[lit-ideas] Erik Satie
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:58:28 -0700
Eric,
Satie was born "Eric" like you, but changed his name to "Erik."
I don't know why. I've been reading Roger Shattuck's The Banquet Years. I
think I only mentioned the first subtitle, "The Origins of the Avant-Garde
in France, 1885 to World War I." But the second subtitle is "Alfred Jarry,
Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, and Guillaume Apollinaire." Shattuck sought out
four individuals that he thought might, together, provide an interesting,
perhaps new, insight into this era.
I am through Shattuck's section on Rousseau and am into his
Satie. I didn't happen to have any music by Satie and sent away for a CD
that has his three Gymnopedie's, 4 Preludes Flasques, Prelude en topisserie,
4eme Nocturne, Vieux Sequins et Vielles Cuirasses, Embryons desseches, 6
Gnosseinnes, Sonatine Bureaucratique, and La Picadilly.
Of course I have heard his first Gymnopedie all my life, and I
do enjoy that and the other Gymnopedies, but I can't say I appreciate much
else.
I do see the effect of the French Anarchists in Satie. He
wanted to be unique, but at the same time, like Rousseau, he wanted to be
appreciated by his peers. No doubt they both sincerely wanted both to be
unique and to be widely appreciated, but there is something inherently
hypocritical in that sentiment, it seems to me. They wanted to break away
from their heritage but at the same time wanted those raised to appreciate
that heritage to reject it as well, along with them, because of what they
did. But they weren't true anarchists. They wanted to start a new
tradition, one to replace the old one. Now since the old one was largely
German someone might argue that they weren't being anarchistic but national.
But that doesn't seem to be their motivation. Think of the anarchistic
"Beat" poets of America. They were something like that.
Satie was apparently someone a bit like Ezra Pound. Pound
influenced a number of poets who produced better poetry than he did. Satie
influenced Debussy, Ravel and some others, but who listens to Satie anymore?
Some few I suppose. I was able to find a CD on Amazon.com. When I got it,
however, it had a cracked case. That was Ezra Pound's problem as well -- so
to speak.
Lawrence
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