Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/16/erik-saties-gymnopedies.html
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Needs more groundhog.
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That’s delightful!
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For extra fun open it in multiple tabs and start it at different times.
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The internet was made for cats 
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I do like Satie’s Gymnopedies and I’m afraid that, wacky has this certainly was, and clearly a large labour of love, it was not a wonderful thing, to my ears. I think @tenbrook probably had the best way of approaching it.
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Fantastic!!!
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Still the best Zoom conference call I’ve seen
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Kiddo and I giggled for the first bit, but 7+ minutes was a bit much. Even crazy-cat-lady-in-the-making Kiddo bailed after a couple minutes.
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My desperation is obvious: If this outrageous video inspires more people (very likely, most have only experienced Satie from “Gymnopédies”) to seek out his other works, then great.
For solo piano, newbies may wish to start with his five Nocturnes (1919). Ciccolini’s sensitive reading and playing beautifully displays the nostalgia that Satie must have felt when composing these.
For orchestral works, please check out his ballet Parade (1917). It sounded like nothing else at the time. (The ballet also looked like nothing else at the time; the sets and costumes were designed by Picasso. Just that nearly caused a riot at the work’s premiere.)
Check them out… and enjoy!
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Gymnopédie No. 1 is my gentle wake up alarm
Not this version
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I think this is a good example of the problem Rick Beato has with modern music production always quantizing a live performance to a grid in programs like Ableton, ProTools, Logic et al.
The rich timbre of these vocalizations is stifled by the rigid metronomic arrangement. Missing the whole point of the simple yet elastic timing that Satie’s music gifts the musician.
It is telling from the video that all the performers seem to be in different locations and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were recorded at different times!
I can only wander how great this performance could be rendered if this was recorded live with all the animals in the same room without a click track and without overdubbing. Imagine hearing this coming from one of the rooms of Sunset Sound or Abbey Road.
One can only imagine.
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I just listened to this. And now I’m sad and freaked-out! 
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Well, to be fair, we are under lockdown at present. 
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Emphasis on painfully
I think he composed that around the time he and his girlfriend, Suzanne Valadon (an artist), separated. Satie, although he associated with Debussy, Cocteau, and Stravinsky, lived an oddly separate existence from others, never allowing friends into his closet-space of an apartment. I’m sure the separation affected him. I highly recommend watching Satiesfiction, an extremely clever and entertaining documentary on Satie; his gift for calligraphy and witticisms are incorporated into it, and in such a way that it seems as if Satie himself created it. In it, one also learns that Satie was a man of many musical “firsts”.
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Thanks. I’ll have a look.
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Do you have any more detail on that documentary? Producer, director, distributor, anything?
Google seems unwilling to reveal. Thanks.
