Gymnopédies

{{see also|List of compositions by Erik Satie#Piano music}}

The work's unusual title comes from the French form of gymnopaedia, the ancient Greek word for an annual festival where young men danced either naked or, perhaps figuratively, simply unarmed. The source of the title has been a subject of debate. Satie and his friend Alexis Roland-Manuel maintained that he adopted it after having read Gustave Flaubert's novel Salammbô, while others see a poem by J. P. Contamine de Latour as the source of Satie's inspiration,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYvxAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT31|page=31|title=Erik Satie|first=Mary E. |last=Davis|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=2007|isbn=9781861896025}}Robert Orledge, Satie the Composer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 207, {{ISBN|978-0-52135-037-2}} since the first Gymnopédie was published in the magazine La Musique des familles in the summer of 1888 together with an excerpt of Latour's poem Les Antiques, where the term appears.{{citation|title=Correspondance presque complète |page=936 |first1=Erik |last1=Satie |first2=Ornella |last2=Volta |isbn=978-2-213-60674-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FWfAAAAMAAJ |year=2000 |publisher=Fayard/Imec |location=Paris }}

File:Puvis de Chavannes Jeunes Filles au bord de la mer 1879.jpg]]

It remains uncertain, however, whether the poem was composed before or after the music. Satie could have picked up the term from a dictionary such as Peter Lichtenthal's Dictionnaire de Musique (1839), where gymnopédie is defined as a "nude dance, accompanied by song, which youthful Spartan maidens danced on certain occasions",{{cite dictionary |dictionary=Dictionnaire de Musique, Vol. 1 A–J |last=Lichtenthal |first=Peter |others=Translated by Dominique Mondo |date=1839 |chapter=Gymnopedia |page=496 |place=Paris |publisher=Au Bureau de la France Musicale (fr) |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionnairedem01mondgoog/page/496/mode/1up?view=theater}}{{efn|For more information on Lichtenthal, see :de:Peter Lichtenthal (in German) and search for {{cite web |url=https://www.rilm.org/encyclopedias/list-de/ |website=Encyclopedias List (German) |title=Dizionario e bibliografia della musica |lang=it |access-date=27 May 2025}} }} following a similar definition from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Dictionnaire de Musique.

In November 1888, the third Gymnopédie was published. The second Gymnopédie did not appear until 1895, and its impending publication had been announced in several editions of the Chat Noir and Auberge du Clou magazines. The three pieces were not published together until 1898.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes' symbolist paintings might have been an inspiration for the atmosphere Satie wanted to evoke with his Gymnopédies.{{cite web |first=Steven Moore |last=Whiting |title=Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1999 |isbn=0191584525 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD2RZ3taYQUC&pg=PA129 |page=129 }}

{{unreferenced|section|date=June 2023}}

{{listen |pos=right |type=music |image=none |help=no |filename=Erik Satie - gymnopedies - la 1 ere. lent et douloureux.ogg |title=I. Lent et douloureux |description=Performed by Robin Alciatore, from Musopen}}

These short, atmospheric pieces are written in {{music|time|3|4}} time, with each sharing a common theme and structure.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

{{Ordered list|type=upper-roman

|Lent et douloureux (D major / D minor)

|Lent et triste (C major)

|Lent et grave (A minor)

}}

The melodies of the pieces use deliberate, but mild, dissonances against the harmony, producing a piquant, melancholy effect that matches the performance instructions, which are to play each piece "painfully" (douloureux), "sadly" (triste), or "gravely" (grave). The first few bars of Gymnopédie No. 1 (shown below) consist of an alternating progression of two major seventh chords, the first on the subdominant, G, and the second on the tonic, D.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

{{Block indent|

\new PianoStaff <<

\new Staff <<

\new Voice \relative c'' {

\clef treble \key d \major \time 4/4

\tempo "Lent et douloureux"

\voiceOne R2. R2. R2. R2. r4 fis( a g fis cis b cis d a2.)

}

\new Voice \relative c' {

\override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #2

\voiceTwo \stemUp \crossStaff { \override Stem.length = #7 r4\pp 2 r4 2 r4 2 r4 2 r4 2 r4 2 r4 2 r4 2 }

}

\new Voice \relative c' {

\dynamicUp s2. s2. s2. s2. s4 s2\< s2. s2 s4\!\> s2 s4\!

}

>>

\new Staff <<

\new Voice \relative c' {

\clef bass \key d \major \time 3/4

\voiceOne \stemUp \override Stem.length = #8 s4 \crossStaff { b2 s4 a2 s4 b2 s4 a2 s4 b2 s4 a2 s4 b2 s4 a2 }

}

\new Voice \relative c {

\voiceTwo g2. d g d g d g d

}

>>

>>

}}

File:IMSLP03213-Satie-GymnopediesOrEd.pdf

By the end of 1896, Satie's popularity was waning and his financial situation deteriorating. Claude Debussy, a friend of Satie's whose popularity was on the rise, helped draw public attention to Satie's work. In February 1897, Debussy orchestrated the third and first Gymnopédies.{{efn|When Debussy published the scores two years later, he reversed the numbering, with Satie's first becoming Debussy's third, and vice versa.}}

Since the second half of the 20th century, the Gymnopédies have often been erroneously described as part of Satie's body of furniture music, perhaps because of how John Cage has interpreted them.{{citation|url=http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/article8.html |title=Cage's Place in the Reception of Satie|first=Matthew |last=Shlomowitz |date=1999| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051026213748/http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/article8.html |archive-date=2005-10-26}} Collectively, the Gymnopédies are regarded as an important precursor to modern ambient music.Mark Prendergast, The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby – The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age, London: Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 6 {{ISBN|0-7475-5732-2}}

