy aphoristic writings, absurd vignettes, impressions, and sketches. One of Satie's more endearing qualities is his humorous self-deprecating nature. No doubt he would have been fun to know in person.
The volume closes out with a catalogue of Satie's musical and literary writings, presented with his own commentary. One of my favorite titles is that of one of his 'Tiresome Peccadilloes' for piano, called 'Being Jealous of Your Friend Who Has Got a Big Head'. There are a lot of amusing gems buried in this chronology, including this hilarious draft of an advertisement for 'furniture music', which is basically what we know as elevator music or muzak:
Among the pieces for publication, there are various fragments, talks, and more formal articles, essays, etc. Satie shares both serious and less serious thoughts on music theory and philosophy; opinions on art criticism and its purveyors; and insights into some of his contemporaries, including Debussy (a close friend), Stravinsky (another friend), and Ravel (of whom he was not a big fan).
Finally, in the private writings are included excerpts from Satie's 'A Mammal's Notebook' column, which was meant to be a collection of scribblings to himself. These include various pithy aphoristic writings, absurd vignettes, impressions, and sketches. One of Satie's more endearing qualities is his humorous self-deprecating nature. No doubt he would have been fun to know in person.
The volume closes out with a catalogue of Satie's musical and literary writings, presented with his own commentary. One of my favorite titles is that of one of his 'Tiresome Peccadilloes' for piano, called 'Being Jealous of Your Friend Who Has Got a Big Head'. There are a lot of amusing gems buried in this chronology, including this hilarious draft of an advertisement for 'furniture music', which is basically what we know as elevator music or muzak:
'Furniture Music' is fundamentally industrial.
It is habitual—common practice—to make music on occasions with which music has nothing to do 'Waltzes,' 'Fantasias' from Operas, & other such things are played, which were written with a different aim.
We wish to establish a form of music designed to satisfy 'utility' requirements. Art does not come into these requirements.
'Furniture Music' creates vibrations; it has no other purpose; it fills the same role as light, warmth, and comfort in all its forms.
*'Furniture Music' advantageously replaces marches, polkas, tangos, gavottes, etc.
*Insist on 'Furniture Music'.
*No meetings, assemblies etc. without 'Furniture Music'.
*'Furniture Music' for lawyers, banks, etc...
*'Furniture Music' has no first name.
*No wedding should be without 'Furniture Music'.
*Do not enter a house which does not use 'Furniture Music'.
*A man who has not heard 'Furniture Music' does not know happiness.
*Do not go to sleep without listening to 'Furniture Music' or you will sleep badly.
A few photos of the book's contents can be found here.
Read
December 29, 2025This has been sitting on my Currently Reading Shelf for one year (less a day), which is patently untrue. Nor is Read where it's shelved now. I received this as a Christmas present, after appropriate hints, and assumed it would be one of those obscure, quirky books which give me such pleasure. And quirky it is.
Musically, Erik Satie is best known - and probably only known by most - for his Gymnopédies. I've never tired of them. Yet the rest of his catalogue is modest. There are no operas nor symphonies, and he counseled other composers to keep it short.
What he did, instead, was other things. No movement was too avant-garde for him to join. He was a true bohemian. And he wrote, a lot. This is a collection of his writings, though you could call them musings instead. It's a hodgepodge: plays, cartoons, texts to be sung or read aloud, articles, and aphorisms. The writings of an eccentric, to no surprise, tend to be eccentric. As are these. Some jottings are downright childish. Nevertheless, here are some short samplings:
- What is a man? A poor creature set on earth to bother other men.
- Why is a man good-looking? Because of all the animals, man is the only one that says so.
- You should not let thoughts from the back of your head slide too far down your back.
Not all the musings are that profound.
It's a beautiful physical book, though. I may reach for it from time to time, maybe when I'm listening to the Gymnopédies. I just need a shelf for that.
Musically, Erik Satie is best known - and probably only known by most - for his Gymnopédies. I've never tired of them. Yet the rest of his catalogue is modest. There are no operas nor symphonies, and he counseled other composers to keep it short.
What he did, instead, was other things. No movement was too avant-garde for him to join. He was a true bohemian. And he wrote, a lot. This is a collection of his writings, though you could call them musings instead. It's a hodgepodge: plays, cartoons, texts to be sung or read aloud, articles, and aphorisms. The writings of an eccentric, to no surprise, tend to be eccentric. As are these. Some jottings are downright childish. Nevertheless, here are some short samplings:
- What is a man? A poor creature set on earth to bother other men.
- Why is a man good-looking? Because of all the animals, man is the only one that says so.
- You should not let thoughts from the back of your head slide too far down your back.
Not all the musings are that profound.
It's a beautiful physical book, though. I may reach for it from time to time, maybe when I'm listening to the Gymnopédies. I just need a shelf for that.
