Erik Satie (1866-1925)Quintessential musical iconoclastBest known for a steady output of solo piano music

Esotericism/Mysticism/Aestheticism•3 Gymnopédies•3 Gnossiennes•Ogives

Humor/Absurdity•Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear•Flabby Preludes (For a Dog)

Fashionability/Avant Garde•Sports et Divertissements•Parade•Socrate

Ogives (Gothic Arches)

Erik Satie (1866-1925)Quintessential musical iconoclastBest known for a steady output of solo piano music

Esotericism/Mysticism/Aestheticism•3 Gymnopédies•3 Gnossiennes•Ogives

Humor/Absurdity•Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear•Flabby Preludes (For a Dog)

Fashionability/Avant Garde•Sports et Divertissements•Parade•Socrate

Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear

Erik Satie (1866-1925)Quintessential musical iconoclastBest known for a steady output of solo piano music

Esotericism/Mysticism/Aestheticism•3 Gymnopédies•3 Gnossiennes•Ogives

Humor/Absurdity•Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear•Flabby Preludes (For a Dog)

Fashionability/Avant Garde•Sports et Divertissements•Parade•Socrate

Parade (1917):Cubism, Surrealism, and the Ballets Russes

Scenario by Jean CocteauMusic by SatieSets and Costumes by Pablo PicassoChoreagraphed by Léonide Massine

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)Born in Russia (St. Petersburg), lived in France, Switzerland, and the US

Early ballets with Diaghalev – large, rhythmic, brash – establish pre-war reputation as precocious enfant terrible

Stravinsky’s Three PeriodsEarly: The “Russian” Period

“Primitivism” - characterized by “folk” elements:Simple, but exotic melodiesRepetitive, forceful rhythms

Major works (ballets):PetrouchkaThe Rite of SpringLes Noces

Middle: The Neo-Classical Period

A self-conscious return to styles, forms, and gestures of an earlier time – referential, stylized

Major works:PulcinellaOctet for WindsSymphony of PsalmsThe Rake’s Progress

Late Style

Cultivation of an austere, astringent, highly expressive, complex but stripped-down compositional approach

Major works:Agon (ballet)Requien CanticlesIn Memoriam Dylan Thomas

Neo-Classicism: From Puclinella to The Rake’s Progress

Pulcinella (1920)Based on sketches by Pergolesi

The Rake’s Progress (1951)Libretto by W.H. Auden,

Based on a series of Hogarth engravings

In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)

1914-1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.