20th Century Music for Piano 3: Sports et divertissements by Erik Satie
[00:15 - 00:20]
From Cincinnati My hearing's sports fan divertissement spy suttee which
[00:20 - 00:25]
will be played in the snow by Jean Kirstein on today's program. Twentieth
[00:25 - 00:30]
century music yeah. KERSTEIN is an internationally known interpreter
[00:30 - 00:35]
of contemporary beyond music and earlier works. Also a member of the artist faculty of
[00:35 - 00:40]
the University of Cincinnati. I'm Myron Bennett on this program
[00:40 - 00:43]
I talk to interesting about music you will hear.
[00:43 - 01:00]
We turn now to a quite different type of personality. That is Eric
[01:00 - 01:05]
Saatchi. Who has for a long time considered a minor composer on the
[01:05 - 01:10]
fringe of Impressionism who made satirical comments with this market positions
[01:10 - 01:14]
and hardly seems to have taken music seriously.
[01:14 - 01:19]
This isn't true. I don't think it's true he went to school after he had been
[01:19 - 01:24]
composing for many years and worked on a degree. He wanted to. I
[01:24 - 01:29]
suppose and you know learn more I'm from south. And the funny part of this was that when he
[01:29 - 01:34]
had finished a major composition that he worked on he went right back to his small
[01:34 - 01:37]
satirical pieces several years ago.
[01:37 - 01:42]
I don't think. Anybody had heard of such except maybe the three pieces in the form of
[01:42 - 01:47]
a para but recently. His complete piano works have become available on recordings
[01:47 - 01:51]
and composers and critics are beginning to speak of the influence of society. Why
[01:51 - 01:56]
this sudden interest. In such a man a
[01:56 - 02:00]
contemporary of the Debussy and Ravel who as we say was little known up to this time.
[02:00 - 02:07]
Partly this is an age of revival but also audiences and performers are more
[02:07 - 02:11]
ready now to accept the ideas of society. We also hear much about his
[02:11 - 02:16]
eccentricity in the music and the prominence just
[02:16 - 02:22]
humorous that the markings in his music range from with much illness.
[02:22 - 02:26]
These are musical directions to play light like an egg. I slow down
[02:26 - 02:31]
politely and in the first piece of the pieces I'm playing
[02:31 - 02:37]
he has an an appetising corral which is dedicated to all those who do not
[02:37 - 02:42]
like him into this. I have put everything I know of boredom. These are the
[02:42 - 02:46]
instructions. So he wrote a short piano piece which was to be repeated for 18
[02:46 - 02:51]
hours. The actual piece I think was like 16 measures
[02:51 - 02:56]
long has anyone ever performed liberating. Yes it was done in New York City at Carnegie
[02:56 - 03:00]
recital hall by a team of pianists who took turns every few hours
[03:00 - 03:05]
and there was no fee charged for admission but a fee charged for exit I. Think I remember
[03:05 - 03:10]
correctly. The longer you stay the more it cost you. And I understand from those who
[03:10 - 03:14]
were there that it was a psychological as well as a musical experience.
[03:14 - 03:20]
These things might seem to be merely novelties but I understand as we noted
[03:20 - 03:25]
before that many people are taking the CETI very seriously.
[03:25 - 03:27]
You see that important.
[03:27 - 03:32]
Yes he had an immediate effect on the U.S.. You have to remember that French
[03:32 - 03:37]
Impressionism still contained much of German romanticism and such he was the
[03:37 - 03:43]
first French musician to purge impressionism of this influence.
[03:43 - 03:47]
The late works of Debussy show a satirical element which could only have come from settee
[03:47 - 03:53]
and Ravel said that of all the composers that influenced his works as such he was the most important.
[03:53 - 03:57]
And other more recent composers influenced by society.
[03:57 - 04:01]
I think me on Hanukkah and in this country John Cage and a great many of his
[04:01 - 04:03]
followers.
[04:03 - 04:08]
Aside from the humor in the searcher What's the most important element in Sardi's music the
[04:08 - 04:13]
melody the setting himself declared the melody is the idea.
[04:13 - 04:18]
His simple rhythmic ostinato serve only to throw the melodic line into much sharper relief.
