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{{short description|French composer and pianist (1866–1925)}}
[[Image:Bustoerik.jpg|frame|right|Selfportrait of Erik Satie. The text reads (translated from French): Project for a bust of Mr. Erik Satie (painted by the same), with a thought: "I came into the world very young, in an age that was very old"]]'''Alfred Éric Leslie Satie''' ([[Honfleur]], [[17 May]] [[1866]] – [[Paris]], [[1 July]] [[1925]]) was a [[France|French]] [[composer]], [[pianist]], and [[writer]].
{{Use British English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox classical composer
|name = Erik Satie
| image = Ericsatie.jpg
| caption = Satie in 1920
| alt = Middle-aged white man, balding, with neat moustache and beard, in formal day wear with wing collar and dark necktie. He is wearing pince-nez glasses.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1866|5|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Honfleur]], France
| birth_name = Eric Alfred Leslie Satie
| death_date = {{death date and age|1925|7|1|1866|5|17|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Arcueil]], Paris, France
| occupation = {{hlist| [[Composer]] | [[pianist]] }}
| works = [[List of compositions by Erik Satie|List of compositions]]
| signature = Satie Erik signature 1899.jpg
}}
'''Eric Alfred Leslie Satie'''{{refn|{{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|s|æ|t|i|,_|ˈ|s|ɑː|t|i}}, {{IPAc-en|US|s|æ|ˈ|t|iː|,_|s|ɑː|ˈ|t|iː}};<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref><ref>{{cite EPD|18}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|eʁik sati|lang}}; also sometimes spelt as '''Éric'''.|group=n}} (born 17 May 1866{{spaced ndash}}1 July 1925), better known as '''Erik Satie''', was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the [[Conservatoire de Paris|Paris Conservatoire]] but was undistinguished and did not obtain a diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabarets in [[Montmartre]], Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his ''[[Gymnopédies]]'' and ''[[Gnossiennes]]''. He also wrote music for a [[Rosicrucian]] sect to which he was briefly attached.
 
Following a period of sparse compositional productivity, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the [[Schola Cantorum de Paris|Schola Cantorum]], as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as [[Les Six]]. A meeting with [[Jean Cocteau]] in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet ''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'' (1917) for [[Sergei Diaghilev]], with music by Satie, sets and costumes by [[Pablo Picasso]], and choreography by [[Léonide Massine]].
Dating from his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as '''Erik Satie''', as he said he preferred it. He wrote articles for several periodicals and, although in later life he prided himself on always publishing his work under his own name, there appears to have been a brief period in the late 1880s during which he published articles under the [[pseudonym]], '''Virginie Lebeau'''.
 
Satie's example guided a new generation of French composers away from post-[[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] [[Impressionism in music|Impressionism]] towards a sparer, terser style. During his lifetime, he influenced [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Claude Debussy]], and [[Francis Poulenc]], and he is seen as an influence on more recent composers such as [[John Cage]] and [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]]. His harmony is often characterised by unresolved chords; he sometimes dispensed with [[Bar (music)|bar-lines]], as in his ''[[Gnossiennes]]''; and his melodies are generally simple and often reflect his love of old church music. He gave some of his later works absurd titles, such as ''[[Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien)]]'' ("True Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)", 1912), ''[[Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois]]'' ("Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Wooden Man", 1913) and ''[[Sonatine bureaucratique]]'' ("Bureaucratic Sonatina", 1917). Most of his works are brief, and the majority are for solo piano. Exceptions include his "symphonic drama" ''[[Socrate]]'' (1919) and two late ballets ''[[Mercure (ballet)|Mercure]]'' and ''[[Relâche (ballet)|Relâche]]'' (1924).
Satie introduced himself as a "gymnopedist" from 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the ''[[Gymnopédie]]s''. He also referred to himself as a "phonometrograph" or "phonometrician," meaning "someone who measures and writes down sounds" — he preferred this definition of his profession to "[[musician]]," after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers in 1911. Some view him as a serial [[wiktionary:Precursor|precursor]], being ahead of many [[twentieth century]] [[avant-garde]] artistic ideas; ''see'' [[#"Petit dictionnaire d'idées reçues" (short dictionary of preconceived ideas)|below]].
 
Satie never married, and his home for most of his adult life was a single small room, first in Montmartre and, from 1898 to his death, in [[Arcueil]], a suburb of Paris. He adopted various images over the years, including a period in quasi-priestly dress, another in which he always wore identically coloured velvet suits, and is known for his last persona, in neat bourgeois costume, with [[bowler hat]], wing collar, and umbrella. He was a lifelong heavy drinker, and died of [[cirrhosis]] of the liver at the age of 59.
==Life and work==
===From Normandy to Montmartre===
[[Image:MaisonSatie.jpg|thumb|200px|Satie house and museum in Honfleur]]
Erik Satie's youth was spent alternating between living in [[Honfleur]], [[Basse-Normandie]], and Paris. When he was four years old, his family moved to Paris, his father (Alfred), having been offered a translator's job in the capital. After his mother (born Jane Leslie Anton) died in 1872, he was sent, together with his younger brother Conrad, back to Honfleur, to live with his paternal grandparents. There he received his first music lessons from a local [[organist]]. When his grandmother died in 1878, the two brothers were reunited in Paris with their father, who remarried (a piano teacher) shortly afterwards. From the early 1880s onwards, Alfred Satie started publishing salon compositions (by his new wife and himself, among others).
 
==Life and career==
In 1879 Satie entered the [[Paris Conservatoire]], where he was soon labelled untalented by his teachers. After being sent home for two and a half years, he was re-accepted in the Conservatoire at the end of 1885 — but was unable to make a much more favourable impression on his teachers than he had before, so he finally resolved to take up [[military service]] a year later. This did not last very long; within a few weeks he tried to leave the army through a trick, which eventually succeeded.
 
===Early years===
In 1887 he left home to take lodgings in [[Montmartre]]. By this time he had started what was to be a long-lived friendship with the romantic poet [[Patrice Contamine]], and had had his first compositions published by his father. He soon integrated with the artistic clientèle of the [[Le Chat Noir]] Café-cabaret, and started publishing his ''[[Gymnopédies]]''. Publication of compositions in the same vein (''[[Ogives]]'', ''[[Gnossiennes]]'', etc.) followed. In the same period he got to know [[Claude Debussy]]. He moved to a smaller room, still in Montmartre (rue Cortot N° 6), in 1890. By 1891 he was the official composer and chapel-master of the [[Rosicrucian Order]] "Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique, du Temple et du Graal", led by Sâr [[Joséphin Péladan]], which led to compositions such as ''[[Salut Drapeau!]]'', ''[[Le Fils des étoiles]]'', and the ''[[Sonneries de la Rose Croix|Sonneries de la Rose+Croix]]''.
[[File:MaisonSatie.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Satie's birthplace and childhood home in [[Honfleur]], Normandy, now a museum ]]
Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in [[Honfleur]], Normandy, the first child of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie ({{née|Anton}}). Jane Satie was an English Protestant of Scottish descent; Alfred Satie, a [[shipping broker]], was a Roman Catholic.<ref name=r11>Rey, p. 11: "Erik Alfred Leslie Satie est né le 17 mai 1866 à Honfleur (Normandie) d'une mère anglaise et protestante, d'un père catholique, courtier maritime"</ref> A year later, the Saties had a daughter, Olga, and in 1869 a second son, Conrad. The children were baptised in the Anglican church.<ref name=r11/>
 
After the [[Franco-Prussian War]] Alfred Satie sold his business and the family moved to Paris, where he set up as a music publisher.<ref name=gxix/> In 1872 Jane Satie died and Eric and his brother were sent back to Honfleur to be brought up by Alfred's parents. The boys were rebaptised as Roman Catholics and educated at a local boarding school, where Satie excelled in history and Latin but nothing else.<ref>Gillmor, p. 8</ref> In 1874 he began taking music lessons with a local organist, Gustave Vinot, a former pupil of [[Louis Niedermeyer]]. Vinot stimulated Satie's love of old church music, and in particular [[Gregorian chant]].<ref>Gillmor, p. 9</ref>
By mid-1892 he had composed the first pieces in a compositional system of his own making (''[[Fête donnée par des Chevaliers Normands en l'Honneur d'une jeune Demoiselle]]''), had provided incidental music to a [[chivalric]] [[esoteric]] play (two ''[[Prélude du Nazaréen|Préludes du Nazaréen]]''), had had his first [[hoax]] published (announcing the [[premiere]] of ''Le Bâtard de Tristan'', an anti-Wagnerian opera he probably never composed), and had broken with Péladan, starting that autumn with the ''[[Uspud]]'' project, a "Christian Ballet", in collaboration with [[Contamine de Latour]]. While the comrades from both the Chat Noir and [[Miguel Utrillo]]'s [[Auberge du Clou]] sympathised, a promotional brochure was produced for the project, which reads as a [[pamphlet]] for a new esoteric [[sect]].
 
In 1878 Satie's grandmother died,{{refn|Her death was mysterious: she was found drowned on the beach at Honfleur in unexplained circumstances.<ref name=r11/>|group=n}} and the two boys returned to Paris to be informally educated by their father. Satie did not attend a school, but his father took him to lectures at the {{lang|fr|[[Collège de France]]|italic=no}} and engaged a tutor to teach Eric Latin and Greek. Before the boys returned to Paris from Honfleur, Alfred had met a piano teacher and salon composer, Eugénie Barnetche, whom he married in January 1879, to the dismay of the twelve-year-old Satie, who did not like her.<ref name=oxix>Orledge, p. xix</ref>
[[Image:SatiebyValadon.jpg|thumb|right|0px|Portrait of Satie by Valadon]]
Satie and [[Suzanne Valadon]], a successful artist and long-time friend of Miguel Utrillo, started an affair early in 1893. After their first night together, he proposed marriage. There was no marriage, but soon Valadon moved to a room next to Satie's at the Rue Cortot. Satie became obsessed with her, calling her his ''Biqui'', and writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet". During their relationship Satie composed the ''[[Danses Gothiques]]'' as a kind of prayer to restore peace of mind and Valadon painted a portrait of Satie, which she gave to him. After six months she moved away, leaving Satie broken-hearted. Afterwards, he said that he was left with ''nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness.'' Apparently, this would remain the only intimate relationship Satie ever had.
 
