SATIE’S

ONEIRIC

AMBIENCE

In response to ongoing industrialization and modernization,

Pius IX issued the dogmatic constitution Pastor Æternus (July 1870)

which in France contributed to the so-called ‘Ralliement ’--

t h e r e s u r g e n c e o f u l t r a m o n t a n e o b s c u r a n t i s m

i n f e r m e n t a t i v e m y s t i c i s m .

At the Fin de Siècle, artists and

intellectuals were drawn to the

Ralliement aesthetic--e.g. Satie,

who intuited a modality of dreamy

t i m e l e s s a s a n e l e m e n t a l

p r i n c i p l e o f s t y l e .

From 1886, Satie issued a series of

inscrutably haunting piano miniatures

exercising this style--viz., Ogives,

S a r a b a n d e s , G y m n o p é d i e s ,

Gnossiennes , Sonner ies , Danses ,

P r é l u d e s , N o c t u r n e s , e t c .

In the Vexations (1893), Satie creates a lush atmosphere of

hieratic ambience using a proto-serialistic method with an hypnotic

t h è m e h a r m o n i z e d ( i n 1 2 - t o n e d i v i s i o n )

b y t r i t o n e s a n d i n v e r t e d t r i t o n e s .

Satie’s idiosyncratic notational orthography is expressed with

enharmonic equivalents written as odd accidentals which

o b s c u r e t o n a l i m p l i c a t i o n s .

Unquestionably, Satie’s chef-

d’œuvre is Socrate (1919 ) - -

settings of extractions from

V i c t o r C o u s i n ’ s F r e n c h

t r a n s l a t i o n s o f P l a t o ’ s

Symposium, Phædrus, and

Phædo--in his inimitably icy

mood of austere remoteness.

© 2017 TullyAtkinson