Much has gradually become known about French composer Erik Satie, yet he remains widely misunderstood. The theme day Satie s'amuse , which Festival 20.21 dedicated to him last Sunday, revealed that he himself wanted nothing different—it was the core of his marketing strategy. The programmers had chosen his lesser-known works, deliberately the compositions considered eccentric, religious, humorous, ironic, and in any case undefinable.
The staid Paris Conservatory dismissed Satie (1866–1925) as "moderately talented" and "lazy," after which he redirected his efforts toward the frivolous Montmartre. Meanwhile, Satie's Gymnopédies are probably as well-known as Abba's hits. Contemporary American composers like Philip Glass and Terry Riley owe their repetitive arpeggios to Satie. Debussy spoke of Satie admiringly as "my predecessor." Satie collaborated with poet Jean Cocteau and painter Pablo Picasso. And John Cage concluded: "He is indispensable."
Pianist Jan Michiels, this year's festival artist, opened the day with the "ballet catholique" Uspud, a religious tale about the protagonist's path to martyrdom. The instructions in the score are vintage Satie, so incomprehensible. There are several measures written for flute, but unplayable due to the low register. It announces that it's time for an "alarm of trumpets," yet a piano stands powerless against it. The notes for some passages mention dreadful natural phenomena or bottomless suffering, yet the music babbles along unconcerned. Jan Michiels played on Sunday as we know him: bone-dry but velvet-soft, fortissimo but without noise, sober yet sensitive. Lise Bruyneel created the videos for the text portion, tasteful and effective.
Music not to be listened to
Satie's inimitable irony was highlighted Sunday evening with two installments of Musique d'ameublement (1917–1923), which Satie described as "deliberate vibrations" serving no purpose other than pleasant background sound. It is therefore music that must consciously not be listened to. The ensemble I Solisti, this time exclusively in a wind instrument arrangement, interpreted these pieces as household sounds accompanying other activities like tidying up, dropping objects, bumping into each other, and fiddling a bit with some musical instrument. As an intermezzo unseen and unheard. In Parade, the "Realistic ballet" (1916-1917), Satie collaborated with Picasso (costumes and set design), Cocteau (text) and Léonide Massine, choreographer of the Ballets Russes ensemble. The story centers on a parade in front of a theater entrance, designed to lure the audience inside for that evening's performance. Tim Mulleman arranged it for brass instruments. Strings are absent because they were considered too romantic. The first section, in which a Chinese magician introduces himself to passersby, consists of a few motifs with an Asian flavor. It relies on sound effects like a hand-operated siren and the sound of a wet mop being wrung out. In the second part, dedicated to "la Fille Américaine," the mutes are unscrewed from the trombones and a rag-time gets its moment to shine. Ensemble I Solisti clearly had fun with it. Pianist Jan Michiels demonstrated here that an old-fashioned typewriter enjoys a well-deserved second life as a percussion instrument. The premiere (1917) was not a success. The piece was dismissed as "surrealist" and Parisians felt it had no place in classical concert halls.
Leaving you wanting more
The curators clearly recognized that it's impossible to do justice to Satie's complex versatility in three hours and ten minutes. That's why they opted for his lesser-known works, to demonstrate that Satie is far more than Gymnopédies or Gnossiennes.
That leaves you wanting more. For instance, a performance of Vexations for piano, a little piece whose score fits on half a page but must be played 840 times. Satie wrote in the score: "…it would be good to prepare oneself beforehand…" In 1963, a group of pianists around John Cage performed it in New York in an off-Broadway theater. The concert began at 6 PM and lasted until lunch the next day. Tickets cost 5 dollars. You could get 5 cents back per 20 minutes of attendance. At the end, there was one listener left. And he shouted: "Encore!"
WHAT: Satie s'amuse, Satie theme day Festival 20.21
WHO: I Solisti, Jan Michiels [piano], Lise Bruyneel
WHERE: 30CC/Schouwburg, Leuven
REVIEWED: 8 October 2023