Eugénie Satie resolved that her elder stepson should become a professional musician, and in November 1879 enrolled him in the preparatory piano class at the [[Paris Conservatoire]].<ref name=grove/> Satie strongly disliked the institution, which he described as "a vast, very uncomfortable, and rather ugly building; a sort of district prison with no beauty on the inside – nor on the outside, for that matter".{{refn|"un vaste bâtiment très inconfortable et assez vilain à voir – une sorte de local pénitencier sans aucun agrément extérieur – ni intérieur du reste".<ref>Satie, p. 67</ref>|group=n}} He studied [[solfeggio]] with [[Albert Lavignac]] and piano with [[Émile Decombes]], who had been a pupil of [[Frédéric Chopin]].<ref>[[Martin Cooper (musicologist)|Cooper, Martin]], and Charles Timbrell. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000006587 "Cortot, Alfred"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 20 September 2021 {{subscription required}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401074810/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000006587 |date=1 April 2022}}</ref> In 1880 Satie took his first examinations as a pianist: he was described as "gifted but indolent". The following year Decombes called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire".<ref name=grove>[[Robert Orledge|Orledge, Robert]], revised by Caroline Potter. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40105 Satie, Erik (Eric) (Alfred Leslie)"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918001425/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040105 |date=18 September 2021}}, ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2021</ref> In 1882 he was expelled from the Conservatoire for his unsatisfactory performance.<ref name=gxix>Gillmor, p. xix</ref>
In the same year he met the young [[Maurice Ravel]] for the first time, Satie's style emerging in the first compositions of the youngster. One of Satie's own compositions of that period, the ''[[Vexations]]'', was to remain undisclosed until after his death. By the end of the year he had founded the [[Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur]] (the Metropolitan Church of Art of the Leading Christ). As its only member, in the role of "Parcier et Maître de Chapelle" he started to compose a ''Grande Messe'' (later to become known as the ''[[Messe des Pauvres]]''), and wrote a flood of letters, articles and pamphlets showing off his self-assuredness in religious and artistic matters. To give an example: he applied for membership of the [[Académie Française]] twice, leaving no doubt in the application letter that the board of that organisation (presided by [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]) as much as owed him such membership. Such proceedings without doubt rather helped to wreck his popularity in the cultural [[The Establishment|establishment]]. In 1895 he inherited some money, allowing him to have some more of his writings printed, and to change from wearing a priest-like habit to being the "Velvet Gentleman".
 
[[File:Erik Satie 1884.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=young white man with receding medium-length dark hair, in pince-nez|Satie in 1884]]
===Moving to Arcueil — cabaret compositions, Schola Cantorum===
By mid-1896 all his financial means had vanished, and he had to move to cheaper lodgings, first at the Rue Cortot, to a room not much bigger than a cupboard, and two years later (after he'd composed the two first sets of ''[[Pièces froides]]'' in 1897), to [[Arcueil]], a suburb some ten kilometers from the centre of Paris (in the [[Val-de-Marne]] district of the [[Île-de-France (région)|Île-de-France ]]).
 
In 1884 Satie wrote his first known composition, a short Allegro for piano, composed while on holiday in Honfleur. He signed himself "Erik" on this and subsequent compositions, though he continued to use "Eric" on other documents until 1906.<ref name=oxx>Orledge, p. xx</ref> In 1885, he was readmitted to the Conservatoire, in the intermediate piano class of his stepmother's former teacher, [[Georges Mathias]]. He made little progress: Mathias described his playing as "insignificant and laborious" and Satie himself as "worthless. Three months just to learn the piece. Cannot sight-read properly."<ref>Gillmor, p. xx</ref>{{refn|Satie's biographer [[Robert Orledge]] has conjectured that Satie had [[dyslexia]], a condition that can make reading music as difficult as reading words.<ref name=gresham>[[Robert Orledge|Orledge, Robert]]. [https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/erik-satie-part-one-saties-musical-and-personal-logic-and-satie-as-poet "Erik Satie: His music, the vision, his legacy"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125023449/https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/erik-satie-part-one-saties-musical-and-personal-logic-and-satie-as-poet |date=25 November 2020}}, Gresham College, 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021</ref><ref>Ganschow, Leonore, Jenafer Lloyd-Jones, and T. R. Miles. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/23769692 "Dyslexia and Musical Notation"], ''Annals of Dyslexia'' 1994, pp. 185–202 {{subscription required}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918051424/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23769692 |date=18 September 2021}}</ref>|group=n}} Satie became fascinated by aspects of religion. He spent much time in [[Notre-Dame de Paris]] contemplating the stained glass windows and in the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|National Library]] examining obscure medieval manuscripts.<ref>Gillmor, p. 33</ref> His friend [[Alphonse Allais]] later dubbed him "Esotérik Satie".<ref>Harding, p. 35</ref> From this period comes ''[[Ogives]]'', a set of four piano pieces inspired by Gregorian chant and [[Gothic architecture|Gothic church architecture]].<ref>Rey, p. 22; and Gillmor, p. 64</ref>
At this period he re-established contact with his brother Conrad (in much the way [[Vincent Van Gogh]] had with his brother Theo) for numerous practical and financial matters, disclosing some of his inner feelings in the process. For example, from his letters to his brother it's clear that he had set aside any religious ideas (which were not to return until the last months of his life); Satie used humour as he was often to do: to indicate a change of mind concerning subjects about which he had had strong views.
 
Keen to leave the Conservatoire, Satie volunteered for military service and joined the 33rd Infantry Regiment in November 1886.<ref>Gillmor, p. 12</ref> He found army life no more to his liking than the Conservatoire, and deliberately contracted acute [[bronchitis]] by standing in the open, bare-chested, on a winter night.<ref>Templier, pp. 10–11</ref> After three months' convalescence, he was invalided out of the army.<ref name=grove/><ref>Templier, p. 11</ref>
From the winter of 1898–1899, Satie could be seen, as a daily routine, leaving his apartment in the Parisian suburb of Arcueil to walk across Paris to either [[Montmartre]] or [[Montparnasse]], before walking back again in the evening.
 
===Montmartre===
From 1899 on he started making money as a cabaret pianist (mostly accompanying [[Vincent Hyspa]], later also [[Paulette Darty]]), adapting over a hundred compositions of popular music for piano (or piano and voice), adding some of his own. The most popular of these were ''[[Je te veux]]'' (text by Henry Pacory), ''Tendrement'' (text by Vincent Hyspa), ''Poudre d'or'' (a waltz), ''La Diva de l'"Empire"'' (text by Dominique Bonnaud/Numa Blès), ''Le Picadilly'' (A March), ''Légende Californienne'' (text by Contamine de Latour lost, but the music later reappears in ''[[La Belle Excentrique]]''), and many more (probably even more have been lost). In his later years Satie would reject all his cabaret music as vile and against his nature (although he revived some of the fun of it in his 1920 ''Belle excentrique''), but for the time being, it was an income.
In 1887, at the age of 21, Satie moved from his father's residence to lodgings in the [[9th arrondissement of Paris|9th arrondissement]]. By this time he had started what was to be an enduring friendship with the romantic poet [[Patrice Contamine de Latour|Contamine de Latour]], whose verse he set in some of his early compositions, which Satie senior published.<ref name=grove/> His lodgings were close to the popular {{lang|fr|[[Le Chat Noir|Chat Noir]]|italic=no}} cabaret on the southern edge of [[Montmartre]] where he became an habitué and then a resident pianist. The Chat Noir was known as the "temple de la 'convention farfelue{{'"}} – the temple of zany convention,<ref>Rey, p. 14</ref> and, as the biographer [[Robert Orledge]] puts it, Satie, "free from his restrictive upbringing … enthusiastically embraced the reckless bohemian lifestyle and created for himself a new persona as a long-haired man-about-town in frock coat and top hat". This was the first of several personas that Satie adopted over the years.<ref name=grove/>
 
[[File:Santiago Rusinol Portrait of Eric Satie at the harmonium.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Man in top hat, smoking a cigarette, seated at a musical keyboard|Satie by [[Santiago Rusiñol]], 1890s]]
Only a few compositions that Satie himself took seriously remain from this period: ''[[Jack-in-the-box (composition)|Jack-in-the-box]]'', music to a [[pantomime]] by Jules Dépaquit (called a "clownerie" by Satie), ''[[Geneviève de Brabant]]'', a short comic opera on a serious theme, text by [[Lord Cheminot]], ''[[The Dreamy Fish]]'', piano music to accompany a lost tale by Lord Cheminot, and a few others (mostly incomplete, hardly any of them staged, and none of them published at the time).
 