February 27, 2022
What an interesting mammal! I was already aware of how ahead-of-his-time he was with his music, which included proto-minimalism and full-on ambient music, designed to just decorate your space, not to be actively listened to. I was surprised to here read his play "Medusa's Trap", which is as absurd as Ionesco, as surreal as "The Breasts of Tiresius", and as pataphysical as "Ubu Roi". (Which is not to say it is actually much fun.) He could even draw futuristic airships not much different from those of Robida. The footnotes in this book give me a little more insight into what his relationship to other artists of the time was like, including who exactly was the target of the "Three Elegant Waltzes by a Squeamish Pansy". .
Even so, there is a great deal of ephemeral material here that would only be of interest to a biographer.
Even so, there is a great deal of ephemeral material here that would only be of interest to a biographer.
September 30, 2014
An utterly delightful read.
May 24, 2016
I've had an abiding interest in Satie since reading Roger Shattuck's "The Banquet Years" during my college days, and have since become a big fan of his musical output well beyond his played-to-death "Gymnopedies"; like the composer these works are witty, eccentric, and far ahead of their time. This handsome volume from Atlas Press compiles his written work, which shares the same qualities. It's easy to see why he socialized with and was sought out by avant-gardists of following generations, as he strikes one here as something of a Dadaist avant-la-lettre. One ends up throughly charmed by Satie the man, whose character and humor really shines through in the many written genres he employed over his career: from farce to lecture, essays to aphorisms, his correspondence to the apocryphal ads he apparently placed just to wind people up. His talent as a pen-and-ink graphic artist is also amply demonstrated here, and is a lovely surprise. Satie is revealed here as a true polymath, a great wit and a consummate original. Highly recommended!
November 29, 2015
"All the years I was young people said to me: 'You will see when you are 50.'I am 50. I haven't seen anything"
This was such a fantastic read. From Uspud to his compositional notations "not to be read aloud" Satie's writings have given me such a greater appreciation for the experience of hearing his music. Satie was a special case amongst special cases. His eccentricities flow out of his scrambled writings from a world created and sustained by this pioneer of keeping oneself 'acephalous.'
This was such a fantastic read. From Uspud to his compositional notations "not to be read aloud" Satie's writings have given me such a greater appreciation for the experience of hearing his music. Satie was a special case amongst special cases. His eccentricities flow out of his scrambled writings from a world created and sustained by this pioneer of keeping oneself 'acephalous.'
September 24, 2010
He truly was a groovy cat.
Gosh, did I really just type that?
Gosh, did I really just type that?
June 26, 2016
Un puzzle difficile da ricomporre
Erik Satie è senza dubbio uno dei musicisti più importanti del periodo a cavallo tra '800 e '900, ed uno di quelli che meglio ha interpretato i profondi sconvolgimenti sociali, culturali ed artistici che hanno caratterizzato quell'epoca. Emblematico a questo proposito il fatto che due delle personalità artistiche a cui fu più legato, anche dal punto di vista personale furono da un lato Claude Debussy e dall'altro Jean Cocteau: due personalità che nel nostro immaginario appartengono a due epoche totalmente diverse, ma che trovano un loro preciso fil rouge proprio nell'eccentrico compositore normanno.
La musica di Satie prende infatti le mosse da atmosfere pienamente ottocentesche sia pure rielaborate con una grande originalità, che potremmo definire postimpressioniste, riscontrabili nelle celeberrime Gymnopédies e Gnossiennes, composte tra il 1888 e il 1897, per approdare, nelle composizioni del periodo a cavallo della prima guerra mondiale, ad essere una sorta di colonna sonora delle produzioni artistiche delle avanguardie cubiste, dada e surrealista. Satie divenne anzi una sorta di punto di riferimento musicale delle avanguardie, e la sua opera influenzò molti dei compositori del primo e secondo novecento.
Erik Satie (si firmava sempre con nome e cognome, anche nei biglietti trasmessi agli amici) è un coerente interprete dell'epoca che ha attraversato anche per quanto riguarda lo stile di vita e i comportamenti, che per certi versi lo accomunano ad un altro grande intellettuale dell'epoca, che in campo teatrale ha operato una rivoluzione anche più profonda di quella di Satie in campo musicale: Alfred Jarry.
Come il padre di Ubu e della Patafisica Satie visse in povertà, di lui si conosce una sola, breve relazione sentimentale con una donna e morì, sia pure di un ventennio più anziano, per l'abuso di alcool ed assenzio.
Da giovane fu affascinato dall'esoterismo ed aderì alla setta dei Rosacroce: poco più tardi avrebbe addirittura fondato una chiesa, l'Église Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur, di cui però fu l'unico sacerdote e fedele; deluso da questa esperienza non si interessò più di affari religiosi.
Alla sua morte, gli amici che aprirono la stanza sempre chiusa a chiave del piccolo appartamento in cui Satie viveva ad Arcueil, alle porte di Parigi, (l'unica altra stanza era chiamata da Satie, per le sue dimensioni, l'armadio) trovarono tra l'altro, in un disordine indescrivibile coperto di ragnatele, una vera e propria collezione di ombrelli, mucchi di corrispondenza non aperta, oltre quattromila bigliettini illustrati e scritti da Satie e sette vestiti uguali: il musicista vestiva infatti sempre un completo in velluto grigio, e quando quello indossato era troppo logoro lo sostituiva con un altro acquistandone uno nuovo di scorta.
