WEIRDEST MUSIC EVER - Satie Gnossienne no. 1 - Analysis tutorial

[@SonataSecrets]

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[@galibbashirov1526]

I'm sure Satie never thought his music was going to be this famous in the future.

[@ugurkanseber688]

Many people at that period of time didn't like Satie's style even some said that he is untalented at composing. Later he become so famous.

[@MarcusVinicius116]

No, and he was very poor and died in a complete deprivation. I love his music, besides other french composers of that time (Debussy, Ravel). They often have a dreamy and mysterious side that enchants me

[@1755ma]

@Uğurkan Seber untalented geniuses. Van Gogh was ridiculed and deemed a crazy person with zero talent.

[@robertselims9149]

​@happylittlemonkmaybe for satie yes. But for people like beethoven and chopin and mozart no. They wilm never be forgotten

[@stevenwanyhcomposer]

Interesting analysis. Something I would like to add is that the reason why Liszt used the harmonic minor scale with a raised fourth in the beginning of his sonata is because that scale is the double harmonic minor scale, or the gypsy scale (which was something Liszt really liked). So I wonder if Satie was also inspired by the Gypsy scale. Fascinating stuff.

[@andrew_z_8547]

Great point. I think the double harmonic scale makes perfect sense within the “4 minor scale” approach to this piece, which I have seen other people do before. It would probably just replace the regular harmonic scale. Later Impressionists like Debussy were obviously drawn to Gypsy and other “oriental” music too so the it is certainly is a possibility for Satie. In fact, this scale is no longer the “normal” double harmonic scale, but is actually known as the “Hungarian double minor” scale, having the minor second between the 4th and 5th instead of the 1st and 2nd scale degrees.

[@SonataSecrets]

Yes, it seems Hungarian minor would be the best name actually. The double harmonic (major) scale is with the first augmented second between 1st and 2nd scale degree instead of 3rd and 4th - and I think both of these can go as gypsy scale. They're similar in character anyway.

[@rachmusic9873]

I’m 19 and I learned all of the Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes along with some other Satie pieces such as Je Te Veux this year while stuck at home. I really enjoyed all my time at the piano with these works

[@rachmusic9873]

I haven’t learned the ‘7th Gnossienne’ because my edition only has the six. I think this is because the seventh gnossienne is technically part of ´Trois morceaux en forme de poiré’ as manière. I want to still learn it though, as it has aspects of multiple gnossiennes in it and might actually be my favorite after no. 4 and 5

[@clementbeaudonnat1381]

As a French viewer I am not very sure either what the markings could mean 🤨 “Postulez en vous-même” could mean : find the answer but keep it to yourself. “Sur la langue” also could be interpreted as “on the tip of the tongue”… I am not even sure he was taking all of that too seriously Very interesting analysis once again, and making a parallel between Satie’s Gnossienne and Liszt’s sonata in B… that’s bold!

[@SonataSecrets]

That's interesting, thank you! I agree, it seems like he is half-joking with these instructions...

[@fredericktarr8266]

In Satie's sheet music for 'Vexations' he considers playing the piece 840 times in succession.

[@sjmh280491]

​@@SonataSecrets Sometimes I think that he liked to make fun of the "academic" way of thinking and wrote that kind of ambiguous markings, like "yeah you feel so fancy with your elegant indications? Well I can write stuff too, so what?".

[@felvelasquezm]

Impossible not recall “Lent et douloureux”

[@Leo_ofRedKeep]

@@SonataSecrets Yes, Satie was half-joking all the time and his instructions are not to be taken seriously, although the proper "interpretation" would require that one did as if one would. Satie's favourite mood appears to be one of mocking fantasised depths, of saying intentionally cryptic things in all seriousness to catch those who would believe in it. Playing the same music in a "questioning" then in a "postulating" fashion is just one such jokes at the "romantics" who wished to see improtant significance in minute details.

[@II-V-I]

I always interpreted the name as follows: gnosis means "understanding" and I always felt like the pieces illustrated that weird moment of understanding something but not being able to fully rationalize it 😌

[@SonataSecrets]

I like that interpretation! (although on a philosophical level, if one cannot rationalize it, have one really understood it? Somehow yes the "gnostic" sense I suppose...)

[@II-V-I]

@@SonataSecrets Do you know that feeling when you broke through a mental wall? Like understanding a concept. You can not yet verbalize or explain it because there is still no structure in your mind, but you somehow grasped and embraced the idea. Its difficult to explain... anyway, keep up the good work! Love what you're doing!

