''Le poisson rêveur'' ''(The Dreamy Fish)'' is an unfinished tone poem for solo piano composed between 1900 and 1901 by

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 und ...

, based on a tale by "Lord Cheminot" (alias J. P. Contamine de Latour). The text does not survive and Satie's music went unpublished for decades. In performance the piece lasts about 6 minutes. An experimental work, it is the only example of Satie trying his hand at the

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

style of his friend

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

. Musicologist Robert Orledge observed, "The concept of Satie trying to imitate the revered Debussy is a touching one: it seems as if he was trying to compose Debussy out of his system..."

Description

''Le poisson rêveur'' is one of two tone poems (with '' Le Bœuf Angora'') set to lost stories by Contamine de Latour. No other work more painfully illustrates Satie's struggle to find a new creative direction at the start of the 20th century. Composition began in early 1900, right after the completion of the

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

-inspired '' Petit prélude de 'La Mort de Monsieur Mouche''', and dragged on intermittently for about a year; the manuscript is full of discarded drafts and scribbled-out passages. What was supposed to have been the neat copy is dated "March 1901" but even that is covered with corrections. Satie usually assigned dates only to his finished works, and his doing so here smacks more of surrender than accomplishment. Satie's apparent goal for ''Le poisson rêveur'' was to strike a balance between his "serious" and "popular" idioms in the course of one continuous symphonic

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, while trying to think harmonically along Debussyan lines. Instead of his trademark motivic juxtapositions, Satie attempted

through-composition In music theory of musical form, through-composed music is a continuous, non- sectional, and non- repetitive piece of music. The term is typically used to describe songs, but can also apply to instrumental music. While most musical forms such as ...

in extended passages; the keyboard writing is orchestral rather than pianistic, with occasional indications for other instruments in the score (oboe, clarinet, flutes, strings). The opening is an impetuous 7-note motif, which recurs four times and then closes the piece, but this bid for

cyclic Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...

unity is all but swamped in an ongoing succession of heterogenous material. Mosaic-like melodic fragments reminiscent of Satie's early music are followed by more conventional rounded phrases and jaunty dotted rhythms borrowed from ''

Jack in the Box Jack in the Box is an American fast-food restaurant chain founded February 21, 1951, by Robert O. Peterson (1916–1994) in San Diego, California, where it is headquartered. The chain has over 2,200 locations, primarily serving the West Coast ...

'' (1899). The melody of the central section is taken almost whole from the "Petit air de Geneviève", an aria from Satie's miniature opera '' Geneviève de Brabant'' (1900).

Nicolas Horvath Nicolas Horvath (born 1977, in Monaco) is a French pianist and electroacoustic composer. Education At 10, Nicolas Horvath was selected for a program initiated by Monaco's Princess Grace for children with musical predispositions. He receive ...

, notes to ''Erik Satie: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 4 (New Salabert Edition)'', Grand Piano, 2019. It is tempting to read Satiean irony into this musical quote, with its original lyrics "Ah! Heaven rewards my virtue", but probably unwise without the context of the missing story. The Debussy influence is most prominent up to and after the recapitulation, with a brief development section very rare in Satie. In his analysis of the score, Orledge concluded that "in trying to achieve too much at once, Satie produced an unconvincing piece, especially in its control of tonality. For all its surface activity, 'Le poisson rêveur''is static, confused and more of an interesting experiment than a performable piece". In retrospect, the jumble of styles and self-borrowing in ''Le poisson rêveur'' make it seem like a test run for the similarly diffuse '' Trois morceaux en forme de poire'' (1903), in which Satie handled the issue of form by dividing the material (rather facetiously) into a

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite' ...

. By that time he was still hoping to interest Debussy in the earlier work. In a letter dated August 17, 1903, Satie mentioned he had started composing the ''Trois morceaux'', and then dropped Debussy a little reminder: "And this blasted dreamy fish? Did you make it take your hook?" Ornella Volta (ed.), ''Satie Seen Through His Letters'', Marion Boyars Publishers, London, 1989, pp. 145–146. We don't know what Debussy thought of the piece but he remembered it: a lyrical theme first heard in bars 19–22 turns up in the similarly named ''Poissons d’or'' (Goldfish) from Debussy's '' Images'' for piano (Book II, 1907). This theme also strangely prefigures that of the popular British song "

Run Rabbit Run "Run, Rabbit, Run" is a song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was originally sung by Flanagan and Allen accompanied by the Harry Bidgood orchestra. Background This song was written for Noel Gay's show ' ...

" (1938).

Robert Caby Robert Caby (Venette, March 25, 1905 - Paris, October 3, 1992) was a French composer and writer. Caby was engaged in writing art critics and political articles, arranging concerts, creating surrealistic drawings and dealing with rare books and p ...

edited the first performing edition of ''Le poisson rêveur'' in 1970, making unacknowledged changes to the score. These were corrected in the edition by Robert Orledge, published by

Salabert Francis Salabert (born François-Joseph-Charles Salabert, 27 July 1884 – 28 December 1946) was an innovative and influential French music publisher, who was the head of Éditions Salabert in the first half of the twentieth century. Biography ...

in 1995.

Recordings

Aki Takahashi is a Japanese pianist specializing in contemporary classical music. Biography Born in Kamakura, she began studying piano at the age of five and received her M.A. degree from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Her teachers inc ...

(Angel, 1979), Aldo Ciccolini (EMI, 1987),

France Clidat France Clidat (Nantes, 22 November 1932 – Paris, 17 May 2012) was a French pianist renowned for her interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, a great many of which she recorded, and Erik Satie, whose complete piano works she recorded. Biograp ...

(Forlane, 1980),

Jean-Pierre Armengaud Jean-Pierre Armengaud (born 17 June 1943) is a French music educator, musicologist, researcher and pianist. Career Armengaud was born in Clermont-Ferrand. From 1967 to 1974, he seconded Germaine Arbeau-Bonnefoy in the presentation of the , pedagogi ...

(Le Chant du Monde, 1986),

Pascal Rogé Pascal Rogé (born 6 April 1951) is a French pianist. His playing includes the works of compatriot composers Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Poulenc, among others. However, his repertoire also covers the German and Austrian ...

(Decca, 1989), (

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 1 ...

, 1994), Bojan Gorišek (Audiophile Classics, 1994), (Swedish Society Discofil, 1996), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Decca, 2003), Håkon Austbø (Brilliant Classics, 2006), Cristina Ariagno (Brilliant Classics, 2007),

Alexandre Tharaud Alexandre Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) is a French pianist. He is active on the concert stage and has released a large and diverse discography. Life and career Born in Paris, Tharaud discovered the music scene through his mother who was a danc ...

(Harmonia Mundi, 2009), Jeroen van Veen (Brilliant Classics, 2016),

Stephanie McCallum Stephanie McCallum (born 3 March 1956) is a classical pianist. She has recorded works of Erik Satie, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Carl Maria von Weber, Albéric Magnard, Pierre Boulez, and Iann ...

(ABC, 2016), Noriko Ogawa (BIS, 2016),

(Grand Piano, 2019),

Steffen Schleiermacher Steffen Schleiermacher (born Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle, 3 May 1960) is a German composer, pianist, and conducting, conductor.Compositions by Erik Satie 20th-century classical music Compositions for solo piano 1901 compositions