Se conosciamo bene la musica di Erik Satie, spesso utilizzata anche come colonna sonora di film, questo ponderoso volume di Adelphi curato da Ornella Volta, musicologa triestina di statura internazionale che ha dedicato gran parte della sua opera al grande musicista francese, ha il grande pregio di farci conoscere la personalità di Satie attraverso la sua vasta produzione scritta. Uso questo termine non a caso, perché gli scritti di Satie raccolti in questo volume non sono, per la maggior parte, scritti redatti con ambizioni letterarie; ci vengono infatti proposti anche frammenti, appunti, testi di discorsi tenuti durante conferenze, aforismi scarabocchiati di notte sotto i lampioni di Parigi, commenti con cui accompagnava le sue composizioni, e persino – in rigoroso ordine alfabetico – i consigli di interpretazione scritti nelle sue partiture. Non viene detto se questa raccolta comprende tutti gli scritti di Satie oggi disponibili, ma sicuramente dalla tipologia descritta sopra emerge che la scelta è stata molto ampia.
Proprio l'ampiezza e l'eterogeneità degli scritti raccolti fa emergere quello che è secondo me il limite principale del libro: la sua pessima organizzazione. La gran parte degli scritti, infatti, non ha, per il comune lettore, un significato in sé (si pensi ad esempio ai consigli di interpretazione delle partiture) ma devono essere commentati per poter comprendere il loro significato nell'ambito dell'opera complessiva di Satie, devono essere contestualizzati. Ora, questi commenti, queste contestualizzazioni nel libro ci sono, e sono anche molto dettagliate e puntuali, ma sono poste in coda all'insieme dei testi, in una sezione (che occupa circa la metà del volume) in cui Ornella Volta ne spiega il significato alla luce delle vicende personali ed artistiche di Satie. Ne risulta la necessità di saltare, subito dopo avere letto un testo, a leggere il suo commento molte pagine dopo, dovendo tornare spesso al testo per seguire il filo del commento. Veramente è incomprensibile che i commenti non siano stati posti in testa o in coda ad ogni singolo testo cui si riferiscono, agevolandone così la lettura critica. Oltre questa critica di tecnica editoriale, mi sento di avanzarne un'altra, più sostanziale, circa l'organizzazione del volume. La gran massa di testi è organizzata per sezioni logiche: troviamo così scritti raggruppati per ”Introduzioni alle opere”, per ”Articoli”, per ”Corrispondenza”, per ”Teatro” etc. Se a prima vista è un'organizzazione che appare logica, in realtà porta a non poche complicazioni nella lettura: infatti le introduzioni alle poche opere teatrali che Satie ha scritto da solo o in collaborazione con altri, ovviamente utili per capire cosa Satie avesse voluto dire, si trovano prima delle opere stesse, con il risultato che leggendo le introduzioni non si capisce nulla delle opere, e quando si arriva alle opere è necessario tornare indietro per rileggere le introduzioni. Si aggiunga che, come detto, Satie ha attraversato un'epoca in perenne mutamento, durante la quale anch'egli ha cambiato ovviamente i propri interessi e le proprie sensibilità, e che quindi il dato cronologico risulta uno di quelli essenziali per farsi un'idea compiuta del pensiero del musicista e della sua evoluzione, e si comprenderà come l'organizzazione complessiva di questo volume sembri fatta apposta per confondere il lettore e tenerlo lontano da una piena comprensione del suo contenuto.
Detto questo, è indubbio che gli scritti di Satie ci regalino anche alcune piccole perle letterarie, che ci restituiscono appieno l'ironia di questo grande musicista, il suo grande sense of humor, la sua capacità di sferzare le convenzioni dell'epoca in cui visse e la sua grandezza di intellettuale a tutto tondo.
Se la prima sezione del libro (intitolata Ai suoi interpreti) è solo un elenco di annotazioni musicali che può essere letto solo avvalendosi dei commenti di Ornella Volta, la seconda (Agli altri) è il vero cuore di questo volume, ed in particolare gli Articoli meritano di essere letti attentamente per il loro valore letterario. Colmi di affetto e amicizia sono i due pezzi dedicati rispettivamente a Debussy e a Stravisnsky, che sono anche un'analisi puntuale della loro musica, ma anche molti altri degli articoli scritti per piccole o grandi riviste e quotidiani ci permettono di cogliere la grande ironia di Satie. Piccoli capolavori di humor ed ironia sono le trascrizioni delle conferenze, in particolare quella nella quale ridicolizza garbatamente i critici musicali e I bambini musicisti, in cui emerge – sempre con un tono garbato e sottile, la critica di Satie ai metodi accademici di insegnamento della musica.
