Download 5 Erik Satie

Erik Satie
Erik Satie, what could the work of this, one of the most progressive composers of
the late 19th and 20th centuries, this champion of the French Avant-Garde possibly have to
do with chant? Well according to Hungarian musicologist András Wilheim perhaps more
then may at first seem apparent.
Surprising as the parallel may seem, there has been
wide discussion in print of a supposed relationship between
Satie’s music and Gregorian chant or plainsong. In one
study a Gregorian influence is seem primarily in the
prosody of the vocal works, since it traces his modal
harmonies to Gregorian. (András. 1983. 231)
How strong are the forces of these ancient chants then that they have made their presence
felt all the way into this, the age representing the beginnings of modern music as we
recognize it today? While perhaps not thought of as being as important as let us say a
Debussy or a Ravel, it is no overstatement to say that Satie’s influence was in no way
unimportant for his works have endured, stood the test of time. Wilheim makes the
distinction between neoclassicism and a mere influence, the former being more direct and
purposeful in nature. He points to three relatively early Satie works Trois Sarabandes,
Gnossiennes and the Trois Gymnopédies as exhibiting neoclassical tendencies in the
tradition of music from ancient Greece as illustrated by the titles of the last two would
indicate. According to Wilheim the Gregorian influence in Satie’s music is clear but from
what source did Satie receive the inspiration to the point that it becomes incorporated into
his own music?
“We know that Satie, like Debussy, visited the
Abbey of Solesmes, where he heard Gregorian chant that
accorded with the local reforms. But considering the period
in question, this answer is unsatisfactory; certainly an
earlier influence must be presumed, and we think we have
found this is the singular Gregorian practice current in mid
19th-century France, since a direct connection between Erik
Satie and this practice cannot be proved satisfactorily.”
(András. 1983. 231)
What he discovered was extremely interesting and it is that Satie had as his firs piano
teacher one Vinot. Mr. Vinto had studied in turn with a Louis Niedermeyer. Niedermeyer
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had devised a chant-based pedagogy, a system that was entirely based on ancient plainsong. I was both pleased and dismayed upon learning this for I have been mulling the
same possibility and planned on presenting it as something I thought “unique.” How silly
of me to be that naive! Niedermeyer’s methods include re-harmonizing note for note the
chants of the entire mass.
Although Niedermeyer knew that Gregorian chant
was essentially a melodic system, he professed, like Abbot
Petit, that to provide it with a chordal accompaniment was
“one of the finest discoveries of modern times”. (András.
1983. 231)
He authored a theory book that dealt precise with this issue in 1857 and set out to
harmonize al the chants he could find but all he actually finished were the graduals. The
preface to this is interesting in that he says, “harmonization of Gregorian that follows the
natural development of its melodic laws” seeming to indicate a suggestion of some
deeper underlying melodic power of chant. Wilheim upon comparing Satie’s harmonizations with those of Niedermeyer asserts that there is certainly evidence that Satie was
indeed thinking in terms of chant when for instance he wrote the Kyrie movement in his
Messe des pauvres.
“one encounters in it’s full abundance a forming
principle that could scarcely had come about had the
composer not had a knowledge of Gregorian: short melodic
sections are repeated in a somewhat irregular series (one
hears altogether ten different lines in various transpositions), and with a single exception there is no
symmetrical division into periods within these lines. Indeed
the composer almost seems to parade his flexibility ………”
(András. 1983. 235)
The benefit to Satie in borrowing from chant according to Wilheim is that, as I have been
suggesting throughout this paper, it increased his pallet choices so to speak. This ancient
style, homophonic and modal allows total freedom in harmonization. These chants are so
strong melodically but they are of irregular shape and lend themselves so well to
innovative harmonic processing. They are not symmetrical in the way that we have
become accustomed to hearing music and therefore I feel that is a encouragement of sorts
to let the imagination run wild, there are endless possibilities in the treatment of these
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wonderful melodies and they are so strong in their utter simplicity that they somehow
always retain their character regardless of the harmonic or rhythmic treatments applied to
them. It has been pretty well established that Satie was well versed in Niedermeyer’s
methods and concepts and that he probably applied some of these concepts in his own
works, Through this application of chant to his compositions he was able to effect a
sound and style that is recognizable as “Satie.” When considering plainsong as a model
for modern application Benjamin Rajeczky states in his treatise on chant, “it delivered
fresh energies to a new music realm based on historical tradition.” (Rajeczky. 1981.
156)
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