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Pièces Froides
The ''Pièces froides'' (''Cold Pieces'') are two sets of piano pieces composed in March 1897 by Erik Satie. Unpublished until 1912, they marked Satie's break from the mystical-religious music of his "Rosicrucianism, Rosicrucian" period (1891–95), and were a harbinger of his humoristic piano suites of the 1910s. Biographer Rollo H. Myers placed the ''Pièces froides'' high among Satie's piano works, writing, "Only a born musician of the finest sensibility could have conceived these limpid and so essentially 'musical' pieces which ought to be in the repertory of every pianist who is more interested in music than virtuosity." A third set of ''Pièces froides'', written in 1907 but shelved by the composer, was published posthumously. Background The title ''Pièces froides''—which can also be translated as ''Cold Rooms'' or ''Cold Cuts'' —has been viewed as a punning allusion to the dire poverty Satie experienced during his last years living in Montmartre. In July 1896, he ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his ''Gymnopédies'' and '' Gnossiennes''. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached. After a spell in which he composed little, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the Schola Cantorum, as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as Les Six. A meeting with Jean Cocteau in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet '' Par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avant-dernières Pensées
The ''Avant-dernières pensées'' (''Penultimate Thoughts'') is a 1915 piano composition by Erik Satie. The last of his humoristic piano suites of the 1910s, it was premiered by the composer at the Galerie Thomas in Paris on May 30, 1916, and published that same year. A typical performance lasts 3–4 minutes. Background The outbreak of World War I in July 1914 was a setback for Satie just as he was gaining belated recognition as a composer. Although at age 48 he remained a civilian, wartime conditions seriously disrupted French musical life. Publishers ceased commissioning his music and the pending publication of his 1914 compositions was suspended for two years or more. As he had renounced playing piano in Paris cabarets – his primary source of income for many years – Satie had only the generosity of friends and occasional private teaching to subsist on. In August 1915 he appealed to composer Paul Dukas to help him get financial assistance from charitable organizations, rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florent Schmitt
Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of the most fascinating of France's lesser-known classical composers". Biography Early life and career Born in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Schmitt took music lessons in Nancy with the local composer Gustave Sandré. At the age of 19 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Gabriel Fauré, Jules Massenet, Théodore Dubois, and Albert Lavignac. In 1900 he won the Prix de Rome. During the 1890s he became friendly with Frederick Delius, who was living in Paris at the time, and Schmitt prepared vocal scores for four of Delius's operas: ''Irmelin'', ''The Magic Fountain'', ''Koanga'' and ''A Village Romeo and Juliet''. From 1929 to 1939 Schmitt worked as a music critic for ''Le Temps'', where he proved controversial. He was known to shout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabriel Faure
In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብርኤል, translit=Gabrəʾel, label=none; arc, ܓ݁ܰܒ݂ܪܺܝܐܝܶܠ, translit=Gaḇrīʾēl; ar, جِبْرِيل, Jibrīl, also ar, جبرائيل, Jibrāʾīl or ''Jabrāʾīl'', group="N" is an archangel with power to announce God's will to men. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran. Many Christian traditions — including Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism — revere Gabriel as a saint. In the Hebrew Bible, Gabriel appears to the prophet Daniel to explain his visions (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27). The archangel also appears in the Book of Enoch and other ancient Jewish writings not preserved in Hebrew. Alongside the archangel Michael, Gabriel is described as the guardian a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Diva De L'Empire
"La Diva de l'Empire" (The Diva of the Empire) is a French popular song with music by Erik Satie and lyrics by and , composed in 1904. Along with "Je te veux" (1903) it is probably the best-known example of Satie's cabaret or "café-concert" idiom. It was premiered by singer , dubbed the "Queen of the Slow Waltz", in the musical revue ''Dévidons la bobine'' in Paris on July 26, 1904, and published that same year. Description The song is a cakewalk and an early attempt by a European composer to tackle nascent American jazz. John Philip Sousa and his band had introduced the cakewalk to France during their appearance at the 1900 Paris Exposition, but it gained little notoriety there until a danced version was performed in the revue (The Happy Negroes) at the Nouveau Cirque in October 1902. The show ran for over a year and sparked a national craze. Satie was intrigued with the new style and, as Darty's occasional accompanist and songwriter, prepared to capitalize on it. On May 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trois Morceaux En Forme De Poire
''Trois morceaux en forme de poire'' (''Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear'') is a 1903 suite for piano four hands by French composer Erik Satie. A lyrical compendium of his early music, it is one of Satie's most famous compositions, second in popular recognition only to the ''Gymnopédies'' (1888). The score was not published until 1911. In performance it lasts around 14 minutes. It is typical of Satie's eccentric humour that the suite consists of seven pieces, not three. Background Satie composed the ''Trois morceaux en forme de poire'' in Paris between August and November 1903, during a period of creative crisis. He was unhappy earning a meager living writing and performing cabaret music, and had abandoned his recent "serious" musical projects - the piano piece '' Le poisson rêveur'' (1901) and the orchestral tone poem '' Le Bœuf Angora'' (c. 1901) - as failures. And the shock of hearing his friend Claude Debussy's landmark opera '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1902) led hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack In The Box (Satie)
