Nobody knows when was the composition written. The vinyl edition is limited to 500 copies and is pressed on crystal clear vinyl. And yet the piece consists of only three lines of music, and they are variations on the same theme. Does Listening And Sharing Music With Family, Change Our Behaviour. Erik Satie, "42 Vexations (1893)" Reviews - Albums and Singles Without doubt, this is the best rendition of Erik Satie’s marathon piano piece to surface. In 1963, John Cage organised the first full performance of Vexations in New York, with a team of 11 pianists (the Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team) playing in shifts over the course of 18 hours and 40 minutes. "Written by eccentric French composer Erik Satie in 1893, the extraordinary score for Vexations is just three lines long, yet a complete performance (840 repetitions) may last for anything between 14 and 28 hours. Recorded at Siemens Villa, Berlin, September 1987. (Side A and B) Vexations is a noted musical work by Erik Satie.It consists of a short chordal passage, and is intended to be repeated 840 times.. Vexations is a noted musical work by Erik Satie. Erik was born at Honfleur in Normandy; his childhood home there is now open to the public. You may find the piece meditative, irritating, hypnotic, tedious, transcendent, dull, stimulating, boring, … more, or all of the above… a bit like lockdown. Robert Orledge, Satie Remembered (London: Faber and Faber, London, 1995) Robert Orledge, Satie the Composer Cambridge University Press: 1990, [w:] Music in the Twentieth Century, Arnold Whittall ISBN 0-521-35037-9 . Couple this with 840 repetitions, and it becomes something quite extraordinary. Vexations consist roughly 180 musical notes that should be played around 840 times repetitively. First performed in public by John Cage in 1963, this enigmatic, surreal work is today recognized as a musical milestone in the avant-garde. One pianist reached 15 hours of solo repetitions, before having to stop due to intense hallucinations. Songs start at @@cheapestTrackPrice@@. Can you imagine what could have been the aftermath? Recorded September 1987. Thanks for reading my 43rd article in the series 100-day music blogging challenge. LOCKDOWN VEXATIONS is Erik Satie’s Vexations repeating 840 times chosen randomly from bank of video contributions recorded during Covid-19 lockdown 2020… premiereed on Erik Satie’s 154th Birthday on May 17th 2020. The score is tricky to read due to Satie’s use of double sharps and double flats, instead of much simpler notation (which would represent the same notes). Marked "Trés lent" (Very slowly), and printed on one page, "Vexations" (No. Erik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist who laid the foundation of various art … 2. It generates an interesting static quality, without much sense of forward progression. Stay tuned for more such informative article. Po wybuchu wojny francusko-pruskiej rodzina się przeniosła do Paryża, ale gdy matka Erika zmarła, ojciec odesłał go znów do Honfleur na wychowanie do dziadków. Satie’s compositions are more concerned with time, over musical material. It somehow feels particularly appealing to play this piece together and apart, during this time. Preview, buy, and download songs from the album Satie: Complete Vexations 1-840, including "Vexations 1-47," "Vexations 48-95," "Vexations 96-143," and many more. Erik Satie, the French composer (1866–1925), wrote a little piece for piano called “Vexations.” It’s about a half a page long. It consists of a short chordal passage, and is intended to be repeated 840 times. Text from back inlay: "Written by eccentric French composer Erik Satie in 1893, the extraordinary score for Vexations is just three lines long, yet a complete performance (840 repetitions) may last for anything between 14 and 28 hours. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1990 CD release of Vexations on Discogs. Les Disques du Crepuscule is pleased to announce new CD and vinyl editions of landmark avant-garde composition Vexations by Erik Satie, originally written in 1893. What Does Symphony Mean In Western Classical Music? The world premiere in 1963 was organized by avant-garde composer John Cage and performed by a team of … Recorded at Siemens Villa, Berlin, September 1987. Does that mean ‘Vexations’ was written to test the anxiety and patience of both the player and audience? Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866, the son of Alfred Satie and his wife Jane Leslie (née Anton), who was born in London to Scottish parents. Erik Satie \ Vexations [LTMCD 2389]. The composition has very little variation in harmony, and employs mostly diminished chords. Each repetition is almost like reading it afresh, and engaging for the mind. John Cage published the composition for the first time in 1949. Satie was also known to weave humour into much of his work, so, to take a different perspective, it is feasible he intended Vexations to be a light hearted joke, not to be taken seriously. Depending where one stands on the issue, LTM's Erik Satie: Vexations represents either the final realization of a key work frequently misrepresented in recordings or the most impractical release since Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. Erik Satie composed Vexations circa 1893, though the work was unknown until an associate of the composer brought it to light in 1949. The novel also tells the story of Erik's siblings, separated as orphans after their mother's death. Satie asks the performer to play the piece 840 times without a break, very slowly, which can take as long as 24 hours. The ‘Vexations’ is one of the examples of the repetitive music written by Erik Satie. 4. Follow me @scribinzineman. Buy the album for $17.99. Conrad Satie leads a respectable life as a … ‘Vexation’ is known as the state of being annoyed, frustrated, or worried. Apparently conceived for keyboard (although the single page of manuscript does not specify an instrument), it consists of a short theme in the bass whose four presentations are heard alternatingly unaccompanied and played with chords above. Vexations - is a piano piece by the modern composer Erik Satie who lived between the years 1866 and 1925. Read about the Vexations piano piece considered the longest “repetitive” piece of music written for piano by Erik Satie. It is also worth noting that Satie did not tell anyone about Vexations, and never listed or published it. This makes it curiously difficult to memorise when playing it. John Cage, An American composer was curious to know the outcome of playing the musical phrase for 840 times. 5. LOCKDOWN VEXATIONS LAUNCHED ON SUNDAY 17th MAY – for Erik Satie’s 154th Birthday. Licensed from Thamos Productions. Alan Gillmor, Erik Satie (Twayne Pub., 1988, wznowienie 1992) ISBN 0-393-30810-3 . Vexations is a musical work by Erik Satie. Vexations (Satie, Erik) Since this work was first published after 1925 with the prescribed copyright notice, it is unlikely that this work is public domain in the USA. By Sonia y natalia – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link. 6. VEXATIONS is a mysterious composition by Erik Satie, which takes on another dimension when the instructions at the top of the score are followed. Satie asks the performer to play the piece 840 times without a break, very slowly, which can take as long as 24 hours. This will include a streamed full version of 840 repetitions using a random-order-generated playlist… TAKE PART…. It seems that Vexations is a shape-shifter. Label: Decca - 425 221-2 • Format: CD Album • Country: Europe • Genre: Classical • Style: Modern, Minimal. When Satie was four years old, his family moved to Paris, his father having been offered a translator's job in the capital. The public performance of the musical piece ‘Vexations’ took around 8 hours and 40 minutes to complete. Erik Satie (1866–1925) Vexations. Perhaps he was ‘playing’ on the academic practice of harmonising bass lines in a baroque style? Performers of Vexations have confessed to experiencing strange feelings induced by the experience. There’s a small note in French for the musicians who would like to play the composition. The two harmonisations are almost identical; the second simply inverts the voicings of the first. About Erik Satie. Suzanne left whilst Satie was composing Vexations, and following her departure he declared that he was left with “nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness”. Accidentals apply only to the note that follows. 7. Erik Satie neither published the piece nor he mentioned about its performance publicly. He described himself as a phonometrographer, meaning “someone who measures (and writes down) sounds”. The composition was discovered posthumously. Licensed from Thamos Productions. VEXATIONS is a mysterious composition by Erik Satie, which takes on another dimension when the instructions at the top of the score are followed. A curious, paradoxical piece of music that seems to invoke many responses. Composed in 1893, VEXATIONS could be perceived as an early piece of conceptual art. Variations on this interpretation can result in full performances ranging in length from 14 to over 24 hours. Erik Satie urodził się 17 maja 1886 roku