My favorite Satie piece is “Vexations” [1], a short clip that the composer ostensibly wished to be played 840 times in a row.
As a little art project, I recently made a version for MS-DOS and AdLib [2] that starts with a piano-like sound and gradually distorts the timbre every repetition by flipping a random bit in the AdLib’s registers.
I never made a recording of it because I was envisioning it as an “if you got to see it in person, cool” type of thing, but I should probably go back and do that
A Strangeloop talk by Mouse Reeve, years ago, looked at the Markovian structure of "Gnossiennes" then made an endless version. A beautiful talk and really cool music website.
If you like procedurally based music - you should definitely check out CPU Bach, a program written by Sid Meier (the Civ series designer) for the 3DO console back in the 90s.
It doesn't use markov chains (to my knowledge) but can generate some pretty impressive sounding Bach-like preludes / fugues using a weighted rule based approach across notes and melodic phrases.
Satie's Gymnopedies have been on our household's "calming & focused" playlists for years now. Highly recommend, and I look forward to hearing these new works, too.
There are a lot of interpretations of Satie's work and a random playlist on YouTube may not necessarily get you the best performers, also because not everybody has the same tastes in music.
My favourite interpretation of Satie's is played by Reinbert de Leeuw. He plays very slow, playing just a bit behind the beat, with astonishing precision and expressiveness.
I have three different recordings of Satie's Gymnopedies on CD from many years ago: de Leeuw's, coming in at almost 16 minutes total; a version from 1968 by William Masselos totaling about 9 minutes; and on the extreme end, Klára Körmendi's version totaling less than 7 minutes.
When I used to play piano, I once timed myself playing them to my own preference. As I recall, it was around 11 minutes at the speed that makes sense to me.
Chacun a son gout. (Satie himself claimed to only eat foods that are white, after all.)
My favorite Satie piece is “Vexations” [1], a short clip that the composer ostensibly wished to be played 840 times in a row.
As a little art project, I recently made a version for MS-DOS and AdLib [2] that starts with a piano-like sound and gradually distorts the timbre every repetition by flipping a random bit in the AdLib’s registers.
I never made a recording of it because I was envisioning it as an “if you got to see it in person, cool” type of thing, but I should probably go back and do that
[1] https://youtu.be/7GoV2psW-OE
[2] http://constcast.org/vexations.html
Ian Penman wrote a fantastic biography of Satie, published earlier this year. Worth a read! He was a profoundly strange and fascinating person: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781635902532/erik-satie-three-piec...
Is he remembered for his personality or his music? I'm asking because I find it fascinating how some music from 100 years ago still holds value today.
>Is he remembered for his personality or his music?
Both, but mostly for his music. Listen to Gymnopédie No. 1 and Gnossienne No. 1 for good beginner pieces.
A Strangeloop talk by Mouse Reeve, years ago, looked at the Markovian structure of "Gnossiennes" then made an endless version. A beautiful talk and really cool music website.
Music website: https://gnossiennes.mousereeve.com/ (slightly better on Desktop).
Talk: https://youtu.be/ANYMii3Sypg
Abstract: https://www.thestrangeloop.com/2019/minimalist-piano-forever...
If you like procedurally based music - you should definitely check out CPU Bach, a program written by Sid Meier (the Civ series designer) for the 3DO console back in the 90s.
It doesn't use markov chains (to my knowledge) but can generate some pretty impressive sounding Bach-like preludes / fugues using a weighted rule based approach across notes and melodic phrases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbGO0a5P0M8
I love this. Thank you.
Satie's Gymnopedies have been on our household's "calming & focused" playlists for years now. Highly recommend, and I look forward to hearing these new works, too.
Did you perchance find these originally on youtube? They're very popular on their autosuggestions.
There are a lot of interpretations of Satie's work and a random playlist on YouTube may not necessarily get you the best performers, also because not everybody has the same tastes in music.
My favourite interpretation of Satie's is played by Reinbert de Leeuw. He plays very slow, playing just a bit behind the beat, with astonishing precision and expressiveness.
I have three different recordings of Satie's Gymnopedies on CD from many years ago: de Leeuw's, coming in at almost 16 minutes total; a version from 1968 by William Masselos totaling about 9 minutes; and on the extreme end, Klára Körmendi's version totaling less than 7 minutes.
When I used to play piano, I once timed myself playing them to my own preference. As I recall, it was around 11 minutes at the speed that makes sense to me.
Chacun a son gout. (Satie himself claimed to only eat foods that are white, after all.)
Yes, I agree. I also like Aki Takahashi.
They’re hugely famous, I don’t think most people’s first encounter with them would be as YouTube suggestions
Indeed, they feature in a number of media. I think I first heard them in the Mother 3 game!
They’ve been a bit everywhere for decades I think. Like I think in movies such as The Royal Tenenbaums of Wes Anderson.
I think I heard it more or less since childhood.
It got very popular with the raise of lofi. The Gymnopedie samples are everywhere.
I assume these are well-vetted as real discoveries, but can't help but think of "Albinoni's" Adagio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_in_G_minor
Still looking forward to listening!
my go to chill out music for the past 10 years
I highly recommend
Eric Satie's complete piano works on 2 x CD
has all the music from this wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Erik_S...
I tried to play some of these on classical guitar and failed dismally.
It’s AI
This may come as a shock, but there was no AI in 19th century France.
Major Hari Seldon vibes
I'm still waiting to hear 4'33" by John Cage and it's allegedly very popular