In the late 1880s Satie styled himself on at least one occasion "Erik Satie – gymnopédiste",<ref>Orledge, p. 6</ref>{{refn|Later he referred to himself at least once as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds") after being called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book about contemporary French composers published in 1911.<ref>Innes and Shevtsova, p. 151</ref>|group=n}} and his works from this period include the three ''[[Gymnopédies]]'' (1888) and the first ''[[Gnossiennes]]'' (1889 and 1890). He earned a modest living as a pianist and conductor at the Chat Noir, before falling out with the proprietor and moving to become second pianist at the nearby Auberge du Clou. There he became a close friend of [[Claude Debussy]], who proved a kindred spirit in his experimental approach to composition. Both were [[Bohemianism|bohemians]], enjoying the same café society and struggling to survive financially.<ref>Whiting, p. 172</ref> At the Auberge du Clou Satie first encountered the flamboyant, self-styled "Sâr" [[Joséphin Péladan]], for whose mystic sect, the Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique du Temple et du Graal, he was appointed composer.<ref>Rey, p. 33</ref> This gave him scope for experiment, and Péladan's salons at the fashionable Galerie Durand-Ruel gained Satie his first public hearings.<ref name=grove/><ref>Gillmor, pp. 76–77</ref> Frequently short of money, Satie moved from his lodgings in the 9th arrondissement to a small room in the rue Cortot not far from [[Sacré-Cœur, Paris|Sacre-Coeur]],<ref>Rey, p. 17</ref> so high up the Butte Montmartre that he said he could see from his window all the way to the Belgian border.{{refn|"La vu s'étend jusqu'à la frontière belge".<ref>Lajoinie, p. 21</ref>|group=n}}
Both ''Geneviève de Brabant'' and ''The Dreamy Fish'' have been analysed (e.g. by [[Ornella Volta]]) as containing elements of competition with [[Claude Debussy]], of which Debussy was probably not aware (Satie not making this music public). Meanwhile, Debussy was having one of his first major successes with ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' in 1902, leading a few years later to ‘who-was-precursor-to-whom’ debates between the two composers (in which [[Maurice Ravel]] would also get involved).
 
By mid-1892 Satie had composed the first pieces in a compositional system of his own making (''{{Lang|fr|Fête donnée par des Chevaliers Normands en l'honneur d'une jeune demoiselle}}''), provided incidental music to a [[chivalric]] [[esoteric]] play (two ''{{Lang|fr|Préludes du Nazaréen}}''), had a hoax published (announcing the premiere of his non-existent ''{{Lang|fr|Le bâtard de Tristan}}'', an anti-Wagnerian opera),<ref>Whiting, p. 151</ref> and broken away from Péladan, starting with the "''Uspud''" project, a "Christian Ballet", in collaboration with Latour.<ref>Whiting, p. 156.</ref> He challenged the musical establishment by proposing himself – unsuccessfully – for the seat in the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] made vacant by the death of [[Ernest Guiraud]].<ref name=w152>Whiting, p. 152</ref>{{refn|Satie repeated this gesture twice – on the deaths of [[Charles Gounod]] in 1894 and [[Ambroise Thomas]] in 1896. Professors from the Conservatoire were elected on both occasions.<ref>Pasler, Jann. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008232 "Dubois, (François Clément) Théodore"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 September 2021{{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524182753/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008232 |date=24 May 2021 }}; and Duchen, p. 120</ref>|group=n}} Between 1893 and 1895, Satie, wearing quasi-priestly dress, was the founder and only member of the [[Metropolitan Church of Art of Jesus the Conductor|Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur]]. From his "''Abbatiale''" in the rue Cortot, he published scathing attacks on his artistic enemies.<ref name=grove/>
In October 1905 Satie enrolled in [[Vincent d'Indy]]'s [[Schola Cantorum]] to study classical [[counterpoint]] (while still continuing his cabaret work). Most of his friends were as dumbfounded as the professors at the Schola when they heard about his new plan to return to the classrooms (especially as d'Indy was an admiring pupil of [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]], not particularly favoured by Satie). As for Satie's motivation for this step, there were probably two main reasons: first, he was tired of being told that the [[harmony|harmonisation]] of his compositions was erratic (a criticism he could not very well counter while not having completed any studies in music), and secondly, he was developing the idea that one of the most typical characteristics of [[France|French]] music was clarity (which could better be achieved with a good background knowledge of how traditional harmony was perceived). Satie would follow these courses at the Schola, as a respected pupil, for more than five years, receiving a first (intermediate) diploma in 1908.
 
[[File:Suzanne-Valadon-1885.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=young white woman with dark hair in extravagant hat|[[Suzanne Valadon]], 1885]]
Some of his classroom counterpoint-exercises would, after his death, be published (e.g., the ''[[Désespoir agréable]]''), but he probably saw the ''[[En Habit de Cheval]]'' (published in 1911 as the result of "eight years hard work to come to a new, modern fugue") as the culmination of the Schola episode. Another summary, of the period prior to the Schola, also appeared in 1911: the ''[[Trois Morceaux en forme de poire]]'', which was a kind of compilation of the best of what he had written up to 1903.
In 1893 Satie had what is believed to be his only love affair, a five-month liaison with the painter [[Suzanne Valadon]]. After their first night together, he proposed marriage. They did not marry, but Valadon moved to a room next to Satie's at the rue Cortot. Satie became obsessed with her, calling her his Biqui and writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet".<ref name=r49>Rosinsky, p. 49</ref> During their relationship Satie composed the ''Danses gothiques'' as a means of calming his mind,<ref>Orledge, p. 157</ref> and Valadon painted his portrait, which she gave him. After five months she moved away, leaving him devastated. He said later that he was left with "nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness".<ref name=r49/>
 
In 1895 Satie changed his image once again, this time to that of "the Velvet Gentleman". From the proceeds of a small legacy, he bought seven identical [[Dun Cow|dun]]-coloured suits. Orledge comments that this change "marked the end of his Rose+Croix period and the start of a long search for a new artistic direction".<ref name=grove/>
Something that becomes clear through these published compilations is that maybe he did not so much reject [[Romanticism]] (and its exponents like [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]) as a whole (he has become more moderate in a way), as that he rejected certain aspects of it: musically the thing he rejected most consequently, from his very first composition to his very last, was the idea of [[Musical development|development]], certainly in the more strict definition of this term: the intertwining of different themes in a development section of a [[sonata form]]: naturally this makes his contrapuntal (and other works) very short: e.g. the "new, modern" [[Fugue]]s do not extend further than the exposition of the theme(s). Generally he would say that he did not think it permitted that a composer would take more time from his public than strictly necessary, certainly avoiding being boring in any way. Also [[Melodrama]], in its historical meaning of the then popular romantic genre of "spoken words to a background of music", was something Satie appears to have succeeded quite well in staying clear of (although his 1913 ''[[Le Piège de Méduse|Piège de Méduse]]'' could be seen as an absurdistic spoof of that genre).
 
===Move to Arcueil===
In the meanwhile some other changes had also taken place: he had become a member of a radical ([[socialism|socialist]]) party, had socialised with the Arcueil community (amongst other things, he'd been involved in the "Patronage Laïque" work for children), and he had changed his appearance to that of the 'bourgeois functionary' (with bowler hat, umbrella, etc.). Also, instead of involving himself again in any kind of [[medievalism|medievalist]] [[sect]], he channelled these interests into a peculiar secret [[hobby]]: in a filing cabinet he maintained a collection of imaginary buildings (most of them described as being made out of some kind of metal), which he drew on little cards. Occasionally, extending the game, he would publish anonymous small announcements in local journals, offering some of these buildings (e.g., a "castle in lead") for sale or rent.
[[File:2015-Arcueil-Erik-Satie-house.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|"Les quatre cheminées", [[Arcueil]] – Satie's home from 1898 to his death|alt=angled apartment block at intersection of two streets]]
In 1898, in search of somewhere cheaper and quieter than Montmartre, Satie moved to a room in the southern suburbs, in the [[Communes of France|commune]] of [[Arcueil|Arcueil-Cachan]], {{convert|8|km|miles|spell=on|sigfig=1}} from the centre of Paris.<ref>Gillmor, pp. 112–113</ref><ref>[https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Routes?departure=22%20Rue%20Cauchy%2C%20Arcueil%2C%20France&arrival=Notre%20Dame%20de%20Paris&index=0&vehicle=0&type=0&distance=km&currency=EUR&highway=false&toll=false&vignette=false&orc=false&crossing=true&caravan=false&shouldUseTraffic=false&withBreaks=false&break_frequency=7200&coffee_duration=1200&lunch_duration=3600&diner_duration=3600&night_duration=32400&car=hatchback&fuel=petrol&fuelCost=1.581&allowance=0&corridor=&departureDate=&arrivalDate=&fuelConsumption=&shouldUseNewEngine=false Journey planner] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917125017/https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Routes?departure=22%20Rue%20Cauchy,%20Arcueil,%20France&arrival=Notre%20Dame%20de%20Paris&index=0&vehicle=0&type=0&distance=km&currency=EUR&highway=false&toll=false&vignette=false&orc=false&crossing=true&caravan=false&shouldUseTraffic=false&withBreaks=false&break_frequency=7200&coffee_duration=1200&lunch_duration=3600&diner_duration=3600&night_duration=32400&car=hatchback&fuel=petrol&fuelCost=1.581&allowance=0&corridor=&departureDate=&arrivalDate=&fuelConsumption=&shouldUseNewEngine=false |date=17 September 2021 }}, ViaMichelin. Retrieved 17 September 2021</ref> This remained his home for the rest of his life. No visitors were ever admitted.<ref name=grove/> He joined the [[French Section of the Workers' International|Socialist Party]] after the [[assassination of Jean Jaurès]] (he later switched his membership to the [[French Communist Party|Communist Party]] after its foundation),<ref>Orledge, p. 233</ref> but adopted a thoroughly bourgeois image: the biographer Pierre-Daniel Templier, writes, "With his umbrella and [[bowler hat]], he resembled a quiet school teacher. Although a Bohemian, he looked very dignified, almost ceremonious".<ref>Templier, p. 56</ref>
 