[04:18 - 04:23]
The chords do this by such simple triads and seventh chords but their relationship to each other is
[04:23 - 04:28]
often very strange. He thought the purpose of harmony was soley to cast light and
[04:28 - 04:33]
shade on the melody. He got around conventional form and harmonic schemes
[04:33 - 04:37]
by ignoring them not by creating new and.
[04:37 - 04:39]
These works that are going to play with a pianist uke.
[04:39 - 04:46]
Yes. They're very pianistic but those little vignettes not appeal or stick in the
[04:46 - 04:47]
censorship no.
[04:47 - 04:52]
Less. For the performance of this
[04:52 - 04:57]
music by society that we will hear Gene Gerstein is assisted by Emily had learned
[04:57 - 05:01]
who will read the words of a Saudi in French and English
[05:01 - 05:07]
sports. Under what is meant by Sauti.
[05:07 - 05:11]
That sector because you it cost to trade the stick.
[05:11 - 05:16]
There's some music that back to this side if you give it back they tie their tie
[05:16 - 05:21]
this plea that Patty musicale your present their power they plant they plant.
[05:21 - 05:26]
Say did Patty I mean the honest soul farmed out
[05:26 - 05:31]
to an album. Sure can say defeat this or leave undone do I imagine a
[05:31 - 05:36]
super young calf said you never dare father Izzy colonial powers
[05:36 - 05:40]
OTA shows this printed work consists of two elements of
[05:40 - 05:45]
art drawing and music. The drawing part appears as lines
[05:45 - 05:50]
funny lines while the music is shown as dots black dots
[05:50 - 05:55]
these two halves brought together in a single volume form a whole or an
[05:55 - 06:00]
album. My advice is to look through the book with a friendly smiling eye
[06:00 - 06:05]
for it's just a work of whimsey nothing more. For the
[06:05 - 06:11]
dough and the dried up I have written a serious and respectable Koran.
[06:11 - 06:16]
It is a sort of bitter preamble and austere non-frivolous
[06:16 - 06:21]
kind of introduction in it is everything I know
[06:21 - 06:26]
about boredom. I dedicate this corral to the people who don't
[06:26 - 06:30]
like me and I disappear and an
[06:30 - 06:35]
appetising chorale surly and Shirley to be played
[06:35 - 06:40]
hypocritically in places written before eating on May
[06:40 - 06:42]
15th 1914.
[06:42 - 07:46]
I see
[07:46 - 08:18]
this.
[08:18 - 08:19]
Time.
[08:19 - 08:49]
Will it want to come back to my brain.
[08:49 - 08:54]
To hunt. Do you hear the rabbits singing. What a lovely voice.
[08:54 - 08:59]
The nightingale snug in his burrow. The owl is nursing her children. The
[08:59 - 09:04]
wild young pig is getting married and I'm shooting down walnuts with my gun
[09:04 - 09:09]
shots on time they've only care of
[09:09 - 09:15]
us you know they don't want to hear you. I let them
[09:15 - 09:20]
knock us some faster Maggie but I didn't. I could see you.
[09:20 - 09:43]
That could be a detail yet not probably 10
[09:43 - 09:55]
gallons.
[09:55 - 09:59]
Just gotta make the Italian Polish and
[09:59 - 10:04]
stack expounds the charms of Army life.
[10:04 - 10:09]
Says he. We're pretty sharp. We frighten the public and we have a
[10:09 - 10:14]
gay time with the girls. And that's not all. It's a great life.
[10:14 - 11:22]
So.
[11:22 - 11:41]
Waking the bride lively without too much.
[11:41 - 11:42]
Dance.
[11:42 - 12:07]
You laugh but you
[12:07 - 12:09]
suspected.
[12:09 - 13:02]
It's not passion.
[13:02 - 13:08]
Yeah. The new dump. Did
[13:08 - 13:16]
you take that. Yes.
[13:16 - 13:18]
Check out.
[13:18 - 13:25]
Yes I lead every day fishing. A
[13:25 - 13:32]
conversation.
[13:32 - 13:49]
A river. A fishing pier.
[13:49 - 13:49]
Just
[13:49 - 14:02]
everyone who goes.
[14:02 - 14:11]
In the river.
[14:11 - 14:14]
Yeah.
[14:14 - 14:38]
Like A Crazy.
[14:38 - 14:47]
Brake on the road. No one can.
