Erik Satie
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Everyone will tell you that I am not a musician. That is correct. From the very beginning of my career I classed myself as a phonometrographer. My work is completely phonometrical."--Memoirs of an Amnesiac (1912) by Eric Satie |
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Eric Satie (1866 – 1925) was a French composer and pianist known for compositions such as Gymnopédies (1888-1895).
Overview
Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde and 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 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.
See also
- Erik Satie in 1909
- Mémoires d'un amnésique
- Ambient music
- Dada
- Impressionist music
- List of compositions by Erik Satie
- Surrealism
- Furniture music
- Trois morceaux en forme de poire