Satie earned a living as a cabaret pianist, adapting more than a hundred compositions of popular music for piano or piano and voice, adding some of his own. The most popular of these were ''{{Lang|fr|[[Je te veux]]}}'', text by Henry Pacory; ''{{Lang|fr|Tendrement}}'', text by Vincent Hyspa; ''{{Lang|fr|[[Poudre d'or]]}}'', a waltz; ''[[La Diva de l'Empire]]'', text by Dominique Bonnaud/Numa Blès; ''{{Lang|fr|Le Picadilly}}'', a march; ''{{Lang|fr|Légende californienne}}'', text by Contamine de Latour (lost, but the music later reappears in ''{{Lang|fr|[[La belle excentrique]]}}''); and others. Between 1898 and 1908, he composed and arranged the music for around thirty Hyspa texts. These songs, which caricatured current political events, enabled Satie to explore the use of quotations for humorous purposes that characterises his work.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meunier |first=Jordan |date=December 18, 2024 |title=1899. Satie et la chanson de cabaret à Montmartre |url=https://emf.oicrm.org/nhmf-1899/ |journal=Nouvelle histoire de la musique en France (1870-1950) |publisher=Edited by the "Musique en France aux XIXe et XXe siècles : discours et idéologies" research team}}</ref> In his later years Satie rejected all his cabaret music as vile and against his nature.<ref>Gillmor, p. xxix</ref> Only a few compositions that he took seriously remain from this period: ''[[Jack in the Box (Satie)|Jack in the Box]]'', music to a [[pantomime]] by [[Jules Depaquit]] (called a "{{Lang|fr|clownerie}}" by Satie); ''{{Lang|fr|[[Geneviève de Brabant (Satie)|Geneviève de Brabant]]}}'', a short comic opera to a text by "Lord Cheminot" (Latour); ''{{lang|fr|[[Le poisson rêveur]]}}'' (''The Dreamy Fish''), piano music to accompany a lost tale by Cheminot, and a few others that were mostly incomplete. Few were presented, and none published at the time.<ref>Whiting, p. 259</ref>
===Riding the waves===
[[File:C-Debussy-V-d'Indy-A-Roussel-M-Ravel.jpg|thumb|left|Musical friends and teachers: from top left clockwise – [[Claude Debussy]], [[Vincent d'Indy]], [[Albert Roussel]], [[Maurice Ravel]]|alt=head and shoulders photographs of four white men, two neatly bearded, with full heads of hair, the third bald and neatly bearded, the fourth clean shaven with full head of hair]]
From this point, things started to move very quickly for Satie. First, there was, starting in 1912, the success of his new short, humorous piano pieces; he was to write and publish many of these over the next few years (most of them premiered by the pianist [[Ricardo Viñes]]): the ''[[Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien)]]'' ("Genuine Flabby Preludes (for a dog)"), the ''[[Vieux sequins et vieilles cuirasses]]'' ("Old Sequins and Old Breastplates"), the ''[[Embryons desséchés]]'' ("Dried up Embryos"), the ''[[Descriptions Automatiques]]'', and the ''[[Sonatine Bureaucratique]]'' (a [[Muzio Clementi]] spoof), etc., all date from this period. His habit of accompanying the scores of his compositions with all kinds of written remarks was now well established (so that a few years later he had to insist that these not be read out during performances<!--avoiding "Melodrama" genre!-->). He had mostly stopped using barlines by this time. In some ways these compositions were very reminiscent of [[Gioacchino Rossini|Rossini]]'s compositions from the final years of his life, grouped under the name [http://www.rossinigesellschaft.de/data/pdvd.html Péchés de Vieillesse]; Rossini also wrote short, humorous piano pieces like ''Mon prélude hygiénique du matin'' or ''Dried figs'', etc., and would dedicate such pieces to his dog every year on its birthday. These pieces had been performed in the Rossinis' exclusive salon in Paris some decades earlier. In all probability, however, Satie had not seen or heard any of this music when he was composing his own piano music in the first decades of the 20th century; the Rossini piano pieces had not yet been published at that time. It is said that [[Diaghilev]] discovered the manuscripts of these Rossini pieces around 1918 at [[Naples]], before staging ''[[La Boutique Fantasque]]'' — this was about the same time that Satie stopped writing humorous comments on his scores.
 
A decisive change in Satie's musical outlook came after he heard the premiere of Debussy's opera ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' in 1902. He found it "absolutely astounding", and he re-evaluated his own music.<ref name=grove/> In a determined attempt to improve his technique, and against Debussy's advice, he enrolled as a mature student at Paris's second main music academy, the [[Schola Cantorum de Paris|Schola Cantorum]] in October 1905, continuing his studies there until 1912.<ref>Rey, p. 61</ref> The institution was run by [[Vincent d'Indy]], who emphasised orthodox technique rather than creative originality.<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-5982 "Schola Cantorum"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516120912/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-5982 |date=16 May 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', edited by Alison Latham, Oxford University Press, 2011.</ref> Satie studied [[counterpoint]] with [[Albert Roussel]] and composition with d'Indy, and was a much more conscientious and successful student than he had been at the Conservatoire in his youth.<ref>Orledge, pp. 86 and 95</ref>
But the real acceleration in Satie's life did not come so much from the increasing success of his new piano pieces; in fact it was Ravel who (probably unknowingly) triggered something that was to become a characteristic of Satie's remaining years: being a part of every progressive movement that manifested itself in Paris over the following years. These movements succeeded one another rapidly, while without doubt in these years Paris was the artistic capital of the world (long before London or New York would achieve much significance in this regard), and the beginning of the new century appeared to have set many minds on fire.
 
In 1911, when he was in his mid-forties, Satie came to the notice of the musical public in general. That January [[Maurice Ravel]] played some early Satie works at a concert by the [[Société musicale indépendante]], a forward-looking group set up by Ravel and others as a rival to the conservative [[Société nationale de musique]].<ref>[[Barbara L. Kelly|Kelly, Barbara L.]] [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/52145 "Ravel, Maurice"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 September 2021 {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|The pieces were the second ''[[Sarabandes (Satie)|Sarabande]]'', the first prelude to ''[[Le Fils des étoiles]]'' and the third of the ''Gymnopédies''.<ref>[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2890931/f7.item.r=Erik%20Satie.zoom "Courrier Musicale"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917113043/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2890931/f7.item.r=Erik%20Satie.zoom |date=17 September 2021 }}, ''Le Figaro'', 14 January 1911, p. 7; and Gillmor, p. xxiii</ref>|group=n}} Satie was suddenly seen as "the precursor and apostle of the musical revolution now taking place";<ref>Orledge, p. 2</ref> he became a focus for young composers. Debussy, having orchestrated the first and third ''Gymnopédies'', conducted them in concert. The publisher Demets asked for new works from Satie, who was finally able to give up his cabaret work and devote himself to composition. Works such as the cycle ''[[Sports et divertissements]]'' (1914) were published in de luxe editions. The press began to write about Satie's music, and a leading pianist, [[Ricardo Viñes]], took him up, giving celebrated first performances of some Satie pieces.<ref name=grove/>
In 1910 the "Jeunes Ravêlites", a group of young musicians around Ravel, proclaimed their preference for Satie's earlier work (from before the Schola period), reinforcing the idea that Satie had been a precursor of Debussy. At first Satie was pleased that at least some of his works were receiving public attention, but when he realised that this meant that his more recent work was overlooked or dismissed, he looked for other young artists who related better to his more recent ideas, so as to have better mutual support in creative activity. Thus young artists such as [[Alexis Roland-Manuel|Roland-Manuel]], and later [[Georges Auric]] and [[Jean Cocteau]], started to receive more of his attention than the "Jeunes".
[[File:Erik Satie en 1909.PNG|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Satie wearing a bowler hat and wing collar|Satie's final persona, [[bowler hat|bowler-hatted]] and formally dressed]]
 
===Last years===
As a result of his contact with Roland-Manuel, he again took up publicising his thoughts, much more ironically than he had done before (amongst other things, the ''[[Mémoires d'un amnésique]]'' and ''[[Cahiers d'un mammifère]]'').<ref>English translations of these pieces were published in ''A Mammal's Notebook'', see [[#Sources|Sources]] section below.</ref>
Satie became the focus of successive groups of young composers, who he first encouraged and then distanced himself from, sometimes rancorously, when their popularity threatened to eclipse his or they otherwise displeased him.<ref>Gillmor, p. 259; Potter (2017), p. 233; and Whiting, p. 493</ref> First were the "jeunes" – those associated with Ravel – and then a group known at first as the "nouveaux jeunes", later called [[Les Six]], including [[Georges Auric]], [[Louis Durey]], [[Arthur Honegger]], and [[Germaine Tailleferre]], joined later by [[Francis Poulenc]] and [[Darius Milhaud]].<ref name=grove/> Satie dissociated himself from the second group in 1918, and in the 1920s became the focal point of another set of young composers including [[Henri Cliquet-Pleyel]], [[Roger Désormière]], [[Maxime Jacob]] and [[Henri Sauguet]], who became known as the "Arcueil School".<ref>Nichols, p. 264</ref> As well as turning against Ravel, Auric and Poulenc in particular,<ref>Kelly, p. 15 (Ravel); and Schmidt, p. 13 (Auric and Poulenc)</ref> Satie quarrelled with his old friend Debussy in 1917, resentful of the latter's failure to appreciate his recent compositions.<ref>Lesure, p. 333</ref> The rupture lasted for the remaining months of Debussy's life, and when he died the following year, Satie refused to attend the funeral.<ref>Dietschy, p. 190</ref> A few of his protégés escaped his displeasure, and Milhaud and Désormière were among those who remained friends with him to the last.<ref>Orledge, p. 255</ref>
 
[[File:Deuxième-manager-Parade.png|thumb|left|upright=0.75|''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'', 1917 – music by Satie, décor by [[Pablo Picasso]]|alt=stage costume design in absurdist style, with dancer almost invisible under costume representing a deputy manager]]
With Jean Cocteau, whom he had first met in 1915, he started work on incidental music for a production of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (resulting in the ''[[Cinq Grimaces]]''). From 1916 Satie and Cocteau worked on the ballet ''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'', which was premiered in 1917 by [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], with sets and costumes by [[Pablo Picasso]], and [[choreography]] by [[Léonide Massine]]. Through Picasso Satie also became acquainted with other [[cubism|cubists]], such as [[Georges Braque]], with whom he would work on other, aborted, projects.
 
