Keeping it surreal!

This song on the playlist marked the start of Round 3 of my friend’s cancer treatment (see my About page for more about how and why I started this blog). I therefore wanted to choose something restful and nourishing for the soul. The Gnossiennes are a collection of works for piano written in the late 19th century and the first one is probably the most well known. They were highly experimental pieces, lacking the usual form and structure of classical music, not even having bar lines to denote the strong beats and phrasing. The term gnossienne was also an invention of Erik Satie’s, although where he derived it from is subject to debate. One theory is that it comes from the name of the Cretan city “knossos” or “gnossus”, home of the story of King Minos and the minotaur. A number of archeological sites linked to that myth were excavated around the time that Satie was composing the Gnossiennes, so it seems a reasonable theory. Especially given the fact that his interest in ancient Greece and reimagining of its music had already been the subject of his Gymnopedies (also for piano), composed just a few years earlier. This music may not sound experimental to our ears today, which perhaps evidences how influential it has been. As such, the surrealist elements that Satie sought to represent may also be less obvious to today’s audience and that is what I thought I would try to explore in this blog post.

How do they do that?

Let’s start with the definition of Surrealism: “the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations” [Source: Merriam Webster dictionary] or “a style in art and literature in which ideas, images, and objects are combined in a strange way, like in a dream.” [Source: Collins English dictionary].

Satie was known to be friends with many painters and non-musical artists, with his irreverent wit and experimentation meaning that he was often dismissed by more ‘serious’ musicians and composers of the time. So what can we hear of surrealism and his personality in the Gnossiennes No. 1?

The experimentation is immediately apparent in the lack bar lines (these are placed to show the musician where the strong beats should be and help with the phrasing). So, without them, the piece is completely ‘freetime.’ Yet whilst the standard instructions of the bar lines are missing (perhaps Satie felt they were unnecessary?), the pianist is give a series of rather unusual ones instead. For example to play a phrase “Du bout de la pensee”, which having trawled the internet appears to mean something along the lines of ‘from the edge of thought’ or ‘on the brink of an idea.’ Or how about “Postulez en vous-meme” (apply to yourself !? ) or “Sur la langue” (on the tongue)? This final direction comes right at the end of the piece and I wonder if in fact it means something more like the English phrase ‘Tongue in cheek’ which would suit the playfulness of the other directions and the known wit of Satie himself. Or a nod to the French phrase “Donner sa langue au chat”, translated as ‘Give your tongue to the cat’, but which means give up, there are no more ideas and you may as well leave it to the cat to come up with something. This would really make sense for the composer having explored his idea as far as he can take it and deciding to end the piece here. But then why not use the known phrase? Whatever the directions mean, they emphasise the slightly wacky, vague, hanging, distracted nature of this music and fit very well with the definitions of Surrealism above. The fact that no-one can really agree what they mean makes them pretty pointless as directions. Just another joke on us by Mr Satie.

Within the music itself, harmonically there are three chords in the left hand, shifting hypnotically between the 1st and 4th most of the time. The notes above in the right hand don’t fit naturally within those chords and seem to float above. The rhythm that is produced places emphasis on the first, second and fourth beats, so whilst it feels like it should be a dance, somehow it is not quite. Although there are no bar lines, that swaying effect feels like it should be three beats in the bar (like a waltz), but it’s actually closer to four, so more like a waltz with a stumble. :-). Again, fitting nicely with the definition of Surrealism.

In addition, the distance between the hands is often quite extreme (very low notes in the left hand, very high notes in the right hand). This produces bare, translucent harmony, which fits with another of the musical directions that Satie gives – “tres luisant” (‘very shiny’ or ‘gleaming’). This is so very different from the full texture of the romantic music of the 19th century and which remained the dominant form at the time Satie was writing this. Perhaps some of the incongruity and strangeness is therefore in hearing this piece against the works of other famous composers of the time, particularly someone like Wagner whose final opera, Parsifal, was completed just six years before the Gnossiennes, or Elgar and the Pomp and Circumstance marches. You could argue that the latter was perhaps a bit old fashioned for its time anyway, but the point is the musical texture and sound world couldn’t be more different to what Satie was creating.

Whether appreciated by ears of its time or not, to my ears of today it is simply a lovely, if not somewhat quirky, piece.

Hope you enjoy it or feel inspired to listen to something new today.

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