''Jack in the Box'' (sometimes seen as ''Jack-in-the-Box'') is a work written by Erik Satie in 1899 for a pantomime-ballet (Satie called it a "clownerie", and also a "suite anglaise") to a scenario by the illustrator Jules Depaquit. Satie gave it an English title because English phrases were considered fashionable in Parisian society at the time. Satie's intention was to score it also for orchestra. However, after he wrote the piano score, he lost it some time after 1905. Satie believed it had gone missing on a bus and that it would never be found, but after his death it was found in his squalid apartment in Arcueil (some sources say it was hidden inside a notebook lodged down the back of his decrepit piano), along with the lost score for his marionette opera ''Geneviève de Brabant''. Depaquit's scenario has not survived. James Harding, Liner notes to HMV Greensleeves recording ESD 7069, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by John Lanchbery Sergei Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schola Cantorum De Paris
The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History La Schola was founded in 1894 and opened on 15 October 1896 as a rival to the Paris Conservatoire. Alexandre Guilmant, an organist at the Conservatoire, was the director of the Schola before d'Indy took over. D'Indy set the curriculum, which fostered the study of late Baroque and early Classical works, Gregorian chant, and Renaissance polyphony. According to the ''Oxford Companion to Music'', "A solid grounding in technique was encouraged, rather than originality, and the only graduates who could stand comparison with the best Conservatoire students were Albéric Magnard, Magnard, Albert Roussel, Roussel, Déodat de Séverac, and Pierre de Bréville." The school was originally located in Montparnasse; in 1900 it moved to its present site, a former convent in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as done by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often (but not always) oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature. In the United States, striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are often advertised as cabarets. Etymology The term originally came from Picard language or Walloon language words ''camberete'' or ''cambret'' for a small room (12th century). The first printed use of the word ''kaberet'' is found in a document from 1275 in Tournai. The term was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messe Des Pauvres
The ''Messe des pauvres'' (''Mass for the Poor'') is a partial musical setting of the mass for mixed choir and organ by Erik Satie. Composed between 1893 and 1895, it is Satie's only liturgical work and the culmination of his "Rosicrucian" or "mystic" period. It was published posthumously in 1929. A performance lasts around 18 minutes. History In the early 1890s, Satie's fascination with medieval Catholicism, Gothic art and Gregorian chant led him to explore religious influences in his life and music. At first he was drawn to Joséphin Péladan's Rose + Croix movement, for which he acted as official composer from 1891 to 1892, and after breaking with Péladan he associated with the occultist writer Jules Bois, publisher of the religious esoteric journal ''Le coeur''. At the same time he was immersed in a bohemian lifestyle as a pianist at Montmartre cabarets, where his already eccentric behavior took on a growing penchant for buffoonery and exhibitionism. This paradox came to a he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Shattuck
Roger Whitney Shattuck (August 20, 1923 in Manhattan, New York – December 8, 2005 in Lincoln, Vermont) was an American writer best known for his books on French literature, art, and music of the twentieth century. Background and education Born in New York City to parents Howard Francis Shattuck, a physician, and Elizabeth (Colt) Shattuck, he studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire before entering Yale College. Military service in Second World War He left Yale to join the Army Air Corps, serving as a cargo pilot in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. He spoke little about his experience in the war, but tried writing about it his entire life. He tried capturing the moment he flew over Nagasaki with his copilot, seeing the aftermath and rubble on the ground. After the war, he returned to school, graduating from Yale in 1947. Shattuck then moved to Paris where he worked for UNESCO's film service. In this capacity he came into contact with luminaries o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entr'acte (film)
''Entr'acte'' is a silent French Dada short film directed by René Clair. It premiered on 4 December 1924 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as a prologue and entr'acte for the Ballets Suédois production of '' Relâche'', based on a book by Francis Picabia, which had settings by Picabia, was produced by Rolf de Maré, and was choreographed by Jean Börlin. The music for both the ballet and the film was composed by Erik Satie. Summary Prologue On a rooftop, a cannon, via stop motion photography, rolls itself back and forth. In slow motion, two men (Francis Picabia and Eric Satie), jump into the frame and jump up and down. They discuss the cannon and, after smelling a projectile, load it before jumping up and down and jumping out of frame in reverse. The projectile slowly comes out of the cannon toward the camera lens. Entr'acte Images are intercut of Parisian rooftops filmed with the camera tilted at various angles, three dolls with balloons-heads that are inflate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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