Erik Satie, The First Modern Composer  

The Parisian "impressionists" were among the first modern composers; they siezed on the artistic style of the same name that preceded them, and tried to develop a national style of music that imitated the newer, successful work of French national painters, such as Monet and Renoir. All of the important composers were active and living in Paris -- Erik Satie (1866-1925), Claude Debussy (1862-1918), and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). Together they invented a new harmonic/tonal vocabulary for music that tried to emulate the "blurred images" of French impressionist art and differed from the Germanic, Wagnerian style of music they believed had become entrenched and thwarted a unique French style.

Satie was a rather eccentric composer whose musical style demonstrated his strongly anti-Germanic inclinations, his own limited composistional skills, and his wry sense of humor. Eccentricity is apparent outside of his music as he mantained a collection of over two hundred umbrellas. Satie employed clear, sparse textures, simple melodic and rhythmic lines, and for the most part diatonic harmonies reminiscent of 18th century works. He referenced classical antiquity in titles such as Gymnopedies, his solo piano pieces and Socrate a cantata written in 1918. His sense of humor seemed to parallel that of Charles Ives. According to one story, Satie was accused of writing 'formless music'. Apparently, his response was a composition entitled Trois morceaux en forme de poire, (Three pieces in the form of a pear). In 1893, Satie composed a work entitled Vexations in which a passage of music was to be repeated 840 times. Indeed, some of his titles were bizarre if not perverse such as Embryons desseches (Dessicated embryos, 1913). He also enjoyed parodied indications in his musical scores such as the exaggerated expressive marking "Like a nightingale with a toothache". Satie paralleled Ives in being somewhat experimental using indeterminant sounds in his ballet Parade including a roulette wheel, a typewriter and gunshots.

Debussy, who was four years older than Satie, is usually given the credit as "the father of modern music". Clearly, Debussy was the superior craftsman, but did he first develop the innovative techniques that are today associated with modern music? Harmonic innovations of the French impressionists included the consistent and deliberate use of parallel fifths, fourths, sevenths, ninths, unresolved sevenths and ninths (color chords), quartal chords, polychords, polytonality, and planing. Tonal innovations included the use of retrogressions that suspended key and tonic, modes, "exotic" scales, and tritone relations.

A close examination of the early works of these three composers shows that Ravel, being the youngest of them, did not invent any of the techniques associated with the French Impressionists, the chronology of works shows that he was clearly pre-empted by Debussy and Satie in all of these techniques. Stravinsky once referred to Ravel as a "Swiss Clockmaker". However, analysis of Ravel's piano work Jeux d'eau (1901) proves that Ravel pre-empted Stravinsky with the so-called "Petrushka Chord".

The popularity of Debussy over Satie is not so clear. Instead, a careful comparison of the chronology and content of their early music shows that Satie has priority and pre-empted Debussy in most or all of the techniques to which the latter is usually attributed. Debussy came from a more conventional academic background than did Satie. It is not at all clear that his music would have developed its new vocabulary without contact with Satie. His early works reveal Romantic roots that are not much different from Wagner, Faure, or Chabrier in harmonic vocabulary, tonality, or technique. In contrast, Satie's early music reveals a dramatic break with that tradition and points the way to Debussy's future, as well as the future of music in general. It is, of course, no accident that the two Parisians were friends, had frequent contact, and shared ideas. Although Satie was younger, he mentored Debussy in the area of novel innovations. Both Ravel and Debussy privately acknowledged their debt to Satie.

But Ravel went beyond private acknowledgment. On April 7, 1928 Ravel gave what was apparently his only lecture on music (titled "Contemporary Music") at the Rice Institute (now Rice University) in Houston, Texas. In this lecture he took time to speak about Satie's influence on Debussy and himself.

Another significant influence, somewhat unique, and deriving at least partially from Chabrier, is that of Erik Satie, which has had appreciable effect upon Debussy, myself, and indeed most of the modern French composers. Satie was possessed of an extremely keen intelligence. His was the inventor's mind par excellence. He was a great experimenter . . . these experiments have been of inestimable value. Simply and ingeneously, Satie pointed the way, but as soon as another musician took to the trail he had indicated, Satie would immediately change his own orientation and without hesitation open up still another path to new fields of experimentation. He thus became the inspiration of countless progressive tendencies. . . . Debussy held him in the highest esteem. [1]

As the elder composer, Debussy was writing music before Satie, but these early works reveal very little of the harmonic adventure that was to follow. The well-known Clair de lune from the Suite bergamesque (1905) is a typical example of Debussy's harmonic vocabulary in 1905.

