One of the most amazing and controversial composers in the history of music is Eric Satie. The composer's biography is replete with facts when he could shock his friends and admirers, at first violently defending one statement, and then refuting it in his theoretical works. In the 90s of the nineteenth century, Eric Satie met Karl Debussy and denied following the creative work of Richard Wagner - he advocated supporting only the hacked impressionism in music, because this was the beginning of the reincarnation of French national art. Later, composer Eric Sati led an active skirmish with imitators of the Impressionism style. In contrast to ephemerality and elegance, he set the clarity, sharpness and certainty of linear notation.
Sati had a huge impact on the composers who made up the so-called Six. He was a real restless rebel who tried to refute the patterns in the minds of people. He led crowds of followers who liked Sati’s war with philistinism, his bold claims about art and music in particular.
Young years
Eric Satie was born in 1866. His father worked as a port broker. From a young age, young Eric was attracted to music and showed remarkable abilities, but since none of those close to him was engaged in music, these attempts were ignored. Only at the age of 12, when the family decided to change their place of residence to Paris, Eric was honored with the constant study of music. At eighteen, Eric Sati entered the Conservatory in Paris. He studied a set of theoretical subjects, among which was harmony. He also studied the piano. Education at the conservatory did not satisfy the future genius. He quits classes and enters the army as a volunteer.
A year later, Eric returns to Paris. He works part time in small cafes like a taper. In one of these establishments in Montmartre, a fateful meeting took place with Carl Debussy, who was impressed and intrigued by the unusual choice of harmonies in the seemingly simple improvisations of the young musician. Debussy even decided to create an orchestration for Sati's piano cycle, Gymnopedia. The musicians became friends. Their opinion meant so much to each other that Satie was able to get Debussy away from his young passions in Wagner music.
Moving to Arkay
At the end of the nineteenth century, Sati left Paris for the suburb of Arkay. He rented an inexpensive room over a small cafe and stopped letting anyone in there. Even close friends could not come there. Because of this, Sati got the nickname "The Arkay Hermit." He lived completely alone, did not see the need for meetings with publishers, did not take large and profitable orders from theaters. Periodically, he appeared in fashionable circles in Paris, introducing fresh musical work. After that, the whole city discussed this, repeated Sati’s jokes, his words and acuteness about the musical celebrities of that time and about art in general.
Sati meets the twentieth century while studying. From 1905 to 1908, when he was 39 years old, Eric Satie studied at the Schola cantorum. He studied composition and counterpoint with A. Russell and O. Serha. Eric Satie's early music dates from the late nineteenth century, the 80s and 90s. This is the Mass of the Poor for the choir and organ, the piano cycle Cold Pieces and the well-known Gymnopedias.
Collaboration with Cocteau. Ballet "Parade"
Already in the 1920s, Sati published compilations of pieces for piano, which had a strange structure and an unusual name: "In the horse's skin", "Three pieces in the shape of a pear", "Dried embryos", "Automatic descriptions". At the same time, he writes several expressive, extremely melodic songs in the rhythm of a waltz, which appealed to the public. In 1915, Sati expected a fateful acquaintance with Jean Cocteau, playwright, poet and music critic. He received a proposal to create a ballet with Picasso for the famous Diaghilev troupe. In 1917, their brainchild - the ballet Parade - was published.
The deliberate, emphasized primitivism and deliberate contempt for the harmony of music, the addition of alien sounds to the score, such as a typewriter, car sirens and other things, were the reason for the loud condemnation of the audience and attacks of critics, which, however, did not stop the composer and his associates. The music of the ballet Parade had the response of the music hall, and the motifs resembled melodies that were sung in the streets.
Drama "Socrates"
In 1918, Sati wrote a radically different work. The symphonic drama with the singing of Socrates, the text for which was the original dialogues of the authorship of Plato, is restrained, crystal clear and even strict. There are no frills and games for the public. This is the opposite of the Parade, although only a year has passed between their writing. At the end of Socrates, Eric Satie promoted the idea of furnishings, accompanying music, which would serve as a backdrop to everyday affairs.
last years of life
Sati met the end of his busy life while living in the same suburb of Paris. He did not meet with his old friends, including the Six. Eric Sati gathered around himself a new circle of composers. Now they called themselves the "Arkay school." These included Clique-Playel, Soge, Jacob, as well as the conductor Desormier. Musicians discussed a new art of a democratic nature. Almost no one knew about Sati's death. This was not covered, they did not talk about it. The genius has gone unnoticed. Only in the middle of the twentieth century, they again became interested in his art, his music and philosophy.