In questa sezione sono anche compresi i testi di tre brevi opere teatrali scritte e musicate da Satie, delle quali senza dubbio la più importante a livello letterario è L'insidia di Medusa, del 1913, nella quale le analogie con il teatro di Jarry e la prefigurazione di quello che sarebbe stato chiamato il teatro dell'assurdo emergono appieno.
L'ultima sezione (A sé stesso) comprende i testi più assurdi di Satie, che ci testimoniano una volta di più della sua capacità di essere, per certi vesti suo malgrado, un precursore delle avanguardie novecentesche: Sicuramente da gustare appieno l'inventario della gerarchia sacerdotale della sua chiesa, di cui descrive particolareggiatamente le vesti di cerimonia e fornisce il numero di adepti (i Peneanti neri conversi avrebbero dovuto essere 1.600.000.000). Meravigliosi, anche se purtroppo non gustabili appieno perché mancanti dell'elaborazione grafica, gli annunci economici, che facevano parte dei 4.000 biglietti trovati nel suo appartamento.
Leggere questo volume permette quindi di conoscere molto meglio la poliedrica, eccentrica e per certi versi sconcertante personalità di questo grande musicista, ma questo avviene quasi a discapito del libro stesso, che per la sua organizzazione interna rende estremamente arduo riannodare i numerosi fili che dissemina lungo le sue 350 pagine. Sembra quasi che la curatrice si sia divertita a mescolare le carte, a richiedere al lettore uno sforzo di ricomposizione che somiglia molto a quello necessario per far combaciare le tessere di un puzzle.
Circa a metà del volume sono poste sedici tavole fuori testo, e tra queste vi sono alcune fotografie di Satie. Si fa fatica a riconoscere, in quella testa presto calva, incorniciata da un pizzetto, con occhialini pince-nez, in quel viso così ottocentesco, il grande precursore dell'assurdo in musica, che sin dai tempi della Musique d'Ameublement (à propos: da leggerne assolutamente la descrizione) aveva presumibilmente capito dove saremmo andati a parare quanto a funzione sociale della musica. C'è però una foto di lui con Debussy (scattata da Stravinsky…) in cui ci guarda con un'aria decisamente furbetta. Ecco, lì si capisce chi davvero fosse Satie e quante cose ci insegni ancora oggi.
Erik Satie è senza dubbio uno dei musicisti più importanti del periodo a cavallo tra '800 e '900, ed uno di quelli che meglio ha interpretato i profondi sconvolgimenti sociali, culturali ed artistici che hanno caratterizzato quell'epoca. Emblematico a questo proposito il fatto che due delle personalità artistiche a cui fu più legato, anche dal punto di vista personale furono da un lato Claude Debussy e dall'altro Jean Cocteau: due personalità che nel nostro immaginario appartengono a due epoche totalmente diverse, ma che trovano un loro preciso fil rouge proprio nell'eccentrico compositore normanno.
La musica di Satie prende infatti le mosse da atmosfere pienamente ottocentesche sia pure rielaborate con una grande originalità, che potremmo definire postimpressioniste, riscontrabili nelle celeberrime Gymnopédies e Gnossiennes, composte tra il 1888 e il 1897, per approdare, nelle composizioni del periodo a cavallo della prima guerra mondiale, ad essere una sorta di colonna sonora delle produzioni artistiche delle avanguardie cubiste, dada e surrealista. Satie divenne anzi una sorta di punto di riferimento musicale delle avanguardie, e la sua opera influenzò molti dei compositori del primo e secondo novecento.
Erik Satie (si firmava sempre con nome e cognome, anche nei biglietti trasmessi agli amici) è un coerente interprete dell'epoca che ha attraversato anche per quanto riguarda lo stile di vita e i comportamenti, che per certi versi lo accomunano ad un altro grande intellettuale dell'epoca, che in campo teatrale ha operato una rivoluzione anche più profonda di quella di Satie in campo musicale: Alfred Jarry.
Come il padre di Ubu e della Patafisica Satie visse in povertà, di lui si conosce una sola, breve relazione sentimentale con una donna e morì, sia pure di un ventennio più anziano, per l'abuso di alcool ed assenzio.
Da giovane fu affascinato dall'esoterismo ed aderì alla setta dei Rosacroce: poco più tardi avrebbe addirittura fondato una chiesa, l'Église Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur, di cui però fu l'unico sacerdote e fedele; deluso da questa esperienza non si interessò più di affari religiosi.
Alla sua morte, gli amici che aprirono la stanza sempre chiusa a chiave del piccolo appartamento in cui Satie viveva ad Arcueil, alle porte di Parigi, (l'unica altra stanza era chiamata da Satie, per le sue dimensioni, l'armadio) trovarono tra l'altro, in un disordine indescrivibile coperto di ragnatele, una vera e propria collezione di ombrelli, mucchi di corrispondenza non aperta, oltre quattromila bigliettini illustrati e scritti da Satie e sette vestiti uguali: il musicista vestiva infatti sempre un completo in velluto grigio, e quando quello indossato era troppo logoro lo sostituiva con un altro acquistandone uno nuovo di scorta.
