Is This The Beginning Of Modern Music? (Satie: Gymnopedie 1)

Erik Satie wrote his three Gymnopedies in 1888. All three pieces are like different versions of the same music, and each is as radical and as beautiful as the one before. All three pieces have a lilting 3-in-a-bar rhythm, like a slow waltz with a held chord on every 2nd beat. The first Gymnopedie is very famous. Its dream-like character has made it popular with film makers, and it has become a common ‘relaxing classic’. Listeners are consequently unaware just how shockingly radical this decidedly strange music must have seemed in 1888. The music contains a number of elements which were highly unusual, even unique for the period: a subtle, almost bitonal use of modality; numerous dissonances and altered chords; a mysterious circling form; a melody like a procession of notes, often containing intriguing symmetries, and a radical tonal ambiguity. No less extraordinary is the stillness of the music; its non-progressive, non-developmental character - absolutely at odds with the prevailing Austro-German Romantic style of music of the period. With his first Gymnopedie, Satie boldly laid down the gauntlet in redefining what music can be: something ambiguous, static, circular, ambient, evocative…. this is nothing less than the birth of modern music. Erik Satie: Gymnopedie 1 Pianist: Matthew King Satie's second Gymnopedie can be heard here:    • The UNKNOWN Satie Gymnopedie!   Satie's first Gnossienne can be heard here:    • When Erik Satie invented a new kind of mus...   Satie's second Gnossienne can be heard here:    • Erik SATIE'S 2nd GNOSSIENNE: the Saddest o...   Satie’s third Gnossienne can be heard here:    • Gnossienne 3 - Satie's Mysterious Perfection   ⦿ SUPPORT US ON PATREON ⦿   / musicprofessor   ⦿ BUY US A Kofi ⦿ https://ko-fi.com/themusicprofessor ⦿ Support us on PayPal ⦿ https://paypal.me/themusicprofessor?c... ⦿ SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL ⦿ https://bit.ly/3Pnnwon #Satie #Gymnopedie #themusicprofessor Edited by Ian Coulter ( https://www.iancoultermusic.com ) Matthew King (www.matthewkingcomposer.com) Professor of Composition Guildhall School of Music & Drama