There's nothing new here. This music, which represents Debussy's music at this time and earlier, is in a clear key, is diatonic, and displays a conventional harmonic vocabulary. In his music of the period up until 1903, his most advanced techniques include some parallel fifths and octaves, color chords, retrogressions, chromatic mediants, modal progressions and melodies, and an occasionally blurred tonality. In Debussy's much touted Prelude à l'apres-midi d'un faune (Afternoon of a Faun,1894) as a cornerstone to modernism these devices are simply mixed with Wagnerian chromaticism and Tristanesque chords. The beautiful early song Beau Soir (1883) is an example of an earlier use of these devices without Wagnerisms. By 1888 Debussy used unresolved seventh and ninths in the song "C'est l'extase" from Ariettes Oubliées, but Satie had already pre-empted these in his Sarabandes (1887), which use unresolved chords in much more systematic, concentrated, and complex forms, which make Debussy's uses seem mild and retrospective by comparison.

For more on the Sarabandes see:Robert Orledge: Satie's Sarabandes

Satie's innovations came from his long interest in and study of Medieval French music that included plainchant and parallel organum. He contemplated for long hours in the gloom of Notre Dame and studied chant and Gothic art in the Paris Bibliothecque Nationale. He also took an active interest in various quasi-religious, mystical ideas, such as Rosicrucianism. Satie's musical aesthetic is diametrically opposed to Wagner's emotional indulgence. Instead we find the other-worldly, unemotional detachment of Gregorian chant and medieval esceticism. In Ogives of 1886, Satie imitated Gregorian monophony and the use of parallel planed chords. Monophony and monody in Satie's music became quite common, even in later works, such as Descriptions Automatiques (1913).

Satie first met Debussy in 1891, and they quickly became friends. Satie began sharing his ideas and discoveries with him. They had both already been writing music with the old Church modes and unresolved sevenths and ninths. But, Debussy himself confided to Jean Cocteau that Satie's ideas "determined the aesthetic of Pelleas and Melisande [1893-95].... There is no need for the orchestra to grimace when a character comes on the stage. Do the trees in the scenery grimace? What we have to do is to create a musical scenery, a musical atmosphere in which the characters move and talk. No 'couplets'—no 'Leitmotiv', but aim at creating a certain atmosphere that suggests Puvis de Chavannes."[2]

Although Debussy clearly understood the significance of Satie's aesthetic, it is seldom mentioned by modern scholars. Satie was the first composer since Medieval times to adopt this chant-like esceticism; he was the first to break with Wagnerian emotional display. Tone painting was out. A cool atmosphere was in. This is a very important difference between Satie and other composers of his time, such as Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss, Ives (although they shared some common ground), and his contemporary Frenchmen. Even Faure and Chabrier submitted to the influence of Wagner. Satie's aesthetic has prevailed in modern times in neoclassicism, impressionism, and especially in the unemotional detachment of "cool jazz" and pop.

According to Vladimir Golschmann, Satie related that Debussy acknowledged his debt to him in a now often quoted conversation that spawned the Pieces in the Shape of a Pear (Morceaux en forme de poire). Around 1902 or 1903, Satie showed Debussy some of his latest work and asked for his opinion. Debussy replied:

Satie, you never had greater admirers than Ravel and myself; many of your early works had a great influence on our writing. Your Prelude de La porte héroïque du ciel was to us a revelation, so original, so different from that Wagnerian atmosphere which has surrounded us in late years. I liked your Gymnopedies so much that I orchestrated two of them. You have some kind of genius, or you have genius, period. Now, as a true friend may I warn you that from time to time there is in your art a certain lack of form.[3]

This seems an ironic critique from a composer who cared so little for form himself, but undaunted, Satie responded with a new set of pieces for piano, four hands, with the rubric 3 Pieces in the Form of a Pear; this was characteristic of his wit. When he showed them to Debussy, the latter asked why he had titled them this way. Satie replied that he had done this so that Debussy could no longer criticize them for a lack of form. These pieces were written in 1903; so, the conversation must have taken place around that time, but no later.

Why was the Prelude de La porte héroïque du ciel (1894) a "revelation"? A close examination uncovers the answer. In fact, the beginning sequence of chords sounds Debussy-like.

By 1905, a similar sequence occurs in Debussy's Images, Hommage á Rameau:

The similarities are striking, but the differences are even moreso. Satie's music of ten years earlier has no key; i.e., it is atonal! Its chord sequence cannot be analyzed in any key. It is also ametric and without barlines, further obscuring any tonality. In fact, some chords occur which have no traditional analysis and which would hardly be expected in Debussy's music.

Debussy's music, however demonstrative of Satie's influence, is clearly tonal, in the key of G# minor, and is easily analyzed for its functional harmony. It is metric and barred. A clear half cadence appears at the end of the sequence. So, one hears the "influence" of which Debussy spoke, but it is placed into a much less radical (and less original) context, within a key and meter. Another telling influence is manifested in the way Debussy begins the Hommage with a monophonic line, imitating the chant-like sequences that are more characteristic of Satie's music.