Se conosciamo bene la musica di Erik Satie, spesso utilizzata anche come colonna sonora di film, questo ponderoso volume di Adelphi curato da Ornella Volta, musicologa triestina di statura internazionale che ha dedicato gran parte della sua opera al grande musicista francese, ha il grande pregio di farci conoscere la personalità di Satie attraverso la sua vasta produzione scritta. Uso questo termine non a caso, perché gli scritti di Satie raccolti in questo volume non sono, per la maggior parte, scritti redatti con ambizioni letterarie; ci vengono infatti proposti anche frammenti, appunti, testi di discorsi tenuti durante conferenze, aforismi scarabocchiati di notte sotto i lampioni di Parigi, commenti con cui accompagnava le sue composizioni, e persino – in rigoroso ordine alfabetico – i consigli di interpretazione scritti nelle sue partiture. Non viene detto se questa raccolta comprende tutti gli scritti di Satie oggi disponibili, ma sicuramente dalla tipologia descritta sopra emerge che la scelta è stata molto ampia.
Proprio l'ampiezza e l'eterogeneità degli scritti raccolti fa emergere quello che è secondo me il limite principale del libro: la sua pessima organizzazione. La gran parte degli scritti, infatti, non ha, per il comune lettore, un significato in sé (si pensi ad esempio ai consigli di interpretazione delle partiture) ma devono essere commentati per poter comprendere il loro significato nell'ambito dell'opera complessiva di Satie, devono essere contestualizzati. Ora, questi commenti, queste contestualizzazioni nel libro ci sono, e sono anche molto dettagliate e puntuali, ma sono poste in coda all'insieme dei testi, in una sezione (che occupa circa la metà del volume) in cui Ornella Volta ne spiega il significato alla luce delle vicende personali ed artistiche di Satie. Ne risulta la necessità di saltare, subito dopo avere letto un testo, a leggere il suo commento molte pagine dopo, dovendo tornare spesso al testo per seguire il filo del commento. Veramente è incomprensibile che i commenti non siano stati posti in testa o in coda ad ogni singolo testo cui si riferiscono, agevolandone così la lettura critica. Oltre questa critica di tecnica editoriale, mi sento di avanzarne un'altra, più sostanziale, circa l'organizzazione del volume. La gran massa di testi è organizzata per sezioni logiche: troviamo così scritti raggruppati per ”Introduzioni alle opere”, per ”Articoli”, per ”Corrispondenza”, per ”Teatro” etc. Se a prima vista è un'organizzazione che appare logica, in realtà porta a non poche complicazioni nella lettura: infatti le introduzioni alle poche opere teatrali che Satie ha scritto da solo o in collaborazione con altri, ovviamente utili per capire cosa Satie avesse voluto dire, si trovano prima delle opere stesse, con il risultato che leggendo le introduzioni non si capisce nulla delle opere, e quando si arriva alle opere è necessario tornare indietro per rileggere le introduzioni. Si aggiunga che, come detto, Satie ha attraversato un'epoca in perenne mutamento, durante la quale anch'egli ha cambiato ovviamente i propri interessi e le proprie sensibilità, e che quindi il dato cronologico risulta uno di quelli essenziali per farsi un'idea compiuta del pensiero del musicista e della sua evoluzione, e si comprenderà come l'organizzazione complessiva di questo volume sembri fatta apposta per confondere il lettore e tenerlo lontano da una piena comprensione del suo contenuto.
Detto questo, è indubbio che gli scritti di Satie ci regalino anche alcune piccole perle letterarie, che ci restituiscono appieno l'ironia di questo grande musicista, il suo grande sense of humor, la sua capacità di sferzare le convenzioni dell'epoca in cui visse e la sua grandezza di intellettuale a tutto tondo.
Se la prima sezione del libro (intitolata Ai suoi interpreti) è solo un elenco di annotazioni musicali che può essere letto solo avvalendosi dei commenti di Ornella Volta, la seconda (Agli altri) è il vero cuore di questo volume, ed in particolare gli Articoli meritano di essere letti attentamente per il loro valore letterario. Colmi di affetto e amicizia sono i due pezzi dedicati rispettivamente a Debussy e a Stravisnsky, che sono anche un'analisi puntuale della loro musica, ma anche molti altri degli articoli scritti per piccole o grandi riviste e quotidiani ci permettono di cogliere la grande ironia di Satie. Piccoli capolavori di humor ed ironia sono le trascrizioni delle conferenze, in particolare quella nella quale ridicolizza garbatamente i critici musicali e I bambini musicisti, in cui emerge – sempre con un tono garbato e sottile, la critica di Satie ai metodi accademici di insegnamento della musica.
In questa sezione sono anche compresi i testi di tre brevi opere teatrali scritte e musicate da Satie, delle quali senza dubbio la più importante a livello letterario è L'insidia di Medusa, del 1913, nella quale le analogie con il teatro di Jarry e la prefigurazione di quello che sarebbe stato chiamato il teatro dell'assurdo emergono appieno.