[14:47 - 14:51]
Say says that. This is not an amusing.
[14:51 - 15:29]
Kaiser You need a plan.
[15:29 - 15:33]
We miss you sea bathing.
[15:33 - 15:45]
It's
[15:45 - 16:01]
filled with water.
[16:01 - 16:07]
The Carnival the confetti flutters down. There's a mask of melancholy.
[16:07 - 16:12]
The tips pretends he's sly graceful girls in dominoes
[16:12 - 16:17]
appear. Everyone pushes forward to see them. I think pretty
[16:17 - 16:23]
Look I'll never make a mask leaked
[16:23 - 16:30]
out so
[16:30 - 16:31]
early.
[16:31 - 17:05]
God exacty don't elevate your discussion Tweed
[17:05 - 17:09]
vs your No. Each week so deep
[17:09 - 17:14]
reports don't say bag. They don't e whole
[17:14 - 17:19]
song to Tom No love was so
[17:19 - 17:24]
crude nirvanic class go. The Colonel is
[17:24 - 17:29]
wearing loud green scotch Tweed he will win his caddy follows
[17:29 - 17:34]
him with the bag. The crowds are astonished the holes quiver.
[17:34 - 17:39]
Connor is here he takes a practice swing his club explodes.
[17:39 - 18:21]
If I don't have it on cab street
[18:21 - 18:25]
at that time.
[18:25 - 18:32]
Matt said. To be fair we shot
[18:32 - 18:40]
the octopus the octopus is in her cave playing with a kayak.
[18:40 - 18:44]
She chases it. She swallows it wrong. Upset she
[18:44 - 18:49]
wobbles about on her feet. Then she drinks a glass of salt water to make her
[18:49 - 18:52]
feel better. That helps and changes her mind.
[18:52 - 19:19]
I am.
[19:19 - 19:23]
The races I am the crowd
[19:23 - 19:34]
waiting in.
[19:34 - 19:38]
There out of sight.
[19:38 - 19:44]
Here's the pussy in the corner.
[19:44 - 19:46]
They kept quiet.
[19:46 - 20:13]
Michelle.
[20:13 - 20:15]
Was.
[20:15 - 20:20]
Like Lassie.
[20:20 - 20:27]
The picnic. Everyone has brought very cold below. You have
[20:27 - 20:30]
a lovely white dress. Oh no it's a stone.
[20:30 - 20:57]
Shoot
[20:57 - 21:20]
music shoot the chutes.
[21:20 - 21:22]
I have a strong stomach
[21:22 - 21:44]
just as though you're from.
[21:44 - 21:44]
Peru.
[21:44 - 21:56]
The tango moderate and very bored perpetual
[21:56 - 22:02]
The tango is the dance of the devil. His favorite one he dances
[22:02 - 22:06]
his wife his daughters and his servants.
[22:06 - 22:39]
Cool off the same.
[22:39 - 23:06]
Say.
[23:06 - 23:07]
So.
[23:07 - 23:23]
If you take the show
[23:23 - 23:29]
this week it was if you do go
[23:29 - 23:52]
pee you should not pay to flirt.
[23:52 - 23:58]
Nice to you.
[23:58 - 24:08]
I wish.
[24:08 - 24:11]
She's fired.
[24:11 - 24:40]
Let me have money.
[24:40 - 24:51]
Play.
[24:51 - 25:03]
Nice.
[25:03 - 25:15]
And nice Gnome.
[25:15 - 25:20]
We have heard sports and advertisement us by Eric Saatchi played by Jean
[25:20 - 25:25]
Kirstein with the words of sati read by Emily eyed look.
[25:25 - 25:31]
This has been a program of 20th century music for piano played and discussed by Jean
[25:31 - 25:36]
Kirstein an internationally known interpreter of contemporary piano music and of earlier
[25:36 - 25:41]
works. Mrs. Kirsteen is a member of the artist faculty of the University of
[25:41 - 25:45]
Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Research for the series
[25:45 - 25:50]
by Walter Mays. It was recorded and produced at WG
[25:50 - 25:55]
U.S. the University of Cincinnati station by your announcer. My run by
[25:55 - 25:59]
much and made possible by the Friends of WG you see
[25:59 - 26:03]
this is the national educational radio network.
🔍
This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.