w małym miasteczku Honeflur w Normadii. Program Notes. This extraordinary piano piece Vexations by Erik Satie is one of those rare breakthroughs of consciousness that fulfills the promise of art to reveal something never imagined before. Bibliografia. Read about the Vexations piano piece considered the longest “repetitive” piece of music written for piano by Erik Satie. Hi, I'm Bharat aka Scribin Zineman - An artist & musician scribbling interesting stories using Zines, Illustration, Notes, Entertainment, Music, Art & New-media. Future live streams will take place on: SUNDAY 14th June, SUNDAY 12th July, SUNDAY 16th August all at Noon BST, Leading to a final Live Stream to mark the anniversary of the first full performance of Vexations organised by John Cage in New York in 1963… WEDNESDAY 9th September at 4pm BST… (see TAKE PART for info). 9. Erik Satie «Vexations» The piano piece «Vexations» is thought to be the longest piece of music in history. (Dover Publications, New York, 1968) ISBN 0-486-21903-8 . The score of Vexations by Erik Satie, to be read in conjunction with the paper 'Serious Immobilities.' 1. First recording and performance analysis of the entire 28-hour performance (project description and data) Welcome to the Vexations recording homepage. Few people from the audience were bewildered and agitated. In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities. The Vexations centers on the life of the composer Erik Satie (1866-1925), bringing to life Paris's Bohemian society of eccentric and cutting-edge artists. Satie’s tempo instruction ‘Très Lent’ (Very Slow) is open to interpretation. Encore means an extra performance of an item at the end of a concert, as called for by an audience. During the 2 years prior to composing Vexations, Satie was deeply involved with the mystical Rosicrucian movement, and in 1893, Satie broke away from this and started his own religion, of which he remained the sole follower. Therefore, he organized the first public performance of the “Vexations” at the Pocket Theatre in Manhattan on September 9, 1963. Therefore, Cage came up with an idea of playing the piece in a group divided in shifts. Erik Satie, Reinbert De Leeuw ‎– Vexations Label: Philips ‎– 410 434-1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album ... On this record, the pianist plays 'Vexations' 35 times, to hear this composition 840 times, the record should be played 24 times. 8. Perhaps Satie’s unusual performance instructions were a strategy to forget his broken heart. Text from back inlay: "Written by eccentric French composer Erik Satie in 1893, the extraordinary score for Vexations is just three lines long, yet a complete performance (840 repetitions) may last for … Performed last year in Brussels by Stephane Ginsburgh on Satie’s own piano, this is beautifully recorded extract from the mammoth work is breathtaking. Cautionary accidentals (naturals) are added in … Satie offers the following advice “In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, through serious immobility.”, LOCKDOWN VEXATIONS will present a variety of online versions of Vexations played and recorded by different people during the Covid-19 Lockdown. Around this time, in New York, many artists were investigating long form, durational artworks and intense repetition, with Andy Warhol creating ‘Sleep’ and ‘Empire’ alongside the works of composers such as La Monte Young and Tony Conrad. All researchers are invited to use the data presented in this homepage for further analysis. Erik Satie : Vexations for piano for piano ( 1893 ) live at the Entrepot Gallery in Monte-Carlo the 15th and 16th April of 2011 . Here’s the composition, if you want to play the music. 3. LOCKDOWN VEXATIONS was set up by Kathy Hinde, and uses randomising software programmed by Matthew Olden. However, it is in the public domain in Canada (where IMSLP is hosted), the EU, and in those countries where the copyright term is life+70 years or less. Cage formed a group of eleven pianists known as “The Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team.” It was estimated that the piece could take severely hours to finish. Written by eccentric French composer Erik Satie in 1893, the extraordinary score for Vexations is just three lines long, yet a complete performance (840 repetitions) can last for anything between 14 and 28 hours. Vexations begins with a solo bass line, followed by a harmonisation, a repeat of the solo line, then a second harmonisation. Vexations (published in 1893) by Erik Satie - piano sheet music to download and print instantly. 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