The first and second Gymnopédies were arranged by Dick Halligan for the group Blood, Sweat & Tears under the title "Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie" on the group's eponymous album, released in 1968. The recording received a Grammy Award the following year for Best Contemporary Instrumental Performance.{{cite web|publisher=Grammy Award|title=12th Annual Grammy Awards|date=2017-11-28|url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/12th-annual-grammy-awards}}

In 1980, Dame Cleo Laine and Sir James Galway released a version for jazz vocalist and flute entitled "Drifting, Dreaming (Gymnopédie No.1)", with lyrics by Don Read.{{cite web |quote=It appeared as the first track on the album. |work=Sometimes When We Touch |url=https://www.donread.net/drifting-dreaming.html |title=Drifting, Dreaming }}

Also in 1980, Gary Numan produced a track called "{{lang|fr|Trois Gymnopedies|italics=no}} (First Movement)", which appeared on the B-side of the single "We Are Glass".{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Gary-Numan-We-Are-Glass/release/867399|title=Gary Numan – We Are Glass|website=Discogs|year=1980 |language=en|access-date=2019-10-21}}

The post-Jane's Addiction band, Deconstruction, covers a portion of Gymnopédie No. 1 on the track "Wait for History" on their 1994 self-titled album.

A sample of Gymnopédie No. 1 is featured in the Janet Jackson single "Someone to Call My Lover" (2001), which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.{{cite web|url=https://www.whosampled.com/Janet-Jackson/Someone-to-Call-My-Lover/|title=Someone to Call My Lover by Janet Jackson|publisher=WhoSampled.com|access-date=2022-03-09}}

Gymnopédies have been heard in numerous movies and television shows, such as the documentary Man on Wire,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/soundtrack|title=Man on Wire Soundtracks|publisher=IMDb|access-date=2015-03-18}} Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265666/soundtrack|title=The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtracks|publisher=IMDb|access-date=2017-01-20}} and Community Season 2 Episode 19 "Critical Film Studies".{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640862/soundtrack/ |title="Community" Critical Film Studies (TV Episode 2011) – Soundtracks – IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2024-05-07 |via=www.imdb.com}}

The Woody Allen film Another Woman (1988){{cite video|publisher=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUj-r4iKxs8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/pUj-r4iKxs8| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|date=2011-06-17 |title=Another Woman (1988) – Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1" (aka "Marion's theme")}}{{cbignore}} and the Louis Malle film My Dinner with Andre (1981) both use Gymnopédie No. 1 in their soundtracks.{{Citation |title=My Dinner with Andre (1981) – Soundtracks – IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082783/soundtrack/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |language=en-US}}

The Japanese animated drama film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010) prominently features all three Gymnopédies, and they are included in the film's soundtrack release as a bonus disc, including Satie's Gnossiennes and his composition "Je te veux".{{cite web|url=http://www.lantis.jp/new-release/data.php?id=9cc69dbd7cf2bcb983d2faf3425e3434|script-title=ja:映画『涼宮ハルヒの消失』オリジナルサウンドトラック|trans-title=Film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Original Soundtrack|publisher=Lantis|access-date=2010-01-13|language=ja|title=Lantis web site|archive-date=2012-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504130924/http://www.lantis.jp/new-release/data.php?id=9cc69dbd7cf2bcb983d2faf3425e3434|url-status=dead}}

Mother 3 features Gymnopédie No. 1 in its soundtrack as Leder's Gymnopedie.{{cite video|publisher=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m78-Aj80S-8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/a-u6JUBcjPM| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|date=2012-10-11|title=Leder's Gymnopedie – Mother 3}}{{cbignore}}

In 2007, {{ill|Wilhelm Kaiser-Lindemann |de}} arranged the first and the third Gymnopédie for The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic.{{cite web|url=http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Warner%2BClassics/6085012|title=Fleur de Paris|publisher=EMI Classics|website=Prestoclassical.co.uk}} Jack DeJohnette included a tribute to Gymnopédies in his 2016 album Return.{{cite web |title=Jack DeJohnette – Return|url=https://www.newvelle-records.com/pages/jack-dejohnette-return |publisher=Newvelle Records |access-date=2019-02-21 }}

In 2018, Fernando Perdomo included a portion of Gymnopedie No. 1 on his album Out to Sea.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

In 2021, violinist Fenella Humphreys released an arrangement of Gymnopédie No.1 for violin.{{cite web |title=Round Revue – Fenella Humphreys – Music for Violin |url=https://www.roundrevue.com/store/p7/Music_for_Violin_arr._Fenella_Humphreys.html |publisher=Round Revue |access-date=2021-05-29}} Stephan Koncz, cellist in the Berlin Philharmonic and the Made in Berlin quartet, wrote a string quartet piece called A New Satiesfaction (a portmanteau of "Satie" and "satisfaction"), based on Gymnopédie No.1, which was recorded by the quartet for their first violinist Ray Chen's album The Golden Age.{{Cite web |first=Tim |last=Homfray |date=2018-09-07 |title=Ray Chen: The Golden Age |url=https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/ray-chen-the-golden-age/8168.article |access-date=2023-11-03 |website=The Strad |language=en}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Gymnopédies}}

• {{IMSLP|work=3 Gymnopédies (Satie, Erik)|cname=3 Gymnopédies (Satie, Erik)}}
• {{Cantorion|pieces/474/3_Gymnop%C3%A9dies|3 Gymnopédies}}
• [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?preview=1&searchingfor=gymnopédie&Composer=&Instrument=&Style=&timelength=1&timeunit=week&lilyversion= Public Domain sheet music of the Gymnopédies], Mutopia Project

{{Erik Satie}}

{{Salammbô}}

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Category:1888 compositions

Category:Compositions by Erik Satie

Category:Compositions for solo piano

Category:Ancient Greece in art and culture