Erik Alfred Leslie Satie

Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie 

Born May 17, 1866, in Honfleur, Calvados Department; died July 1, 1925, in Arcueil, near Paris. French composer. Member of the Communist Party of France (1920).

From 1905 to 1908, when he was already middle aged, Satie studied at the Schola Cantorum in Paris under O. Séré (J. Poueigh) and A. Roussel. At that time he also wrote collections of piano pieces with preposterous titles, including Trois Morceaux en forme de poire, En Habit de cheval, and Sports et divertissements. His first theatrical work was the ballet Parade (1916).

Satie supported the innovative undertakings of the group of composers known as Les Six. At the beginning of the 20th century he became the leader of the Ecole d’ Arcueil—a group of young French musicians.

Satie did not maintain steadfast support of any one artistic principle: sometimes he supported impressionism, and at other times he attacked impressionism’s epigonous followers and opposed the movement with the simplicity and severity of his linear composition. His best work is Socrate (to a text from Plato’s dialogues, 1918), a dramatic work for four sopranos and chamber orchestra.

REFERENCES

Filenko, G. “E. Sati.” In the collection Voprosy teorii i estetiki muzyki, issue 5. Leningrad, 1967.
Shneerson, G. Frantsuzskaia muzyka XX veka, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1970. Cocteau, J. E. Satie. Liège, 1957.

I. A. MEDVEDEVA