Erik Satie: World's First Youtuber?
Piano vs. Youtube interpretations of two works by the "Gymnopédie" composer.
The first bad thing I’ve had to say about an album I’ve reviewed on here? Pascal Rogé absolutely ruins Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1.” He butchers, desecrates, and messes with it; he plays it like a child rushing through the boring parts and struggling on the hard parts. Rubato is best used in moderation, like at really epic points of a big work, not at every single measure of a chill piano piece!
I learned the first few lines of the Gymnopédie in my beginner piano class this semester, so I kind of sympathize with him. Due to its haunting beauty and instantly recognizable melody, it’s heavily overplayed in movies and TV, not to mention by piano learners, so maybe the a-bit-too-creative rendition was just a French joke I didn’t get, or an attempt to stand out from the crowd of countless more score-accurate renditions. Then again, maybe he really did just use a bit too much rubato.
Thankfully, everything else on Rogé's 1984 solo piano album, Satie: 3 Gymnopédies and Other Piano Works, is up to tip-top standard. The other two “Gymnopédies” are played much nicer than the first, offering up mysterious, milky melody lines and the characteristic up-and-down left hand parts. "Je te veux" is beautifully bittersweet (think the first bit from Up.) The "Préludes flasques," "Embryons desséches" and "Gnossiennes" are also excellent, really playing towards the lightness and beauty of the piano without sacrificing the intelligence of Satie's academic and avant-garde influences.
Plus, check out that cover art, the iconic 1925 Surrealist painting "Harlequin's Carnival" by Catalan artist Joan Miró. In context, it creates an almost children's-book vibe, capturing the softness and strangeness of the music in equal parts.
Satie is an odd beast. Rarely venturing beyond solo piano works, he acted bizarre in person, confusing the hell out of his stuffy Parisian music school colleagues; while this oddness made him a lifelong recluse who rarely engaged with other people, it also gave him the creativity to spawn basically the entire Impressionist musical movement alongside Debussy and Ravel. He was writing essays on ideas like "furniture music" (unobtrusive background lounge music) 80 years before Brian Eno and the Berlin School developed ambient, and on musical minimalism at least 60 before the Minimalist movement (Steve Reich and co) came along. Such a visionary deserves the utmost respect, even if he was kind of a weirdo.
Fittingly, his music is full of pranks and japes. The sheet music for "Vexations," not appearing on this album, gives a player advice on the preferred conditions to prepare before performing it 840 times in a row (via some meditation "in the deepest silence, with serious immobilities"), but doesn't actually instruct them to do so; meanwhile, its companion piece "Bonjour, Biqui, Bonjour!" barely scratches twenty seconds in length. "Embryons desséches" and "Préludes flasques" depict jarred preserved fetuses of demi-human alien species and a big fat dog respectively (French lesson: dessechés = dessicated, flasques = flabby)... hardly appropriate subjects for pleasant, low-key lounge piano pieces. "Le piccadilly," a playful selection for the final track of this 61-minute set, is straight-up ragtime; he had apparently been listening to Americans. Impressively, it's from 1904, only five years after Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag."
Now, let's fast-forward 117 years to discuss a 2021 Youtube video.
This video interpretation of the written essay is actually the exact same thing as Mr. Rogé's piano interpretation of Satie's written scores. OK, wait, wait, I'll explain.
This video is a direct response to a short humorous essay written by Satie on his daily routine, which parodied his contemporary Parisian trendy society-types' articles about their routines (think the 1890s equivalent of Instagram productivity influencers). Among the time blocks listed are "inspiration," "immobilities" (note the use of the same word as the instructions for "Vexations"), and a 3-minute-long lunch where only white-colored food may be served. Nahre Sol, a classical composer and pianist, is clearly no stranger to odd gimmicks (other topics on her channel include re-composing "Happy Birthday" in the style of different classical composers and turning a Liszt piece into synthwave), so it's no surprise she would be a good interpreter of the gimmick-man himself, going through the schedule and seeing what it does to a person.
See the similarity? Just like a classical musician does with an instrument, a Youtuber turns notation on a page into the real sights, sounds, and ideas it represents. This just takes more interpretation on the performer's part.
This is a seriously good video, too. It bears a few unfortunate hallmarks of our era (most egregiously the clickbait title), but Sol packs a lot of interesting stuff into the script, visual, and sound design, expertly paced to keep the interest of attention-span-limited zoomers while keeping an uncluttered and calming atmosphere. The playful irony adapted from the original is contrasted quite well with the inherent genuineness of writing music and the vague self-improvement theming. The shots of the Southern California(?) landscape during the horseback and basketball parts reinforced the idea of applying Satie's routine in an unfamiliar context (since the French are legendarily perplexed by the drier and rockier landscapes of the American West; cf. Olivier Messiaen's "Des canyons aux etoiles"...) Also, the original piece at the end is quality, a nice touch - inspiration can be drawn out of the oddest places.
Overall, I think the video is just as meritable an interpretation of Satie's work as anything on the Rogé CD. Both of them capture the playfulness and brilliance of a strongly talented composer.