MESSE DES PAUVRES
Satie had founded the Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur (the Metropolitan Church of Art of the Leading Christ). As its only member, in the role of "Parcier et Maître de Chapelle" he started to compose a Grande Messe (later to become known as the Messe des Pauvres), and wrote a flood of letters, articles and pamphlets showing off his self-assuredness in religious and artistic matters. Erik Satie worked on his Messe des pauvres from 1893 to 1895 but never completed it. After Satie's death, Darius Milhaud selected movements from the composer's notebooks and published them in 1929 as the Messe des pauvres for organ and voices. The Mass is missing its Gloria; however, the only contemporary account suggests that the Gloria was in existence in 1895. It looks like the the Satie Church was full of Satie's humour and irony. For the shortest piece of the mass has a very long title (translated as 'Prayer for the travellers and sailors who are in mortal danger to the good and highly august Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) another funny title is 'Prière pour le salut se mon âme' ('Prayer for the salvation of my soul'). This mass, with its flavour of "work in progress" and its harshly ascetic and mystical music, has been described by Alan Gillmor as "perhaps the fullest realization of the composer's carefully cultivated Gothic dream".
GNOSSIENNES Erik Satie composed seven Gnossiennes, from 1889 to 1897. With the titles chronologically mixed up in a way that could not fail to please our hero. To make things more confusing: according to the cd No.7 was from 1897 but most other sources date it from 1891.
Gnossienne No. 6 (1897), this posthumously (1968) published sketch with title by Robert Caby, is evidently based on the same material as Airs a faire fuir.
PAGES MYSTIQUES
The Mystical pages are sketch-like harmonic studies in the line of Satie's religious works.
The third or fifth (Satie's counting can be confusing) part of Pages Mystiques named is named VEXATIONS. This enigmatic instruction, on a single page of music bearing the title Vexations, has turned the strange piano piece into a legend in the annals of experimental music:
"To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities."
This instruction has been taken seriously by many prominent piano performers which can easily result in a performance time of 24 hours. Many performances have been made worldwide with great success. But perhaps he was only trying to fool the performer? After all, it isn't an instruction that the performer must play it 840 times. He just stated, "To play this motif 840 times..." Of course, we will never know what was his true intention as the piece wasn't published during his lifetime. Vexations is a puzzling piece of art. This accounts for the phenomenon, noted by Gavin Bryars, that performers - even after repeating the piece many times - have difficulty remembering it and must maintain intense concentration to avoid errors. The Vexations can be seen as the first minimalist music and some people call it even radical minimalist music. Gorisek could have filled another 10 cd's with repeats of Vexation but the recording of 23 minutes on this album is long enough to endure for most people.
Pièces Froides: DANSE DE TRAVERS (1897)
The three "slanted dances" demonstrate another singularity typical of Satie, which are already apparent in the Ogives, Sonneries de la Rose+Croix and perhaps also the Gymnop?dies: composing the same piece in several different ways, bringing to mind his oft-quoted statement: "Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself". The dances are remarkably alike and all based on rising triad figures from which a melodic line detaches itself. One at first associates to Schumann or Fauré: a toneful, muted lyrical atmosphere, strangely imploring musical gestures. However, the romantic atmosphere gradually passes into monotony and finally tedium.
CARESSE (1897)
This posthumously (1968) published sketch with title by Robert Caby, is a softly sensual meditation distantly related to the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, interrupted in the middle in an almost surrealistic way by a sudden, ephemeral "quake".
JE TE VEUX (c 1897)
This waltz song for voice and piano seems to be Satie's debut as composer of light chansons. Song by Henry Pacory and to be performed by the at that time very popular singer Paulette Darty. Satie also scored Je te veux for brasserie orch and for full orch, adding a new Trio in the process. The text was at first more daring but quickly adapted for the published version in 1902 where Satie may have been of some assistance.
Tracklist
1 Kyrie Eleison / Dixit Domine 7:11
2 Prière Des Orgues 4:24
3 Commune Qui Mundi Nefas 2:19
4 Chant Ecclésiastique / Prière Pour Les Voyageurs Et Les Marins En Danger De Mort, À La Très Bone Et Très Auguste Vierge Marie, Mère De Jésus 1:36
5 Prière Pour Le Salut De Mon Âme 2:42
6 I. Prière 1:58
7 II. Harmonie 1 0:48
8 II. Harmonie 2 1:41
9 II. Harmonie 3 0:32
10 III. Vexations 22:51
11 Gnossienne No. 6 (1897) 1:04
12 Gnossienne No. 7 (1897) 3:22
13 Danse De Travers (1897) 2:06
14 Je Te Veux (1897) 5:14
15 Caresse (ca. 1897) 2:16
ERIC SATIE (1808-1925)
Complete Piano Works Vol. 3
Piano – Bojan Gorišek
[2005] Audiophile / CBR320 / scans
O Púbis da Rosa
Fearlessly searching for new conceptions of sound and not caring where he found them, Garbarek joined hands with the classical early-music movement, improvising around the four male voices of the Hilliard Ensemble. Now here was a radical idea guaranteed to infuriate both hardcore jazz buffs and the even more pristine more-authentic-than-thou folk in early music circles. Yet this unlikely fusion works stunningly well -- and even more hearteningly, went over the heads of the purists and became a hit album at a time (1994) when Gregorian chants were a hot item. Chants, early polyphonic music, and Renaissance motets by composers like Morales and Dufay form the basic material, bringing forth a cool yet moving spirituality in Garbarek's work. Recorded in a heavily reverberant Austrian monastery, the voices sometimes develop in overwhelming waves, and Garbarek rides their crest, his soprano sax soaring in the monastery acoustic, or he underscores the voices almost unobtrusively, echoing the voices, finding ample room to move around the modal harmonies yet applying his sound sparingly. Those with nervous metabolisms may become impatient with this undefinable music, but if you give it a chance, it will seduce you, too. by Richard S. Ginell 
