Friday, 11 April 2025

Satie Socrate

 Day 101

Satie Socrate

Barbara Hannigan

Reinbert de Leeuw

It seems appropriate to follow up my exploration of Les Six with the composer who, while not being a member of the group, was in many ways their spiritual father. Satie can only be reckoned to be a minor composer but he was influential to a surprisingly large group of composer and therefore has a place in musical history which is more important than his actual output might deserve.

I have know Parade since I was at school - it is the sort of piece - using a typewriter and featuring gunshots - that would appeal to a youngster and I have played quite a few of the piano pieces but l although I had known about Socrate for a long time had never heard it before.

It is a very unexpected piece coming from a composer who was known for his eccentricities. It is a setting of words from Plato about Socrates, ending with a long passage about his death. It exists in two versions - one with piano accompaniment and one with small orchestra. The voice part does represent different characters but it is usually sung, as here, by one singer. The three movements together last just under half an hour. It is austere and restrained. The text is set more or less continuously in an arioso style which moves rather at the pace of ordinary speech - there is nothing ornamental in the vocal part and little which could be described as pure melody. The accompaniment is similarly restrained with very little music marked much above mf. The harmonic style is reminiscent of Fauré in places but elsewhere is rather freer: Satie had a predilection for writing chains of consecutive fourths which is very distinctive.

I’ve seen this piece described as boring. Certainly it doesn’t have many highs or lows or passages of great contrast, but I did find its rather austere beauty rather hypnotic and I enjoyed the experience. I read somewhere that the original audience were expecting something with Sadie’s usual jokiness and found it difficult to take the piece seriously. But approached with an open mind it certainly has much to offer. 


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