Erik Satie - Nocturnes

There are no humoristic or absurdist remarks – as would be usual for Satie – in the scores of the Cinq Nocturnes. On the contrary, they have an unusual serious tone, if compared to his previous works. But even if you, like me, are a fan of Satie’s humor, you may come to think, as I do, that this set of nocturnes is Satie’s greatest musical achievement.

Satie's opinion on the set appears to be ambivalent. About the first three nocturnes, in a letter to Valentine Hugo, he said: “The three together form a whole which I am very pleased with." But about the others, in another letter from the same week, he wrote: “This is another expression of me. What is it? I am at a turning point for my state of mind, and not enjoying myself.”

The set was originally planned to be seven pieces long, but the seventh was never composed and the sixth was only published in 1994, after Robert Orledge completed the two missing bars on the left hand, rendering it performable. This sixth and posthumous nocturne sounds deconstructed, or maybe even unfinished (as it was), but it is still worth listening, as it reveals the crude sharpness in the core of Satie’s music.


PS: Before Satie opted for the seriousness of the final set, the first nocturne was actually called Faux Nocturne (Fake Nocturne), as a continuation of his work on musical irony. He then wrote, along the score, the following verse-like indications:

The night is silent.
The melancholy is huge.
A will-o'-the-wisp troubles the tranquil landscape.
What a bore! It is an old will-o'-the-wisp.
Did it really have to come?
Let's go back to our dreaming, please.

This text, however, never made to the published edition.

Thanks for watching! Let me know your thoughts on Satie and his nocturnes in the comments.


Playlist:
00:00 - Nocturne I (Faux Nocturne) (1919)
03:38 - Nocturne II (1919)
05:48 - Nocturne III (1919)
09:13 - Nocturne IV (1919)
12:12 - Nocturne V (1919)
14:19 - Nocturne VI (1925 [1994])

Composer:
Erik Satie (1866 – 1925)

Performance:
L. Sierakowski

Visual content:
Summer Night (1890) by Winslow Homer

Translation on the text (from the Faux Nocturne) to English:
Antony Melville

If you want access to the high quality audio, please visit:
https://furniture-music.bandcamp.com/