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Erik Satie - Vexations

by Furniture Music

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1.
Vexations 03:28
2.
Vexations (long excerpt) 30:21

about

“There seems to be no reason why these chords might not continue for hours.” This sentence was printed in a critical essay published in 1919 (The Musical Quarterly Vol. 5, No. 4), implying that Satie was not a real artist, for his music had no formal structure. Today, no one denies the value of Satie’s work. But still the critic got something right: these chords really can go on for hours. Actually, maybe they should, as Satie stated in the score of Vexations, where there’s a weird indication for the pianist to prepare – in silence and immobility – if they intend to play the piece 840 times in a row.

So… is it supposed to be played 840 times? Is this an instruction or a joke? Maybe both. With Satie, we never know. The joke might be on the pianist, for either taking it seriously or not; the joke might be on the public, for expecting european music to be always so formal and polite; the joke is surely on Satie, for he was heartbroken at the time; and the joke is definitely on the critic, for Satie had already composed his Vexations, but hadn’t yet published it, when the quoted essay was written. So maybe we should simply get lost in these cyclic harmonies and enjoy a dark laugh together.

PS: Due to the maximum file size in Bandcamp, I couldn't possibly upload the version where Vexations actually repeats 840 times (for 21 hours, resulting in a 25Gb file). But, along with the shorter, easy version, I'm uploading a longer version with 20 repetitions, so that people can have an idea of how vexatious it would be to listen to this piece (nevermind playing it) 840 times in a row.

credits

released March 2, 2022

Composer: Erik Satie
Performance: L. Sierakowski
Cover art: Portrait of Erik Satie (1893), by Suzanne Valadon (by the way, Suzanne was the woman for whom Satie was heartbroken at the time).

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Furniture Music Curitiba, Brazil

My name is L. Sierakowski. I'm a pianist composer and a big fan of Erik Satie's music. Here you'll be able to listen to all of that.

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