D'après Satie: Music Towards a Future Past

A few years ago I spotted that 2025 would mark the 100^th anniversary of Erik Satie’s death, and – since Satie had proved to be hugely inspirational to composers of his own time (and especially to those French composers collectively known as Les Six) I began to wonder how some of today’s composers might respond creatively to his work and ideas. And so - in conversation with friends - dreamed up a project where many composers, inspired in some way by Satie’s legacy, were invited to write short pieces, each a miniature tribute to Satie. Our plan was that these pieces would be performed in concert alongside Satie’s own music, recorded for CD then eventually published as an album for pianists. I initially invited twenty composer friends (ten female and ten male) to each write two-minute pieces and whilst some politely declined, most welcomed the idea and brought their creative energies to bear upon it. Apart from the strict demand to limit the pieces’ duration I stipulated that there should be no preparation of the piano (to keep the gap between pieces in performance to a minimum) and that composers should try to avoid writing new versions of Satie’s famous Gymnopédies if possible, in order to explore a wider range of his musical influences. Pianist Duncan Honeybourne – who excels in presenting concerts of miniatures – was the natural choice of performer and he embraced the idea with considerable warmth and enthusiasm, so his concert at Late Music, York (June 2025) was the first stage in realising the endeavour. Next up was to record all the music to be released on CD by Prima Facie (Manchester, August 2025), and launch the album in London at a concert in the (decidedly Satie-esque) 1901 Arts Club on Friday 17th April 2026.

[Erik Satie]

My own contribution to the programme is a short, lively piece called Montmartre, named after the district to the north of Paris where Satie lived from 1887-98. Even when he moved to Arceuil (south of the city) he would frequently make the long trek on foot back to Montmartre in order to work as pianist at Le Chat Noir (and later the Auberge du Clou), and to meet with friends at Au Lapin Agile. It’s utterly tantalising for us to imagine the artistic society in which he mixed; Le Chat Noir, for example, had become a hub for fashionable artists: Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Francisco Pissaro as well as Émile Zola, Jules Vallès and Paul Verlaine regularly met there, while at the same time in the tumbledown ‘Bateau Lavoir’ studio, Picasso and Braque were developing cubism. A sign outside Le Consulat café tells us that Picasso, Sisley, Diaz, van Goch and Monet all drank and dined there, and the clients at Au Lapin Agile included Picasso (again!), Utrillo, Derain, Braque, Modigliani, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, possibly Debussy, and Satie of course. Anyone interested in the artists’ lives at that time could do much worse than read Sue Roe’s book In Montmartre which vividly captures a sense of the excitement and discovery which must have pervaded those fin-de-siecle years.

[Satie’s former home in Rue Cortot]

This place is important to me. As a young trumpet player I had - for a short time – a regular gig in Paris. The appartement where I stayed was in Rue Ordener, just north of Montmartre, and – like Satie – I enjoyed walking, so in good weather would often cross the hill, acknowledging Berlioz’ former home before climbing the many steps on Rue des Saules, passing Au Lapin Agile and the end of Rue Cortot (where Satie had lived) before arriving at the busy junction with Rue Norvins where Le Consulat stands. If there weren’t too many people around I would pass through Place du Teatre (where street artists still work, now mainly painting Parisian scenes for tourists) then down the hill on the other side towards Pigalle and the city. I’ve always felt a strong affinity with the past and the people who walked these streets before me, so loved being in Montmartre where every building and street corner seemed to hold memories of those great creative minds. I try to revisit those places whenever I have an opportunity; before the pandemic I used to take Music students from YSJU each year to Lapin Agile to enjoy the cabaret, and a couple of years ago I wrote a piece called Au Lapin Agile for flute and piano. In the summer of 2023 I had an overnight stay in Paris on the way home from Toulouse so walked up La Butte to have a drink and dinner outside Le Consulat; thinking about Satie and the pressing need to write something for this project I jotted down some ideas for my piano piece on a paper napkin. Pretentious, perhaps (moi?) but I felt as though I was making some very small connection with artists and musicians who had sat there before me: famous, infamous and unknown, successful and otherwise. I wanted to avoid the temptation to reimagine a Gymnopédie or a Gnossienne so turned instead to his exploration of ragtime, at that time a fashionable new genre imported from America which proved irresistible to Debussy, Stravinsky and Les Six as well as Satie, whose Ragtime Parade and Le Piccadilly (amongst others) heavily draw upon its syncopated melodies and march-like left hand accompaniments. A confession: I haven’t completely avoided Gymnopédies at all since my jazzy left-hand accompaniments are really nothing more than a ragtime-infused transposition of Satie’s famous opening chords.

[Me, outside Le Consulat! January 2020]

I’ve been terribly impressed with the quality of work inspired by this project and have been thrilled to work with friends old and new, including Simon Hopkins (who is chair of New Music Brighton), Sarah Dacey (who as singer has performed my music with Juice Vocal Ensemble), Andrew Hugill (Satie scholar and aficionado) and Sarah Thomas, whose work impressed me at a Delta Sax Quartet concert in Kingston-upon-Thames last year. Please do come to the concerts and buy the recording - it's hugely rich and varied programme with lots of fun and very many surprises!

[The plaque above the door at 6, Rue Cortot]