Month: June 2016

The Birth of Modern Music Series Part 2: Erik Satie

The ultimate “underground” modernist artist in Paris, Satie didn’t get a lot of credit when he was alive for his work. He was largely forgotten until John Cage found his Vexations composition fifty years after his death.

His music “did not resolve as it should according to tonal laws” says our guest Dr. Caroline Potter. She talks with us about how Satie broke from Parisian tradition and led an avant-garde scene which influenced ambient and minimalist artists for years to come.

Join us as we traverse the eccentric life and work of Erik Satie.

The Velvet Gentleman: The Sounds of Erik Satie

As Austrian and German composers were dabbling into new sounds, so too, were the Parisian composers around the beginning of WWI. Most notably the French Impressionists like Erik Satie. 

Our next episode in our Modern Music Series explores Satie’s work and influence on modern noise and ambient music – as well as cabaret! He inspired composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and John Cage.

This playlist will give you an introduction to his work and hopefully peak your curiosity for the eccentric and artistically uncompromising, Erik Satie. Look for the episode next week.