@@goofoffchannelthe individual performance should always be center IMHO, more room for interpretation and style which breeds interesting arrangements coming from the performer. The music is a vehicle.
Love your version. Been a Satie nut my whole life, got countless versions of all his music, and I swear his music is the one that I find people most often get wrong; there's a tenderness to it that needs to be coupled with madness, where madness is allowing the notes to breathe and sing, madness for the player in particular. Thanks! Loved it, including your own piece that has that Satie spirit.
Right on, Bro... grooving on Satie since 1972 introduced to him with the Blood Sweat and Tears LP and then wonderfully, Frank Glazer's three LP VOX BOX set. Satie seems a delicious madness I need. Another primo LP is the Camarata Group on the "Velvet Gentleman" LP - Peace out.
It strikes me that your goal is to write background music for your dogs... Wonderful! Three years ago I used the first minute of this gentle melody as a background to a short video I had recorded of my old Spanish greyhound who meanwhile had died. To me it was the only music I could have used because of her tender and poised nature. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Satie is like Ringo from the Beatles. He’s not interested in displaying his instrumental athleticism. But what he composes as a piece of music is perfection. And holy smokes… that was one of the most moving renditions of Gymnopedie I’ve ever heard!!
To my ear, Satie sounds like a hint of Jazz and Ragtime that would follow. I love this piece, and everything Satie I've ever heard. My favorite pianist to play Satie is Klara Kormendi (she plays on many of Naxos' Satie recordings). I think your version captures the pathos and wistfulness the way hers does, and is equally good. Thanks for adding to my love for Satie.
Back then when I was still teenager, this is the only classical music that I really enjoyed listen to, as it could take my mind wondering. It evokes a peculiar feeling like missing someone/something that I never met - in a loving kinda way. It's right in the feels. Isn't that the true magic of music? Underrated, indeed. Thank you for this video!
Satie is an underrated genius. Personally, I think he belongs with names like Beethoven, Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky because his music revolutionized western music.
He is not underrated. he is simply different. Satie is appreciated by millions of people, played by thousands of musicians, studied in hundreds of music schools, and a lot of compositors have been inspired by him. Aldo Ciccolini registered astounding records of Satie's compositions, even the lesser known as Enfantillages Pittoresques which were sold by hundreds of thousands.
Whenever I hear this, my mind sees jellyfish swimming. No idea why. A fantastic piece of music. Pared down to the extreme, yet full of emotion. Masterful.
This is one of the rare cases where the repeat is absolutely essential part of the music. In the first round our mind is taken on a mysterious journey without a clear harmonic direction. In the second round the mind has accepted the absence of a harmonic center as the new normality and it really starts to feel at home. Listening to a 'conventional' piece of music right after this one feels uncomfortably in your face. At least this is how I feel about this piece and that is one reason why I really love the music of Satie.
That was the point. She said she would take some of the elements and expand on them. She didn't keep the spirit of it, she kept some of the compositional elements. You are right that it was damn beautiful, and I immediately looked for the first comment that said so. 😊
It's fascinating to hear someone not only perform music with such nuance but explain how the original composer straddled the point between conventions of their time and places counter to those conventions to create something of lasting value.
I feel like Studio Ghibli owes M. Satie a lot - this has that same dreamy blissful or sad feel that their sound tracks (plus images) generate. I really liked your defence of Sadie’s music and although I have no background or training, the clips of much more famous pieces of the same time period really made your point. Your improv was lovely and I loved seeing the dog featured here as in the short. I actually think music that dogs love is a very worthy goal, because they deserve it and if you could do it you’d feel fantastic. Thanks for this whole thing, I really appreciate.
I listened again to your hommage just now and it’s lovely. I hope it is tremendously satisfying to write and play something like that because it’s really a treat to hear.
I think mention of Joe Hisaishi is relevant to many lovers of music with their range of deeply memorable themes both Satie and Hisaishi both have created. In the age when film media was in its early development, Satie, indeed Gymnopedies would’ve been a perfect match for co-creatives. As identified in the musical analysis and biography of Erik, he would’ve been a challenge to work with on many levels, his style was unique and groundbreaking and all this was in the an artistic maelstrom that was Paris in the early 20th century.
I like how you say we don't even know in places which chord Satie is playing in. I especially like the progression of chords in such a small space, especially the minor chords.
this was actually the first piece i ever learned to play on the piano.. learned it from a youtube video.. shortly after i started to get classical piano lessons and got to learn sight reading, technique and much more.. you could say this piece brought me to playing the piano, so it always has a very special place in my heart.. great video!
35 years ago my oldest said "I heard this. Do you know it?" and played. " Its Satie." says I, " Gymnopedie No 1." then " I don't know the rest." and started improvisations...... wondrous, better than Satie and even yours. A fortnight later her teacher died, and that spark in my daughter died with her. She just stopped playing.
Nahre, I have listened to hundreds of your videos.I’m hardly alone. You have many many gifts, but there is a single overarching one. A unique and rare one. You lift us up.Thank you.😊
I always find Nahre's analyses fascinating, and I love hearing her creative postludes, based on her amazing understanding of the composers' style and harmony. Thanks, Nahre!
Thank you. That was beautiful. The first time I heard this was at a guitar recital in Washington DC in 1975. I have loved it ever since. It one of my top five compositions.
Absolutely loved the postlude you created! So beautiful, expressive, and Satie-esque. I also really like the format you've been making your videos recently, even more fluid and organized!
