Vexations – Satie and Cage
“I came into the world very young, in an age that was very old” ( from the Selfportrait of Erik Satie-wikipedia. )
Eric Satie 
was born on May 17, 1866.
(The famous portrait by Pablo Picasso)
Watch this visual collage video for Eric Satie’s music. (Found Youtube – Looks like Jane Fonda’s film “Sunday in New York” was used for this footage.)
Satie may have been the first composer to write music intended to accompany film (Entr’acte, the surrealist Rene Clair’s film short in the middle of Satie’s Relache). (Ideocentrism – J. Emerson Read more, this portrait of Satie by J. Emerson is hilarious.)
Stones by John Cage
(image source)
satieE
goes in seaRch
of sunlIght he comes across haydn
bill anastasi is looKing at haydn through a lorgnetter
I have also studied wild mushrooms so that I won’t kill myself when I eat what I find. I am always amazed how exiting it is in any season anywhere to see just any mushrooms growing once again. The same is true each time I hear Satie well-played. I fall in love all over again.” (John Cage)
It is possible that Vexations might never have been performed if it had not been for John Cage.
Vexations then is simply the best example of how Cage brought interest to Satie, and likewise changed, or at least broadened, the way people think about him.
Cage’s Place In the Reception of Satie, from here.
New River – watercolor by John Cage
(image source)
Portrait of Eric Satie by Susanne Valadon ( mother of Maurice Utrillo)
Valadon painted Satie’s portrait and gave it to him, but after six months she moved on, leaving Satie broken-hearted. During their relationship Satie had composed the Danses Gothiques as a kind of prayer to restore peace of mind. Apparently, this would remain the only relationship Satie ever had. (Wikipedia)
Line drawing of Satie by Jean Cocteau