The [[First World War]] restricted concert-giving to some extent, but Orledge comments that the war years brought "Satie's second lucky break", when [[Jean Cocteau]] heard Viñes and Satie perform the ''Trois morceaux'' in 1916. This led to the commissioning of the ballet ''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'', premiered in 1917 by [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], with music by Satie, sets and costumes by [[Pablo Picasso]], and choreography by [[Léonide Massine]]. This was a ''[[succès de scandale]]'', with jazz rhythms and instrumentation including parts for typewriter, steamship whistle and siren. It firmly established Satie's name before the public, and thereafter his career centred on the theatre, writing mainly to commission.<ref name=grove/>
With Georges Auric, [[Louis Durey]], [[Arthur Honegger]], and [[Germaine Tailleferre]] he formed the [[Les Six|Nouveaux Jeunes]], shortly after writing ''Parade''. Later the group was joined by [[Francis Poulenc]] and [[Darius Milhaud]]. In September 1918, Satie — giving little or no explanation — withdrew from the Nouveaux Jeunes. Jean Cocteau gathered the six remaining members, forming the [[Les Six|Groupe des Six]] (to which Satie would later have access, but later again would fall out with most of its members).
 
In October 1916, Satie received a commission from the Princesse de Polignac, [[Winnaretta Singer]], funding what Orledge considers the composer's masterpiece, the symphonic drama ''[[Socrate]]'' (1917–1918). A chamber [[oratorio]], it is a [[musical setting]] of excerpts from Plato's [[Socratic dialogues]] in [[Eclecticism|eclecticist]] philosopher and [[Hegel]] popularizer [[Victor Cousin]]'s somewhat [[lyric poetry|lyrical]] translation.<ref>Harding, pp. 175–177, 180</ref> Composition was interrupted in 1917 by music critic [[Jean Poueigh]]'s libel suit and the threat of jail. Satie called ''Socrate'' "a return to classical simplicity with a modern sensibility" at its premiere. [[Igor Stravinsky]], whom Satie admired, praised the work.<ref name=grove/><ref name=gresham/>
From 1919 he was in contact with [[Tristan Tzara]], the initiator of the [[Dada]] movement. He got to know the other Dadaists, such as [[Francis Picabia]] (later to become a [[surrealism|Surrealist]]), [[André Derain]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Man Ray]], etc. On the day of his first meeting with Man Ray, they fabricated Man Ray's first [[readymade]]: ''[[The Gift (sculpture)|The Gift]]'' (1921). Satie contributed to the Dadaist publication ''[[391 (publication)|391]]''. In the first months of 1922 he was surprised to find himself entangled in the argument between Tzara and [[André Breton]] about the true nature of avant-garde art, epitomised by the [[Congrès sur les directives et la défense de l'esprit moderne|Congrès de Paris]] failure. Satie originally sides with Tzara, but manages to maintain friendly relations with most players in both camps. Meanwhile, an "Ecole d'Arcueil" had formed around Satie, with young musicians like [[Henri Sauguet]], [[Maxime Jacob]], [[Roger Désormière]] and [[Henri Cliquet-Pleyel]].
 
In his later years Satie was in demand as a journalist, making contributions to the ''Revue musicale'', ''Action'', ''L'Esprit nouveau'', the ''Paris-Journal''<ref>Gillmor, p. xxv</ref> and other publications from the [[Dada]]ist ''[[391 (magazine)|391]]''<ref>[http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann2.php "Documents of Dada and Surrealism: Dada and Surrealist Journals in the Mary Reynolds Collection"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212081937/http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann2.php |date=12 February 2015 }}, Artic.edu. Retrieved 17 September 2021</ref> to the English-language magazines ''[[Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913–1936)|Vanity Fair]]'' and ''[[The Transatlantic Review]]''.<ref name=grove/><ref>Orledge, p. xxxviii</ref> As he contributed anonymously or under pen names to some publications it is not certain how many titles he wrote for, but ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' lists 25.<ref name=grove/> Satie's habit of embellishing the scores of his compositions with all kinds of written remarks became so established that he had to insist that they must not be read out during performances.{{refn|He wrote in the first edition of ''[[Heures séculaires et instantanées]]'', I forbid anyone to read the text aloud during the musical performance. Ignorance of my instructions will incur my righteous indignation against the presumptuous culprit. No exception will be allowed".<ref>Williamson, p, 176</ref>|group=n}}
Finally he composed an "instantaneist" ballet (''[[Relâche]]'') in collaboration with Picabia, for the [[Ballets Suédois]] of [[Rolf de Maré]]. In a simultaneous project, Satie added music to the surrealist film ''[[Entr'acte]]'' by [[René Clair]], which was given as an intermezzo for ''Relâche''.
 
In 1920 there was a festival of Satie's music at the [[Salle Érard]] in Paris.<ref>Gillmor, p. xxiv</ref> In 1924 the ballets ''[[Mercure (ballet)|Mercure]]'', with choreography by Massine and décor by Picasso, and ''[[Relâche (ballet)|Relâche]]'' ("Cancelled"), in collaboration with [[Francis Picabia]] and [[René Clair]], both provoked headlines with their first night scandals.<ref name=grove/> Satie's music for the latter is a comedic [[bricolage]] of [[high art]] and [[popular music]] from the [[cabaret]], one of its many playful "cancellations".<ref>Penman, pp. 9–11</ref><ref>Baker, pp. 295–298</ref> Auric called it "a miserable [[pastiche]]", but Satie christened it "obscène" and touted it as "pornographic", writing in the [[concert program]]:<ref>Baker, pp. 295–298, 441n17</ref>{{blockquote|The music for ''Relâche''? I was portraying people ''"out on a spree"''. Using popular themes for the purpose. These themes were powerfully ''"evocative"''. ... ''"Faint-hearts"''—and other ''"moralists"''—will reproach me for making use of these .... There is only one judge I defer to: the public. It will recognize these themes and will not be shocked in the least to hear them. ... Aren't they ''"human"'', after all? ... Let anyone who dreads such ''"evocations"'' retire.}}
Other work and episodes in this last period of Satie's life:
* Since 1911 he had been on friendly terms with [[Igor Stravinsky]], about whom he would later write articles.
* ''[[Le Piège de Méduse]]'' (1913) had a quite unique position in Satie's [[oeuvre]], as it was a stage work conceived and composed seemingly without any collaboration with other artists.
* ''[[Sports et divertissements]]'' was a kind of multi-media project, in which Satie provided piano music to drawings made by [[Charles Martin (artist)|Charles Martin]], composed in 1914 (publication and first public performance in the early 1920s).
* He got in trouble over an insulting postcard he had written to one of his critics shortly after the premiere of ''Parade''; he was condemned to a week of imprisonment, but was finally released as a result of the (financial) intercession of [[Winnaretta Singer]], Princess Edmond de Polignac.
* Singer, who had learnt ancient Greek when she was over 50, had commissioned a work on [[Socrates]] in October 1916; this would become his ''[[Vie de Socrate|Socrate]]'', which he presented early in 1918 to the Princess.
* From 1917 Satie wrote five pieces of ''[[furniture music]]'' ("Musique d'ameublement") for different occasions.
* From 1920, he was on friendly terms with the circles around [[Gertrude Stein]], amongst others, leading to the publication of some of his articles in ''[[Vanity Fair magazine|Vanity Fair]]'' (commissioned by [[Sibyl Harris]]).
* Some works would originate under the patronage of the count [[Etienne de Beaumont]], from 1922 onwards:
** ''[[La Statue retrouvée]]'' (or "Divertissement"): another Satie-Cocteau-Picasso-Massine collaboration.
** ''[[Ludions]]'': a setting of [[nonsense verse|nonsense rhyme]] by [[Léon-Paul Fargue]]
** ''[[Mercure]]'': the subtitle of this piece ("Poses plastiques") suggests it might have been intended rather as an emulation of the [[tableau vivant]] genre than as an actual ballet, the "tableaux" being cubist, by Picasso (and Massine).
* During his final years Satie travelled; for example, in 1924 to [[Belgium]], invited by [[Paul Collaer]], and to [[Monte Carlo]] for the premiere of a work on which he had collaborated.
 