L'ultima sezione (A sé stesso) comprende i testi più assurdi di Satie, che ci testimoniano una volta di più della sua capacità di essere, per certi vesti suo malgrado, un precursore delle avanguardie novecentesche: Sicuramente da gustare appieno l'inventario della gerarchia sacerdotale della sua chiesa, di cui descrive particolareggiatamente le vesti di cerimonia e fornisce il numero di adepti (i Peneanti neri conversi avrebbero dovuto essere 1.600.000.000). Meravigliosi, anche se purtroppo non gustabili appieno perché mancanti dell'elaborazione grafica, gli annunci economici, che facevano parte dei 4.000 biglietti trovati nel suo appartamento.
Leggere questo volume permette quindi di conoscere molto meglio la poliedrica, eccentrica e per certi versi sconcertante personalità di questo grande musicista, ma questo avviene quasi a discapito del libro stesso, che per la sua organizzazione interna rende estremamente arduo riannodare i numerosi fili che dissemina lungo le sue 350 pagine. Sembra quasi che la curatrice si sia divertita a mescolare le carte, a richiedere al lettore uno sforzo di ricomposizione che somiglia molto a quello necessario per far combaciare le tessere di un puzzle.
Circa a metà del volume sono poste sedici tavole fuori testo, e tra queste vi sono alcune fotografie di Satie. Si fa fatica a riconoscere, in quella testa presto calva, incorniciata da un pizzetto, con occhialini pince-nez, in quel viso così ottocentesco, il grande precursore dell'assurdo in musica, che sin dai tempi della Musique d'Ameublement (à propos: da leggerne assolutamente la descrizione) aveva presumibilmente capito dove saremmo andati a parare quanto a funzione sociale della musica. C'è però una foto di lui con Debussy (scattata da Stravinsky…) in cui ci guarda con un'aria decisamente furbetta. Ecco, lì si capisce chi davvero fosse Satie e quante cose ci insegni ancora oggi.
October 20, 2023
Para leer con música de Satie de fondo. Si es posible las piezas que correspondan a cada texto. Estupenda compilación de uno de los grandes genios musicales y textuales de principios del Siglo XX. Desternillante en momentos como la obra absurda “Medusa” y desconcertante en otros como las “Tres piezas con forma de pera”, pero siempre brillante. Inspirador y deslumbrante en su simpleza como muchas de sus obras para piano. Satie es mucho más que el uso de sus Gymnopedias en comerciales. Un libro estupendo.
February 6, 2008
Satie was, of course, a meticulous calligrapher & is reknowned for the wry humor that he exercised both in his music & in the notes written on his scores. This bk collects such writings as well as drawings & scores, etc.. A must-have for Satie-fanciers such as yrs truly. Another gem from Atlas Press.
September 28, 2014
I made a public Spotify playlist to accompany the first section of this book.
Erik Satie-A Mammal's Notebook
http://open.spotify.com/user/kimleym/playlist/344Beel0fkvzdVDFmHt4y1
Erik Satie-A Mammal's Notebook
http://open.spotify.com/user/kimleym/playlist/344Beel0fkvzdVDFmHt4y1
August 5, 2025
What an incredible book this is. It’s very much the perfect companion to Satie’s music. Its turns tender, witty, pithy, oblique, maddening, peculiar and enlightening. It shows a man who was completely treading his own path, but while travelling crossed over with all manner of movements (probably why Breton didn’t like him, because Satie was one of those surrealist adjacent people who didn’t like to belong to a group) whose traces you can see throughout the volume. His theatrical stuff feels like a less furious Jarry, his more strange epigrammatic writing a cross between Allais and Queneau. I was also reminded of Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines in terms of how concise Satie’s writing is (as it should be, considering his music). There’s a whole chunk of what’s essentially the prototype for Eno’s Oblique Strategies, showing just how much of an influence Satie has had on Eno. The most moving section, apart from a deeply sad piece touching on his falling out with Debussy, is the cards found in his cigar boxes - it evokes a whole mirror world that Satie was creating, elegant and playful and strange and funny and startling. It explains so much of what makes his work so profoundly special that here was a man who almost literally belonged in another place, one of his own creation. It sort of allows him entrance to at least some of the hallowed halls of outsider artists. As ever with Atlas Press, it’s a beautiful book
July 12, 2021
Boníssim! Desconeixia l'autor fins ahir mateix.
March 10, 2019
2.5/5 stars
An intriguing little book of Satie's collected writings/musings/vignettes. As I love Satie's music so much I was interested to see what his poetry might be like. I was pleased to see he was linked to the main area of French literature/history/art that I'm interested in (Dadaism, Surrealism etc.) (even if he didn't believe himself a part of any of those groups lol). It's not something that I read thinking "yeah yeah wow this is incredible poetry" - they're a bit weird and random - but I enjoyed it for the fact of knowing more about Satie's work and arty French literature!
