Erik Satie’s vexations - an exercise in immobility

Dawson, Christopher (2001) Erik Satie’s vexations - an exercise in immobility. Canadian University Music Review, 21 (2). pp. 29-40. ISSN 1911-0146

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.7202/1014483ar

Abstract

Erik Satie's piano piece Vexations contains a Note de l’auteur in which the composer apparently instructs his interpreters to repeat the piece 840 times. Opinion among Satie's biographers is divided as to whether Satie intended a "full" performance of the piece. In this article I assess how a literary interpretation of the Note can throw light on Satie's intentions. My conclusion is that Vexations is not so much a performance piece as an exercise piece: a musical passage designed to pull his interpreters away from conventional Western notions of linear development and cumulative reception and towards his own non-developmental style of music, in preparation for a performance of a piece such as a Gymnopédie or a Gnossienne.

Item Type:	Article
Peer-reviewed:	Yes
Date Deposited:	09 Mar 2010 11:05
Publisher:	Canadian Music Council
Additional Information:	Full-text of this article is not available in this e-prints service. This article was originally published [following peer-review] in Canadian University music review, published by and copyright Canadian Music Council.
Divisions:
URI:	https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/93921
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.7202/1014483ar
ISSN	1911-0146

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