[[File:Satie Cropped.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Satie (ca. 1919)|alt=older version of Satie images reproduced above]]
===Epilogue: the shrine of Arcueil===
At the time of Satie's death in 1925, absolutely nobody else had ever entered his room in [[Arcueil]] since he had moved there twenty-seven years earlier. What his friends would discover there, after Satie's burial at the Cimetière d'Arcueil, had the allure of the opening of the grave of [[Tutankhamun]]; apart from the dust and the cobwebs (which among other things made clear that Satie never composed using his piano), they discovered numerous items that included,
* great numbers of [[umbrella]]s, some that had apparently never been used by Satie,
* the portrait of Satie by Suzanne Valadon, shown above,
* love-letters and drawings from the Valadon romance,
* other letters from all periods of his life,
* his collection of drawings of [[medievalism|medieval]] buildings (only then did his friends see a link between Satie and certain previously anonymous, journal advertisements regarding "castles in lead" and the like),
* other drawings and texts of autobiographical value,
* other memorabilia from all periods of his life, amongst which were the seven velvet suits from his ''Velvet gentleman'' period.
Most importantly, however, everywhere there were compositions that were totally unknown or which were thought to have been lost. They were found behind the piano, in the pockets of the velvet suits, and in other odd places. These included the ''[[Vexations]]'', ''[[Geneviève de Brabant]]'', and other unpublished or unfinished stage works, ''[[The Dreamy Fish]]'', many [[Schola Cantorum]] exercises, a previously unseen set of "canine" piano pieces, several other piano works, often without a title. Some of these works would be published later as more ''[[Gnossiennes]]'', ''[[Pièces Froides]]'', ''[[Enfantines]]'', and ''[[Furniture music]]'').
 
Despite being a musical iconoclast, and encourager of modernism, Satie was uninterested to the point of antipathy in innovations such as the telephone, the gramophone and the radio. He made no recordings, and as far as is known heard only a single radio broadcast (of Milhaud's music) and made only one telephone call.<ref name=gresham/> Although his personal appearance was immaculate, his room at Arcueil, according to Orledge, was "squalid", and after his death the scores of several important works believed lost were found among the accumulated rubbish.<ref>Potter (2016), pp. 239 and 241</ref> He was incompetent with money. Having depended to a considerable extent on the generosity of friends in his early years, he was little better off when he began to earn a good income from his compositions, as he spent or gave away money as soon as he received it.<ref name=gresham/> He liked children, and they liked him, but his relations with adults were seldom straightforward. One of his last collaborators, Picabia, said of him:
=="Petit dictionnaire d'idées reçues" (short dictionary of preconceived ideas)==
{{blockquote|Satie's case is extraordinary. He's a mischievous and cunning old artist. At least, that's how he thinks of himself. Myself, I think the opposite! He's a very susceptible man, arrogant, a real sad child, but one who is sometimes made optimistic by alcohol. But he's a good friend, and I like him a lot.<ref name=gresham/>|}}
{{Sound sample box align right|Audio samples:}}
Throughout his adult life Satie was a heavy drinker, and in 1925 his health collapsed. He was taken to the Hôpital Saint-Joseph in Paris, diagnosed with [[cirrhosis]] of the liver. He died there at 8:00&nbsp;p.m. on 1 July, at the age of 59.<ref>Gillmor, p. 258</ref> He was buried in the cemetery at Arcueil.<ref>Gillmor, p. 259</ref>
{{multi-listen start}}
In [[Musical Instrument Digital Interface#MIDI file formats|MIDI]] file format:
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{{sample box end}}"Idée reçue" is a play on words; in [[French language|French]] it is the normal term for "prejudice", but Satie used it as the non-material equivalent of [[found object]]s (as in ''readymades'') — for example, when he incorporated odd bits of music by Saint-Saëns and [[Ambroise Thomas]] in his ''furniture music''. This section treats some popular (mis)conceptions regarding Satie and his music:
 
==Works==
'''Satie and furniture music''': not all of Satie's music is ''[[furniture music]]''. In the strict sense the term applies only to five of his compositions, which he wrote in 1917, 1920, and 1923. For the first public performance of ''furniture music'' see [[Entr'acte]].
 
===Music===
'''Satie as precursor''': the only "precursor" discussion Satie was involved in during his lifetime was whether or not he was a precursor of [[Claude Debussy]], but many would follow. Over the years Satie would be described as a precursor of movements and styles as varied as [[Impressionism]], [[Neoclassicism (music)|neo-classicism]], [[Dada]], [[Surrealism]], [[Atonal music|atonalism]], [[minimalism (music)|minimalism]], [[conceptual art]], the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], [[muzak]], [[ambient music]], multimedia art, etc., and as taking the first steps towards techniques such as [[prepared piano]] and music-to-film [[synchronisation]]. Further, Satie became one of the first musicians to perform a [[cameo appearance]] — he was in a 1924 film by [[René Clair]] (see: [http://hem.fyristorg.com/ebay/wav/entracte.rm a sample of the film (rm format)] and the ''[[Entr'acte]]'' article).
{{see also|List of compositions by Erik Satie}}
In the view of the ''Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Satie's importance lay in "directing a new generation of French composers away from [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]]‐influenced [[Impressionism in music|Impressionism]] towards a leaner, more epigrammatic style".<ref name=odm/> Debussy christened him "the precursor" because of his early harmonic innovations.<ref name=ocm/> Satie summed up his musical philosophy in 1917:
{{blockquote|To have a feeling for harmony is to have a feeling for tonality… the melody is the Idea, the outline; as much as it is the form and the subject matter of a work. The harmony is an illumination, an exhibition of the object, its reflection.<ref>''Quoted'' in Orledge, p. 68</ref>|}}
 
[[File:Satie Gymnopedie No. 3 for piano solo 02.png|thumb|upright=1.75|left|''Gymnopédie'' No. 3|alt=musical score with simple, slow music for solo piano]]
All by himself Satie appears to have been the avant-garde to half of the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. Many of these "precursorisms" are possibly based on quite superficial resemblances only, while, on the other hand, he undeniably inspired and influenced many later artists, and their ideas. According to Milhaud, Satie had "prophesied the major movements in classical music to appear over the next fifty years within his own body of work." There is a website exploring that theory in detail: [http://www.minim-media.com/satie/ Erik Satie's Crystal Ball]
 
Among his earliest compositions were sets of three ''[[Gymnopédies]]'' (1888) and his ''[[Gnossiennes]]'' (1889 onwards) for piano. They evoke the ancient world by what the critics [[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] and [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Paul Griffiths]] describe as "pure simplicity, monotonous repetition, and highly original [[Mode (music)|modal]] harmonies".<ref name=ocm>Griffiths, Paul, and Roger Nichols. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-5901 "Satie, Erik (Eric) (Alfred Leslie)"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford University Press, 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2021 {{subscription required}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918130322/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-5901 |date=18 September 2021}}</ref>
'''Satie as humorist''': many would be surprised to know how many of Satie's seemingly humorous compositions were at heart taken very seriously by him. When he forbade commentaries written in his [[Partition (music)|partition]]s to be read aloud, he probably saw this himself as a means to safeguard the seriousness of his intentions. When, at the first public performance of ''[[Socrate]]'', there was laughter, he felt hurt. Many other examples of his serious attitude can be found, but there's no doubt that Satie was a witty person, certainly not without many humorous [[idiosyncrasy|idiosyncrasies]].
It is possible that their simplicity and originality were influenced by Debussy; it is also possible that it was Satie who influenced Debussy.<ref name=odm>Kennedy, Joyce, Michael Kennedy, and Tim Rutherford-Johnson. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-7968 "Satie, Erik (Eric) Alfred Leslie"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2021 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918130322/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-7968 |date=18 September 2021 }}</ref> During the brief spell when Satie was composer to Péladan's sect he adopted a similarly austere manner.<ref name=odm/>
 
While Satie was earning his living as a café pianist in Montmartre he contributed songs and little waltzes. After moving to Arcueil he began to write works with quirky titles, such as the seven-movement suite ''[[Trois morceaux en forme de poire]]'' ("Three Pear-shaped Pieces") for piano four-hands (1903), simply phrased music that Nichols and Griffiths describe as "a résumé of his music since 1890" – reusing some of his earlier work as well as popular songs of the time.<ref name=ocm/> He struggled to find his own musical voice. Orledge writes that this was partly because of his "trying to ape his illustrious peers … we find bits of Ravel in his miniature opera ''[[Geneviève de Brabant (Satie)|Geneviève de Brabant]]'' and echoes of both [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]] and Debussy in the ''Nouvelles pièces froides'' of 1907".<ref name=grove/>
'''Satie and compositions in three parts''': although many of his compositions (e.g., most of the pre-[[World War I|war]] piano pieces) were indeed in three parts, there is no general rule in this respect. After his death, publishers would force more of them into an artificial three-part structure; Satie had actually already made a joke of such proceedings with his seven-part ''[[Trois Morceaux en forme de poire]]'', which is French for "Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear."
 