An intriguing little book of Satie's collected writings/musings/vignettes. As I love Satie's music so much I was interested to see what his poetry might be like. I was pleased to see he was linked to the main area of French literature/history/art that I'm interested in (Dadaism, Surrealism etc.) (even if he didn't believe himself a part of any of those groups lol). It's not something that I read thinking "yeah yeah wow this is incredible poetry" - they're a bit weird and random - but I enjoyed it for the fact of knowing more about Satie's work and arty French literature!
September 22, 2015
Книга наверное будет интересна тем, кто может вспомнить хоть одно произведение Эрика Сати (хотя бы первую гимнопедию), и кому эта музыка нравится. Читать же статьи и записки композитора, который вам неизвестен, смысла особого нет.
Книга разделена на 4 части: статьи ("Всем"), письма ("Некоторым"), записи ("Себе") и воспоминания современников. Многие из статей довольно злободневны, хоть и весьма оригинальны. Наиболее интересной мне показалась вторая часть, где талант и оригинальность Эрика Сати раскрывается наиболее широко. Полная выдержка стиля послания, со всеми регалиями вымышленной Метрополийской Церкви Искусства, тонкие формулировки и довольно резкие местами нападки.
В общем книга хорошая, но интересна наверное только тем, кто интересуется личностью композитора либо той эпохой. Собственно литературной ценности как таковой нет, отвлечённому читателю получить удовольствие от этой книги наверное не получится. У тех же, кто хотя бы вскользь знаком с его творчеством, раскрытие автора музыки со стороны человеческих качеств может наоборот подстегнуть интерес к его музыке.
Книга разделена на 4 части: статьи ("Всем"), письма ("Некоторым"), записи ("Себе") и воспоминания современников. Многие из статей довольно злободневны, хоть и весьма оригинальны. Наиболее интересной мне показалась вторая часть, где талант и оригинальность Эрика Сати раскрывается наиболее широко. Полная выдержка стиля послания, со всеми регалиями вымышленной Метрополийской Церкви Искусства, тонкие формулировки и довольно резкие местами нападки.
В общем книга хорошая, но интересна наверное только тем, кто интересуется личностью композитора либо той эпохой. Собственно литературной ценности как таковой нет, отвлечённому читателю получить удовольствие от этой книги наверное не получится. У тех же, кто хотя бы вскользь знаком с его творчеством, раскрытие автора музыки со стороны человеческих качеств может наоборот подстегнуть интерес к его музыке.
September 23, 2021
This is an offbeat collection of poems, drawings, music, plays, advertising copy, and other writings by the early 20th-century composer. I picked this up because his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes are among my all-time favorite compositions and I wanted to learn more about the man behind the music. Even by the standards of the Parisian avant-garde movement, he was certainly an eccentric man!
This took me a long time to get through; it’s not really meant to be read and digested in the traditional sense, I don’t think. It’s so absurd that I think it is most appreciated in short bursts. As I made my way through, my overall impressions were: bizarre(!!), imaginative, incredibly odd, chaotic and yet pared back, with an overall melancholic tone. Anyone interested in a peek into Satie’s unique perspective will enjoy flipping through this.
This took me a long time to get through; it’s not really meant to be read and digested in the traditional sense, I don’t think. It’s so absurd that I think it is most appreciated in short bursts. As I made my way through, my overall impressions were: bizarre(!!), imaginative, incredibly odd, chaotic and yet pared back, with an overall melancholic tone. Anyone interested in a peek into Satie’s unique perspective will enjoy flipping through this.
November 24, 2020
Several times I thought, “I can’t finish this book; it’s just too strange!” But as a fan of Erik Satie’s music (in particular, his songs), I felt some loyalty to this truly eccentric man and pushed on.
The oddest sections of the book relate to Satie’s one-act plays and “advertisements.” Many of his quips and quotes are hilarious, though, which make the book worthwhile as a humorous repository.
Case in point: “The more I know about men, the more I admire dogs.” Or, “When a man starts talking about the ‘decadence’ we see these days, have a good look at his face.”
Yes, this little volume cements Satie’s reputation as an oddity. But it was strangely satisfying to wade through the bizarre bric-a-brac, all the same.
The oddest sections of the book relate to Satie’s one-act plays and “advertisements.” Many of his quips and quotes are hilarious, though, which make the book worthwhile as a humorous repository.
Case in point: “The more I know about men, the more I admire dogs.” Or, “When a man starts talking about the ‘decadence’ we see these days, have a good look at his face.”
Yes, this little volume cements Satie’s reputation as an oddity. But it was strangely satisfying to wade through the bizarre bric-a-brac, all the same.
November 11, 2015
Scherzo.
