{"id":1750,"date":"2011-01-14T14:11:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T13:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2011-01-14T14:13:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T13:13:31","slug":"satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/","title":{"rendered":"Satie: the Classical style gone mad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1917, amidst the latter stages of the horrors of the First World War, with the guns echoing over the disastrous offences in Ypres and Passchendaele, and the introduction of a new weapon by the British called\u00a0the tank, Satie was writing his <em><a href=\"http:\/\/play.last.fm\/preview\/29295.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">Sonatine bureaucratique<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Representing a return to the civilised values of the Classical period (and anticipating Stravinsky\u2019s much-vaunted neo-Classical phase by three years), the piece also confronts those same values head-on and takes them apart. The work is full of forbidden <em>ostinati<\/em>, passages of needless repetition, and juxtaposed blocks of material in Cubist fashion. All these techniques serve to undermine a Classical sense of order and organic unity, where material is unified through a system of related keys and formal principles.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kent-video-wrapper\"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='474' height='297' src='https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4ZL__Y22vjQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The piece parades a series of parodies and inversions of well-known Classical ideas, especially melodic material from Clementi\u2019s piano sonata Op 36 no.1.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, as listening to the piece proves, it\u2019s all done with a sound Classical sensibility; texturally, Satie\u2019s evocation of the Classical piano sonata is rooted firmly in the appropriate sound-world. But other rules have been overthrown: there are\u00a0no formal development or recapitulation sections, the system of related keys has been usurped, and the Classical sense of never repeating an idea in exactly the same way is confounded by blatant, almost defiant, passages of repetition.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1753\" style=\"margin-left: 5px;margin-right: 5px;border: white 5px solid\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2010\/08\/satie-e1282512123392.jpg\" alt=\"Erik Satie\" width=\"164\" height=\"204\" \/>Composed in \u00a01917, at a time when the rest of the world had gone mad with wholesale slaughter and \u00a0mechanised forms of destruction, \u00a0Satie\u2019s evocation of the Classical period is a reminiscence of, almost a hankering after,\u00a0an old order where unity and structure prevailed; at the same time, his usurping of its principles reflects the breakdown of society and its values which was going on around him: despite its apparent jocular tone, the shadow of the Western Front is never far away.<\/p>\n<p>A turn to neo-Classicism was on the cards musically for others: Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Pulcinella<\/em> would not appear until 1920. Debussy\u2019s re-appraisal of Classical principles in the very late set of instrumental sonatas, of which he only lived to complete three of a projected series of six, still had its foot firmly in the Impressionist world. Satie\u2019s neo-Classical sonatina represented a much more deliberate assessment of Classicism\u2019s sound as well as its forms. Of course, he had already <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2010\/07\/19\/turkish-delight-satie-vs-mozart\/\" target=\"_blank\">taken on Mozart (and won) in his <em>Tyroliene Turque<\/em> written four years before<\/a>, parodying Mozart\u2019s famous <em>Rondo alla turca<\/em>. But his appraisal and ensuing dissection of Classicism is much more involved in the <em>Sonatine bureaucratique<\/em>; it may be poking fun at Clementi in a similar fashion to his earlier ribbing of Mozart, but this is much more serious. It\u2019s not just about Clementi, it\u2019s about the very essence of Classical values at a time when values\u00a0seemed to\u00a0be disappearing everywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Eat your heart out, neo-Classical Stravinsky: Satie got there first.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/&amp;t=Satie: the Classical style gone mad' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Satie: the Classical style gone mad%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/&amp;title=Satie: the Classical style gone mad' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/&amp;title=Satie: the Classical style gone mad' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1917, amidst the latter stages of the horrors of the First World War, with the guns echoing over the disastrous offences in Ypres and Passchendaele, and the introduction of a new weapon by the British called\u00a0the tank, Satie was writing his Sonatine bureaucratique. Representing a return to the civilised values of the Classical period &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2011\/01\/14\/satie-the-classical-style-gone-mad\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Satie: the Classical style gone mad<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":1753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1110,909],"tags":[1343,1313,939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2577,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/2577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}