DESCRIPTION:
Erik SATIE (1886-1925)
"Première pensée Rose+Croix"

Performed by Daniel Brummel.
Harpsichord by Zuckermann.



Premiere pensee Rose+Croix is so-named because it is Satie's first Rosicrucian work. The composer himself did not give the work its title: It was Robert Caby, who edited and orchestrated it in 1968 for publication by Salabert. The music written by Satie between 1891 and 1895 may be grouped, roughly, under the rubric of "Rosicrucian music." During this time, Satie's music shows the influence of Joseph-Aime Peladan, the founder of Rosicrucian brotherhood. The artistic aims of the Rosicrucians included the promotion of idealism and the rejection of realism, and indeed, in Peladan's many novels, realism is abandoned in favor of mysticism, orientalism, occultism, and so on. Satie was drawn to Peladan and his eccentric, bizarre cult-like sect, but the composer's involvement with the Rosacrusicans also, as Satie scholar Alan Gillmor notes, offered Satie the opportunity to have his music frequently performed in the Rosicrucian salons and theatres.

Premier pensee Rose+Croix resembles many of the pre-Rosicrucian piano works: there are no barlines, time signatures, or key signatures. It is a short piece in the form of a march, consisting of only eight phrases of eight beats each (save for the last two phrases, which are only six beats long), each with its own harmonic structure. Harmonically, the work makes extensive use of chords related by tritone, and there are constant modulations. The melodic line is typically Satiean: conjunct, narrow in range, and diatonic. The work is rhythmically simple, with triplet figures and quarter notes comprising the melody, set against an eighth note rhythm in the left hand.

Musicologist Robert Orledge, in his monograph on Satie, notes that Premier pensee Rose+Croix may have been originally titled Marche antique pour la Rose-Croix, a piece known to have been played at one of the Rosicrucian Soirees in 1892.


This recording © 2014 Daniel Brummel.
All rights reserved.