January 19, 2023
Among the great originals of the classical scape, a man for whom irreverence is reverence, among Laurence Sterne as, in Nietzsche’s term, the most liberated of all men. Erik Satie is certainly among the most known of composers even if the man, and all his music outside of his first youthful burst, is largely obscure. But he, as a character, as himself an aspect of artistry, ranks among the most remarkable of all composers in the western tradition. He is the first, to my knowledge, to mock so vividly the conditions of genre and type in music. (His Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear being, suitably, seven pieces.) He will invent forms, sometimes words, at will. His virtuosic incompetence is, itself, home to artistry: he understands that the essence of the art is not in fireworks but in the light they provide; that a thing need not be large, complex, detailed, to be beautiful. Even bar lines seemed, for the most part, beyond the necessity of his music. And what music it is. His writings complete the person: a reel of nonsense, or a spoken companion to a musical life. For Satie the thing itself – the notes on the page – were only the outer remit of a work that spoke in words and in images. Not, as he specified, for all people at all times. Here so many of his later satirical works are granted a heft of sense (their demotic references are largely untraceable for the modern ear, but as programmes to absurd poetry they take on a new attitude); and otherwise his sublimely original, isolated conception of living. A note suggests that Satie’s might be the first brochure ever printed wholly in lower-case. This does not astound me. He is among the first to ever synchronize a soundtrack to film. He invented ambient music, and set down the blocks for minimalism. He wrote beautiful songs for the cabaret; he was the first to create a new work by chronological excision of an old one. It seems he could hardly move for inspiration and innovation; even his self-cannibalizing works, particularly in the creative drought of the late 1890s, seem to borrow from an idiom so totally original as to belie all others. There are shades of Debussy in Satie’s harmonies – some of them, at least – and we might be more right in acclaiming Debussy as the true revolutionary of fin de siècle French music. But even Debussy knew Satie as ‘the Progenitor’; a man from out of time, a man totally unto himself. His words redound with the same errant tendency of his music. A tender genius. I hold him very dear.
July 30, 2020
De cuando en cuando nos gana el morbo por hurgar en la privacidad de los artistas. Si la obra de Satie se puede calificar como sui generis lo mismo puede decirse de este cuaderno, formado por anotaciones, poemas breves y postales que acompañaban sus partituras. Resultan más llamativas las últimas páginas que conforman las notas que el texto en si mismo. Quizá algo que encontramos en su música no se traduce con el mismo efecto a lo literario. A diferencia de otros diarios, en este no hay registro de la experiencia vital y consta más de un portafolio de textos efímeros. Quienes lean este libro no disfrutarán de una lectura ociosa ni descifrarán al personaje que se paseaba bajo la lluvia de las calles parisinas. A pesar del preciosismo de su lenguaje y de sus imágenes, no puedo recomendarlo más que para los más dedicados especialistas.
August 24, 2020
Un conjunto de curiosidades para quienes gustan de la música de Satie.
Incluye las indicaciones que anotaba en sus partituras —a veces poéticas, a veces humorísticas—, como “un secreto entre el intérprete y él” (que son lo mejor del libro). También incluye el libreto para un ballet, cargado de imágenes cristianas pero que logran un efecto casi surrealista: el guion de una obra de teatro predadaísta; poemas que acompañaban otras piezas suyas, y una biografía que intercala citas de cartas y todo tipo de fuentes.
Las notas de Ornella Volta ocupan una buena parte del libro y, en conjunto, son un buen estudio sobre la obra de Satie.
Incluye las indicaciones que anotaba en sus partituras —a veces poéticas, a veces humorísticas—, como “un secreto entre el intérprete y él” (que son lo mejor del libro). También incluye el libreto para un ballet, cargado de imágenes cristianas pero que logran un efecto casi surrealista: el guion de una obra de teatro predadaísta; poemas que acompañaban otras piezas suyas, y una biografía que intercala citas de cartas y todo tipo de fuentes.
Las notas de Ornella Volta ocupan una buena parte del libro y, en conjunto, son un buen estudio sobre la obra de Satie.
September 7, 2022
As someone who’s been listening to classical music for years, Erik Satie has always been a favorite especially, his Gymnopédie première. It’s so tranquil. I can’t think of a better pianist to capture melancholia or every nuance of emotions like Satie. So, I was curious about the character he was. It’s refreshing to see that he was kooky and whimsical. I enjoyed the vignettes and the wry humor in there. They’re noteworthy.
May 18, 2025
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WANT TO READ BOOK:
- Rida senza dare nell'occhio. Erik Satie tra umorismo e ironia (Luca Boero)
- Erik Satie tra ricerca e provocazione (Adriana Guarnieri Corazzol)
WANT TO READ BOOK:
- Rida senza dare nell'occhio. Erik Satie tra umorismo e ironia (Luca Boero)
- Erik Satie tra ricerca e provocazione (Adriana Guarnieri Corazzol)
November 8, 2020
A beautiful peek into the mind of a very original person. I've fallen under the spell of Satie's music, and now i think i understand a little of his mind. Playful, sarcastic, subtle, nuanced....a great read
August 31, 2017
Bizarre.
August 21, 2020
Nunca se sabrá si Satie estaba chalado o nos tomaba el pelo a todos. Extravagante y genial
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