After concluding his studies at the Schola Cantorum in 1912 Satie composed with greater confidence and more prolifically. Orchestration, despite his studies with d'Indy, was never his strongest suit,<ref>Orledge, p. 95; and Gillmor, p. 137</ref> but his grasp of counterpoint is evident in the opening bars of ''Parade'',<ref>Orledge, pp. 116 and 174</ref> and from the outset of his composing career he had original and distinctive ideas about harmony.<ref>Gillmor, p. 37</ref> In his later years he composed sets of short instrumental works with absurd titles, including ''[[Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien)]]'' ("True Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)", 1912), ''[[Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois]]'' ("Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Wooden Man", 1913) and ''[[Sonatine bureaucratique]]'' ("Bureaucratic Sonata", 1917).
'''Satie and (lack of) money''': although Satie certainly knew periods of dire poverty, and was perhaps a little uncontrollable in his spending, in long periods of his life he had few worries in this sense. Although maybe not having much money in his pockets, he was (certainly from the second decade of the [[20th century|new century]]) often invited to expensive restaurants and to all sort of events, and was given financial help, by all sorts of people.
[[File:Satie socrate manuscript.jpg|Manuscript of ''[[Socrate]]''|upright=1.5|thumb|alt=neatly written manuscript of musical score, with careful, calligraphic letters in red ink]]
 
In his neat, calligraphic hand,<ref>Gillmor, p. 208</ref> Satie would write extensive instructions for his performers, and although his words appear at first sight to be humorous and deliberately nonsensical, Nichols and Griffiths comment, "a sensitive pianist can make much of injunctions such as 'arm yourself with clairvoyance' and 'with the end of your thought{{'"}}.<ref name="ocm" /> His ''Sonatine bureaucratique'' anticipates the [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassicism]] soon adopted by Stravinsky.<ref name=grove/> Despite his rancorous falling out with Debussy, Satie commemorated his long-time friend in 1920, two years after Debussy's death, in the anguished "Elégie", the first of the miniature song cycle ''[[Quatre petites mélodies (Satie)|Quatre petites mélodies]]''.<ref>Orledge, p. 39</ref> Orledge rates the cycle as the finest, though least known, of the four sets of short songs of Satie's last decade.<ref name=grove/>
'''Satie as an opponent of other musical styles'''. The musical styles Satie opposed were allegedly numerous: Wagnerism, Romanticism (Saint-Saëns, Franck, etc.), Impressionism (Debussy and Ravel), [[Expressionism (music)|Expressionism]] (later Ravel), [[Slavism]] (Stravinsky), [[post-Wagnerism]] ([[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]), [[cabaret]] music, etc. Apart from some animosities on the personal level (which can be seen as symptomatic of most adherents of avant-garde movements of those days), Satie's ideas on other music of his time generally had more subtlety; for example, about [[César Franck]] he could not be brought to write critically, but would avoid the issue with jokes ("Franck's music shows surprisingly much Franckism; Some even say César Frank was lazy, which is not a commendable property in a hard working man"). Perhaps the same can be said as above regarding "Satie as precursor": there is much empty discussion — for example, the debate with Debussy appears to have been over whether or not Satie was a precursor of Impressionism, which would not have made much sense if he had been opposed to Impressionism as such.
 
Satie coined the term ''[[musique d'ameublement]]'' ("furniture music") and developed the concept as [[background music]] for easy listening. He composed ''Cinéma'', an early example of [[film music]], for René Clair's ''[[Entr'acte (film)|Entr'acte]]'' (the {{lang|fr|[[entr'acte]]|italics=no}} for ''Relâche''). This music was meant to support mood, not demand focused attention, an approach that echoed [[surrealism]]'s appeal to the [[unconscious mind]].<ref name=dance>[[Roger Shattuck|Shattuck, Roger]]. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195173697.001.0001/acref-9780195173697-e-1543 "Satie, Erik"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918130334/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195173697.001.0001/acref-9780195173697-e-1543 |date=18 September 2021}}, ''The International Encyclopedia of Dance'', Oxford University Press, 2005. Retrieved 18 September 2021 {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>Baker, pp. 290–337</ref> [[René Magritte]] admired Satie's music and aesthetic.<ref>Almer, pp. 29–30, 42, 146</ref> He and [[E. L. T. Mesens]] appeared on the playbill for ''Relâche''.<ref>Baker, p. 296</ref>
'''Satie and boredom'''. Satie often consciously disregarded the conception of [[musical development|development]] found in the German tradition (Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms). Satie's compositions tend to be very short; a typical [[Movement (music)|movement]] of a Satie composition takes less than two minutes to play, and compositions with more than five movements are exceptional. Even his larger-scale works conforming to the genres known in his time would be two to five times shorter than the usual duration of such compositions (''Socrate'', a [[secular]] [[oratorio]] — or "symphonic drama" — lasting about half an hour, is the longest). In general, Satie thought it to be a great fault for a composer to bore his audience in any way. There are eight of his compositions that use repetition as a compositional technique, more than doubling the total duration:
* ''[[Vexations]]'': with 840 repetitions of the musical motif (and many more of the melody of the bass), this is definitely the longest single-movement work with a ''defined'' number of repetitions (note that, without the repetitions, the actual music takes less than two minutes to play). No explanation by Satie survives regarding the exceptional length of the piece. If excluding the ''Tango'' mentioned in the next point, performing the ''Vexations'' takes longer than all his other music played in sequence.
* For ''Le Tango'' ("The Tango"), a rather catchy tune from ''[[Sports et divertissements]]'', Satie indicates in the score ''perpétuel'' (i.e. something like a [[perpetuum mobile]], which in French is "mouvement perpétuel"). There is little indication how Satie understood this "perpetual", apart that at the premiere, at least ''assisted'' by Satie, there was obviously nothing repeated ''ad infinitum'', taken literally. When performed for a recording there is seldom more than one repeat of this part of the composition, making it one of the ''shortest'' [[tango music|tango]]s ever, something like a ''Minute Tango''.
* Five pieces of ''furniture music'', which were intended as "background" music with no number of repeats specified. The circumstances in which such music was performed by Satie himself indicate, however, that the total playing times would be intended to be the usual 'intermission' time of a stage production (see [[Entr'acte]]). While the public was not expected to be silent, these compositions can hardly be seen as an experiment in boredom.
* His music for the film ''Entr'acte'' has ten repeat zones in order to synchronise with the twenty-minute film (which has a very varied plot, so not much boredom is to be found there either).
 
Satie is regarded by some writers as an influence on [[Minimal music|minimalism]], which developed in the 1960s and later. The musicologist Mark Bennett and the composer [[Humphrey Searle]] have said that [[John Cage]]'s music shows Satie's influence,<ref>Bennett, p. 7</ref> and Searle and the writer Edward Strickland have used the term "minimalism" in connection with Satie's ''[[Vexations]]'', which the composer implied in his manuscript should be played over and over again 840 times.<ref>Potter (2016), p. 230; and Strickland, p. 124</ref> [[John Adams (composer)|John Adams]] included a specific homage to Satie's music in his 1996 ''[[Century Rolls]]''.<ref>Potter (2016), p. 252</ref>
'''Satie and sexuality''': much has been said about Satie's sexuality, ranging from "hidden" ''homosexuality'' to "ordinary" ''heterosexuality''. In fact, apart from the short-lived, and highly "idealised", Valadon period, Satie's behaviour appeared more or less [[asexual]]: he tended to be dismissive when the topic of sexuality came up. See also: [[Gymnopédie]].
 
==Notes=Writings===
[[File:Tombe satie.jpg|thumb|right|Satie's grave bearing a white cross in [[Arcueil]], to the south of Paris]]
<!--See [[Wikipedia:Footnotes]] for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
Satie wrote extensively for the press, but unlike his professional colleagues such as Debussy and [[Paul Dukas|Dukas]] he did not write primarily as a music critic. Much of his writing is connected to music tangentially if at all. His biographer Caroline Potter describes him as "an experimental creative writer, a ''blagueur''{{refn|A ''blagueur'' is "a joker or prankster" according to the [[Merriam-Webster]] French-English dictionary.|group=n}} who provoked, mystified and amused his readers".<ref>Potter (2016), pp. 206–207</ref> He wrote ''[[Jeu d'esprit|jeux d'esprit]]'' claiming to eat dinner in four minutes with a diet of exclusively white food (including bones and fruit mould), or to drink boiled wine mixed with [[fuchsia]] juice, or to be woken by a servant hourly throughout the night to have his temperature taken;<ref>Weeks, pp. 83–84</ref> he wrote in praise of [[Beethoven]]'s non-existent but "sumptuous" Tenth Symphony, and the family of instruments known as the cephalophones, "which have a compass of thirty octaves and are absolutely unplayable".<ref>Dickinson, pp. 248 and 249</ref>
<references/>
 
Satie grouped some of these writings under the general headings ''Cahiers d'un mammifère'' (A Mammal's Notebook) and ''Mémoires d'un amnésique'' (Memoirs of an Amnesiac), indicating, as Potter comments, that "these are not autobiographical writings in the conventional manner".<ref>Potter (2016), p. 207</ref> He claimed the major influence on his humour was [[Oliver Cromwell]], adding "I also owe much to [[Christopher Columbus]], because the American spirit has occasionally tapped me on the shoulder and I have been delighted to feel its ironically glacial bite".<ref>''Quoted'' in Dickinson, p. 247</ref>
==See also==
A number of works by Erik Satie are listed in the [[:Category:compositions by Erik Satie|Category of compositions by Erik Satie]] and the [[:Category:Writings by Erik Satie|Category of writings by Erik Satie]].
 
His published writings include:
==Sources==
* ''A Mammal's Notebook: Collected Writings of Erik Satie'' (Serpent's Tail; Atlas Arkhive, No 5, 1997) {{ISBN|0-947757-92-9}} (with introduction and notes by Ornella Volta, translations by Anthony Melville, contains several drawings by Satie)
''In English, unless indicated:''
* ''{{Lang|fr|Correspondence presque complète: Réunie, établie et présentée par Ornella Volta}}'' (Paris: Fayard/Imes, 2000) {{ISBN|2-213-60674-9}} (an almost complete edition of Satie's letters, in French)
* Nigel Wilkins, ''The Writings of Erik Satie'', London, 1980.
 
