法國作曲家 Erik Satie - Gnossienne No.4

艾瑞克·薩第（Erik Satie，原名Alfred Éric Leslie Satie，1866年5月17日－1925年7月1日），又譯埃裏克·薩蒂，是法國的作曲家。他的作品大多數都以本名出版，但在1880年代後期，他曾經以維吉尼·勒鮑(Virginie Lebeau，Lebeau 雖然是法國一個姓氏，但其實可以拆開成為兩個字：le beau，意思就是美男子)作為筆名。

艾瑞克·薩第於1866年在法國下諾曼第卡爾瓦多斯省的翁弗勒（Honfleur）出生，出生後不久在當地一家聖公會教堂內洗禮。四歲時，因為父親在首都覓得一份翻譯的工作，所以舉家移居巴黎的蒙馬特。幼年時的艾瑞克經常都在兩地輾轉生活。六歲（1872年）時，母親病逝，他與弟弟Conrad一同被送返翁弗勒的祖父母家生活。回到翁弗勒，小小的艾瑞克開始接觸音樂；他跟從當地一位風琴手學習。1878年，祖母離世，兩兄弟又再次回到巴黎與父親團聚。不久，父親與一位鋼琴教師結婚。從1880年代開始，艾瑞克的父親和繼母開始出版各自及其他人的沙龍創作。





Alfred Eric Leslie Satie (Honfleur, 17 May 1866 -- Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie.

 

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 "phonometrograph" or "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures (and writes down) sounds") preferring this designation to that of "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 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.

Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. He was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music and the Theatre of the Absurd.

"Gnossienne" is the name given to several piano pieces by French composer Erik Satie in the late 19th century.

Satie's coining of the word "gnossienne" was one of the rare occasions when a composer used a new term to indicate a new "type" of composition. Satie had and would use many novel names for his compositions; for example, "ogive" had been the name of an architectural element until Satie used it as the name for a composition, the Ogives Similarly with "vexations", "croquis et agaceries" and so on—but "gnossienne" was a word that did not exist before Satie used it to indicate a composition. "Gnossienne" appears to be derived from the word gnosis; Satie was involved in gnostic sects and movements at the time that he began to compose the Gnossiennes. However, some published versions claim that the word derives from Cretan "knossos" or "gnossus" and link the Gnossiennes to Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur myth.

The Gnossiennes were composed by Satie in the decade following the composition of the Trois Sarabandes (1887) and the Trois Gymnopédies (1888). Like these Sarabandes and Gymnopédies, the Gnossiennes are often considered dances. It is not certain that this qualification comes from Satie himself—the sarabande and the Gymnopaedia were at least historically known as dances.

The musical vocabulary of the Gnossiennes is a continuation of that of the Gymnopédies (a development that had started with the 1886 Ogives → Sarabandes → Gymnopédies → Gnossiennes) later leading to more harmonic experimentation in compositions like the Danses Gothiques. These series of compositions are all at the core of Satie's characteristic 19th century style, and in this sense differ from his early salon compositions (like the 1885 "Waltz" compositions published in 1887), his turn-of-the-century cabaret compositions (like the Je te Veux Waltz), and his post-Schola Cantorum piano solo compositions, starting with the Préludes flasques in 1912.

Piano works

Recordings of Satie's piano works have been released performed by Reinbert de Leeuw, Pascal Rogé, Olof Höjer, Claude Coppens (live recording), Aldo Ciccolini, Daniel Varsano, Philippe Entremont, João Paulo Santos, Michel Legrand, Jacques Loussier, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Bill Quist and Cristina Ariagno, among others.

Orchestral and vocal

• A recording of historical importance is probably Erik Satie, Les inspirations insolites, re-issued by EMI as a 2-CD set, containing among other pieces: Geneviève de Brabant (in a version before Contamine's text had been recovered), Le piège de Méduse, Messe des pauvres, etc.
• Many other recordings exist: Parade/Relâche (Michel Plasson / Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse), Satie: Socrate [etc.] (Jean-Paul Fouchécourt / Ensemble), and recordings of songs, e.g., by Anne-Sophie Schmidt.

Arrangements

Various composers and performers have made arrangements of Satie's piano pieces for chamber ensembles and orchestras, including Debussy.

In 1980 Gary Numan's 7" We Are Glass featured Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement) on the B-side.

In 2000, ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett released the album, "Sketches of Satie", performing Satie's works on acoustic guitar, with contributions by his brother John on flute. Frank Zappa was also a devoted fan of Satie, incorporating many elements into both his rock and orchestral works. The English electronic duo Isan recorded versions of the three Gymnopédies for a 2006 7-inch single, "Trois Gymnopedies" on the Morr Music record label.

(from Wiki)