Erik Satie, a common name on classical greatest hits CDs, was a
relatively recent French composer most known for his famous Gymnopedies -
the name's origin coming from the ancient Greek dance festival Gymnopaedia.
I don't know much else about him other than he hung out with other now
famous musical contemporaries like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
This piece was composed when he was 22 years old.
Take aways
- This piece is deceptively difficult because the left hand has a
constant roll of hitting the low bass followed by a chord usually more
than an octave away. It gets really hard when you have to: look up at
the music see the bass note, look down to find it on the keyboard, then
look back up to see the chord, and then look back down to find the chord
which creates this zig-zag motion in your neck. Its also bloody hard
just reading 2 staves of music at the same time! Then you might figure
it might just be easier to memorize the whole thing, but this piece is
actually very hard to memorize! Maybe I've just been playing it for too
long, but I'd be more than 75% of the way thru using memory then
suddenly forget where I am or what I'm doing. I'm not talking like a
memory slip but more of a legitimate state of complete confusion like
you're on drugs. So ultimately I had to rely on the music just to stay
anchored and not float away.
- The left hand chords can spread more than an octave which creates pain in the wrist eventually.
- You have to slow down even if the music seems to drag. The challenge
is to avoid creating some kind of pulsing dance because...I just don't
think thats the point..I think you are supposed to feel like you're on
drugs, but thats just my opinion / interpretation.
The sound is a Yamaha Motif Wurlitizer w/ tremolo. I like it.
Ishida