Gymnopédie No. 1

Among fans of modernism, particularly French modernism, the name of Erik Satie (1866-1925) conveys wit ranging from wry and glib to caustic and—for its time—completely radical. But for most music lovers, Satie remains synonymous with his three instrumental Gymnopédies (1888). Each is quite short; all three are united by triple meter, texture, simple binary form, and general melancholic mood. Consider them as musical absinthe. Gymnopédie #1 vacillates around G as a tonal center, though recurrent C-sharps and the final D-harmony cloud the issue in a delightful way. Satie employs 7th chords as his harmonic pillars, and these are sounded in the lower register in a hypnotic, sarabande manner (emphasizing the second beat in ¾). This helps achieve a distinctly antique feel in keeping with the curious title, which likely pays a not altogether serious homage to Greek youths engaged in physical play. The piece appears on hundreds of classical albums performed on everything from piano or guitar to theremin and musical saw.

(c) Jason Stell