This video is God send. I always loved this piece so I'm trying to learn it myself which takes time seeing that I'm using RU-vid videos, but yesterday after my band and I finished our end-of-the-school-year performance, my music teacher told me she would really love for me to play this piece next year for our next performance. I'm saying all of this to thank you for your insight and amazing breakdown of this beautiful piece, and I will be sure to think of them when I'm practicing.❤
Great video analysis and playing, as always, thank you so much! That superb composition of yours Hommage a Satie very well could be hommage to Bill Evans and Lyle Mays too! 🙂
Thank you for this video, Satie is one of my favorite composers. I love his songs because, instead of sounding like a composition, it sounds like I'm interacting with his energy. Erik Satie was a genius at immersing you in the song. You don't just listen to Satie, you experience Satie.
Always thought that the best description of this song is 'melancholy'. Sort of like being in a really pretty and scenic place on an extra beautiful day; but for whatever reason you are alone and still alone as the sun goes down; and you feel like the experience solo has been wasted. My quintet performed this song at a wedding (!).
Fascinating analysis! One of my favorite pieces by Satie. Nahre, your piece at the end is beautiful. That downward shift in the fourth bar gave me chills!! Superb!!!
There are feelings and states that cannot be expressed in any other way than with this music. It touches us very, very deeply and it comforts and heals us because in a certain way it fills us with truth. Every note is full of meaning, nothing is missing, nothing is left over, it is a perfect gem. A thousand bows to the great amnesiac! And many thanks to Nahre Sol for bringing it so close to us.
I love your videos and I thank you for the dedication and effort to maintain the high standard of quality that you have in choosing content, recording, editing and explaining things with such tranquility and efficiency.
Well done Ms. Sol. In your analysis commentary, performance and interpretation of Satie, you honor his legacy and illustrate his genius. You are a fine musician.
This is my first encounter with your channel and I have to say that I've really enjoyed your analysis and rendition of this piece of music. Your composition sounds like a perfect addition to the original an has, to me, a slight early 20th century feel to it.
"...satie's music is dismissed because it lacks form, virtuosity and gravitas" Imagine being able to write a piece of music that is this amazing, regardless of whether or not it is virtuosic, has form or gravitas.. How do people not understand that THAT is a big part of what makes him so legendary.
One way you can recognize Satie’s genius is the frequency with which it’s used in film music to create a mood and message. I love both #1 and #3 and I also love Gnossienne #3. Satie’s music is a delight and I thank you for showcasing this piece. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the other two pieces.
I'd love it if you would do the Gnossienes too, at least the first one. I've kind of been sleeping on Satie, but the older I get, the more I appreciate him.
Musique d' Ameublement, Furniture Music - when I first heard that term I actually thought of "what I would like to live in", like the space a person would create to feel comfortable in.
Really love this, Nahre - I just started re-exploring this fascinating piece. It's amazing how modern it sounds and complex it really is. Thanks so much for great deep-dive.
I loved your video, you underline the essential qualities of Satie's music - ambiguity, minimalism and a serenity made of a vague feeling of nostalgia, as a precursor of ambient music. Interesting is the fact that Satie asks to play "lent et douloureux" (slow and painful). Just one thing... please respect the french word, it is "Gymnopédie", with a "é". As a typical french, I cannot unsee these things :)
I am 55 and Satie is a new discovery of mine...his music is special I believe..it has a positive feel, optimistic, and the tempo is perfect for the atmosphere it creates.
Thank you so much for your intelligent and sensitive interpretation and analysis of classical music. I grew up loving this piece by Erik Satie and even playing it because it was (deceptively) simple. I only had six months of piano lessons in 4th grade, so I needed simple! My sister was a serious student of ballet and I believe she had to dance to this (it was becoming better known in the 1970s) so my mom bought the recording by Aldo Ciccolini. But I would emulate the sound of my mom playing or of the record, and it gave me such joy to be able to play it. It was one of the few pieces I could play on the few occasions I performed! The Trois Gymnopedies were the only pieces I studied consistently during my teens & early 20s and they gave me a great personal joy and satisfaction. (I'd go to the practice rooms of my college's music center and play this and a few other things which helped me through years of struggle. Thank you for your sensitivity and the respect you show the composers presented on your channel. The piece you composed as an extension of the music is superb, and that has to be an achievement in itself.
Thank you so much for this video- I saw your reel first and was compelled to watch this after you said that people tend not to value songs that are too “easy.” I recently started piano again after 28 years. The last song I played was Fantasy in D by Mozart and I was ripped apart by a judge and then quit, at 16, because I thought I was just not good enough. I sat down and played it three days ago, the first time since that competition, and the song flowed from my fingers. I was shocked and moved at the same time, At 44, I now know that I was actually a really great piano player for a young person, and I’m so saddened that the music world can be so strict and people with strange ideas about what is good enough dominate the world and destroy the passions of young people like myself. I’ve since played music, just not piano, but until recently, thought I wasn’t that good at music in general. Now I know it doesn’t matter what people think as long as I enjoy it. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful thoughts on music and inspiring people like you do!!
I've always loved playing this piece and I agree that it looks easy, but isn't. I notice every little bit of difference in finger strength or uneven tempo! I've not done a deep dive into the chord progression and really appreciate your analysis. Thank you!
This song always takes me back to my childhood in the 1950s where the first part always seemed to be played by itself during TV dramas and in commercials. Only years later did I find out the name of the tune and the writer. Except for a brief moment during the second part of the song it does seem to meander a bit and lose some of its emotion after that first haunting two chord section. Your end section was very nice, dovetailing nicely with the original and had some interesting unexpected playful touches. Great video about a strangely beautiful piece of music. I cannot believe it came from that time period!