==Legacy==
;Writings by Satie
The centenary of Satie's death was commemorated by the BBC which made him their composer of the week and broadcast a special Satie-Day Morning programme.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Erik Satie (1866-1925), Gymnopédiste |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002f0d6 |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 - Saturday Morning, Satie-Day Morning |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002dxxy |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref> A digital album called ''Satie: Discoveries'' was premiered. This included 27 previously unpublished works which had been researched by James Nye and Sato Matsui and performed on the piano by [[Alexandre Tharaud]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alberge |first=Dalya |date=2025-06-26 |title=Unheard works by Erik Satie to premiere 100 years after his death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/26/unheard-works-by-erik-satie-to-premiere-100-years-after-his-death |access-date=2025-07-03 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=27 lost works by Erik Satie heard for the first time, 100 years after the composer’s death |url=https://www.classicfm.com/composers/satie/lost-works-heard-first-time-100-years-composer-death/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Classic FM |language=en}}</ref>
* ''A Mammal's Notebook: Collected Writings of Erik Satie'' (Serpent's Tail; Atlas Arkhive, No 5, 1997) ISBN 0-947757-92-9 (with introduction and notes by Ornella Volta, translations by Anthony Melville, contains several drawings by Satie)
==Notes, references and sources==
* ''Correspondence presque complète: Réunie, établie et présentée par Ornella Volta'' (Paris: Fayard/Imes, 2000; 1265pp) ISBN 2-213-60674-9 (an almost complete edition of Satie's letters, in French)
===Notes===
{{Reflist|45em|group=n}}
 
===References===
;Books on Satie
{{Reflist}}
* [[Alan Gillmor|Gillmor, Alan M.]], ''Erik Satie'' (Twayne Pub., 1988, reissued 1992; 387pp) ISBN 0-393-30810-3
* Myers, Rollo H., ''Erik Satie.'' (Dover Publications, New York 1968.) ISBN 0-486-21903-8
* [[Robert Orledge|Orledge, Robert]], ''Satie Remembered'' (London: Faber and Faber, London, 1995)
* [[Robert Orledge|Orledge, Robert]], ''Satie the Composer'' Cambridge University Press: 1990; 437pp — in the series ''Music in the Twentieth Century'' <nowiki>[ed.]</nowiki> Arnold Whittall) ISBN 0-521-35037-9
* Templier, Pierre-Daniel (translated by Elena L. French and David S. French), ''Erik Satie'' (The MIT Press, 1969, reissued 1971) ISBN 0-262-70005-0 ''and'' (New York: Da Capo Press, 1980 reissue) ISBN 0-306-76039-8
** note: Templier extensively consulted Conrad, Erik Satie's brother, when writing this first biography that appeared in 1932. The English translation was, however, criticised by [[John Cage]]; in a letter to Ornella Volta ([[25 May]] [[1983]]) he referred to the translation as disappointing compared to the formidable value of the original biography.
* [[Ornella Volta|Volta, Ornella]] and Simon Pleasance, ''Erik Satie'' (Hazan: The Pocket Archives Series, 1997; 200pp) ISBN 2-85025-565-3
* [[Ornella Volta|Volta, Ornella]], transl. Michael Bullock, ''Satie Seen Through His Letters'' (Marion Boyars, 1989) ISBN 0-7145-2980-X
* Whiting, Steven, ''Satie the Bohemian: from Cabaret to Concert Hall'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999; 596pp)
** a fully researched account of Satie's musical career in what then was regarded as popular music.
 
===Sources===
;Other
{{div col|colwidth=-45em}}
* [http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/satie.html Satie Home page] — Niclas Fogwall's website dedicated to Satie, including:
**[http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/article.html Articles on Erik Satie]
**[http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/intro.html A list of Satie publications]
**[http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/samples.html A collection of Satie's music samples]
**[http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/pictures.html Pictures of Satie]
 
*{{cite book |last=Allmer |first=Patricia |date=2019 |title=René Magritte |publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-78914-180-1}}
==Recordings and arrangements==
*{{cite book |last=Baker |first=George |date=2007 |chapter=Dada Cinema |title=The Artwork Caught by the Tail: Francis Picabia and Dada in Paris |publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-02618-5}}
;Piano works
* {{cite book | last= Bennett | first= Mark | title= A Brief History of Minimalism | year= 1995 | ___location= Ann Arbor | publisher=UMI| oclc= 964203894}}
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]], etc.
* {{cite book | last= Dickinson | first= Peter | title= Words and Music| year= 2016| ___location= Woodbridge | publisher= Boydell Press | isbn= 978-1-78327-106-1}}
* {{cite book | last= Dietschy | first= Marcel | title= A Portrait of Claude Debussy | year=1999 | ___location= Oxford | publisher= Clarendon | isbn= 978-0-19-315469-8}}
* {{cite book | last = Duchen | first = Jessica |author-link= Jessica Duchen |year = 2000 | title = Gabriel Fauré | ___location = London | publisher = Phaidon | isbn = 978-0-7148-3932-5}}
* {{cite book | last =Gillmor| first= Alan | title= Erik Satie| year= 1988| ___location= Boston | publisher= Twayne | isbn= 978-0-8057-9472-4}}
* {{cite book | last= Harding | first= James | author-link=James Harding (music writer) | title= Erik Satie | year= 1975| ___location= London | publisher= Secker & Warburg | oclc= 251432509 }}
* {{cite book | last1= Innes | first1=Christopher|author1-link=Christopher Innes|author2= Maria Shevtsova| title=The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Directing | year= 2013| ___location= Cambridge and New York | publisher= Cambridge University Press | isbn= 978-0-521-84449-9 }}
* {{cite book | last= Kelly | first= Barbara L.|author-link=Barbara L. Kelly|chapter=History and Homage| title= The Cambridge Companion to Ravel|editor= Deborah Mawer | year= 2000| ___location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-52-164856-1}}
* {{cite book | last= Lajoinie | first= Vincent |language=fr| title= Erik Satie | year= 1985| ___location= Lausanne | publisher= Age d'homme | oclc=417094292 }}
* {{cite book | last= Lesure | first= François | author-link= François Lesure | title= Claude Debussy: A Critical Biography | year= 2019| ___location=Rochester, NY | publisher=University of Rochester Press | isbn=978-1-58046-903-6 }}
* {{cite book | last= Nichols | first= Roger|author-link=Roger Nichols (musical scholar)| title= The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917–1929 | year= 2002| ___location=London | publisher=Thames and Hudson | isbn=978-0-500-51095-7 }}
* {{cite book | last= Orledge | first= Robert | author-link=Robert Orledge| title= Satie the Composer| year= 1990| ___location= Cambridge| publisher= Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJ9OAAAAIAAJ | isbn= 978-0-521-35037-2}}
*{{cite book |last=Penman |first=Ian |date=2025 |title=Erik Satie Three Piece Suite |publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-1-63590-254-9}}
* {{cite book | last= Potter | first= Caroline | title= Erik Satie: A Parisian Composer and his World| year=2016 | ___location= Woodbridge | publisher= Boydell Press | isbn= 978-1-78327-083-5}}
* {{cite book | last= Potter | first= Caroline | title= French Music Since Berlioz | year= 2017| ___location=London | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-1-315-09389-5 }}
* {{cite book | last= Rey | first= Anne|author-link=Anne Rey | title= Erik Satie| year= 1974| language=fr|___location= Paris | publisher= Seuil | isbn= 978-2-02-000255-4}}
* {{cite book | last= Rosinsky | first=Thérèse Diamand | title =Suzanne Valadon | year= 1994| ___location= New York | publisher= Universe | isbn = 978-0-87663-777-7 }}
*{{cite book | last =Satie | first =Erik|editor=Ornella Volta | title = Écrits | date =1981|edition=second | ___location =Paris | publisher = Éditions Champ libre | isbn = 978-2-85184-073-8 }}
* {{cite book | last= Strickland | first= Edward | title= Minimalism: Origins| year= 2000| ___location= Bloomington| publisher= Indiana University Press | isbn= 978-0-253-21388-4}}
* {{cite book | last= Templier | first= Pierre-Daniel | title= Erik Satie| year= 1969| ___location= Cambridge, Massachusetts |url=https://archive.org/details/eriksatie00temp/page/10/mode/2up| publisher= MIT Press | oclc= 1034659768}}
* {{cite book | last= Weeks | first= David | title= Eccentrics| year= 1995| ___location= London | publisher= Weidenfeld & Nicolson | isbn= 978-0-297-81447-4}}
* {{cite book | last= Whiting | first= Steven Moore | title= Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall | year= 1999| ___location= Oxford | publisher= Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-816458-6 }}
* {{cite book | last= Williamson | first= John|author-link=John Williamson (musicologist)| title= Words and Music | year= 2005| ___location= Liverpool | publisher= Liverpool University Press | isbn= 978-0-85323-619-1 }}
{{div col end}}
 
===Further reading===
;Orchestral and vocal
* {{cite book |last=Shattuck|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Shattuck| title=The Banquet Years: The Arts in France, 1885–1918: Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, Guillaume Apollinaire | ___location=U.S. | publisher=Henry Holt and Company | year=1958|ref=none}}
* 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.
* {{cite book |last=Shattuck|first=Roger| title=The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I. | ___location=U.S. | publisher=Freeport, New York, Books for Libraries Press | year=1968 | isbn=0836928261|ref=none}} Revised edition of 1958 book.
*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 2000, ex-[[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] guitarist [[Steve Hackett]] released the album, "[[Sketches of Satie]]", performing Satie's works on acoustic guitar, with contributions by his brother [[John Hackett (musician)|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.
 
==External links==
{{Commons category|Erik Satie}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author|works=or}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Satie, Erik}}
* [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=SatieE&preview=1 Satie's Scores] — by the [[Mutopia Project]]
* {{IckingArchiveChoralWiki|idx=Satie|name=Erik Satie}}
* [https://www.musees-honfleur.fr/menucacher.html "Maisons Satie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713170503/http://www.musees-honfleur.fr/maison-satie.html |date=13 July 2017 }} – Satie birthplace museum, Honfleur.
* {{IMSLP|id=Satie%2C_Erik_Alfred_Leslie|cname=Satie}}
 
* [http://www.scores4free.com/satie/satie.html Gymnopedie & Gnossienne Scores] You can preview scores while listening audio streams
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