[@HotRatsAndTheStooges]

I love that interpretation. I think you're right on the money

[@seancregomusic]

I love these pieces so very much! It does bug me a bit, though, how most pros seems to ignore the "instructions" in these pieces for some reason. It's as though these pieces are looked at as "easy", and people just blow right through the music. It's much, much deeper than it lets on. (And the timing of your video is such a coincidence as I recorded the first four of these myself yesterday!)

[@choimdachoim9491]

Satie is the palette-cleanser after a heavy meal, with delicate flavors of contrast. A welcome relief...walk away from the table with light, interesting avenues of thought as well as a full belly.

[@mahdialrumaih8387]

Great and thorough analysis. Amazing video, and anticipating more on Satie's work.

[@UNO400]

Amazing analysis, I have always found Satie’s music fascinating in a way that no other composer is, its simplicity combined with powerful sounds. Thanks

[@PianoDawg1620]

It's all a mystery. The man, Satie himself and the meaning of his music.

[@ljl451]

07:49 The scales at the beginning of the Liszt Sonata are in G minor (not D minor). The first scale is a Phrygian scale (flat 2 in a G minor natural scale). The second scale is a Hungarian Minor Scale (sharp 4 in a G harmonic minor scale). kzbin.info/www/bejne/eILHYqFrpLCce5o

[@klavierallegro7538]

I'm glad this video was in my recommended. Great information, very interesting video!

[@terratrodder]

I love this piece! I recently heard it for the first time when Spotify recommended the version by Alena Cherny and it's probably my favorite piece of music. Love your breakdown of this (and other music) as I hope to learn how to play it.

[@folkrock4u]

I can never understand why people say it isn't clear which note is the tonic in the Gymnopedie. It's the key that it's both written in and resolves to: D.

[@Seekthetruth3000]

I wish you had an overhead camera so that we could see your fingers. Good info.

[@oswaldocastellobranco5531]

Your analyses are so wonderful! Thanks a lot!

[@chriscamp6971]

I love Erik Satie's Gnossienes! I can play some of the second one. Thanks for sharing this😃

[@SonataSecrets]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bayareaconsult4115]

Your interpretation and fine playing made me love Satie music 👏👏👏

[@MYCROFTonX]

Brilliant videos... really clear. 10/10 from me all day long. Thank you.

[@eltonwild5648]

Thanks for answer my request. It was really interesting to see your take on those minor scales degrees. The B part, the strong argument in the piece gives a sense of fresh air and life after all of those questions full of tension and doubt. Thanks again!

[@Tobi-hu9mf]

Haven't watched yet but I'm sure it's amazing!

[@pianoworld233]

A really sad piece. I finished this piece a while ago. After that I got a bit bored of playing the piece in the same tonality and changed to b-flat minor for example. Was also very nice.

[@snicky58]

This piece is also fun to play as a mandolin/guitar duet, with the mandolin playing the melody and the guitar playing everything else.

[@fractuss]

Would love to hear a version. I play guitar with a mandolinist.

[@snicky58]

@@fractuss I haven't checked yet to see if there's one on KZbin. My husband and I did it ourselves decades ago -- him playing beautifully on acoustic guitar, me playing crappily on mandolin. 😄 It's really easy to pick out by ear.

[@margarethansen7480]

Thanks for this post!! Very nice ❤❤❤

[@gabrielnenhum7318]

ahm.. hi! the last part 'sur la langue' makes much sense! thanks for bringin in!

[@themukhtalef]

I love your interpretations…. Thank you

[@nguyenkat8991]

love to listen to your explanation on music analysis

[@dleov4645]

Very interesting analysis!

[@Edgardbueno]

great explanation ! kya bhat

[@fractuss]

Hmm this is so beautiful and evocative, not weird to me in any way.

[@thebones]

loved your analysis and thoughts on this.

[@SonataSecrets]

Thanks!

[@philasoma]

I don't think any music should be considered weird. This guy pretty much inspired the lofi-hip hop beats scene nearly a hundred years after he passed away. A true genius in the scene.

[@pulykamell]

To. be honest, from modern ears, this does not sound "weird" in the least bit. I find that a strange characterization of his music.

[@peymannoorbakhsh4749]

marvelous ❤❤❤

[@davidgerrard8661]

Brilliant ❤

[@Youssef-iu8dn]

Can you analyse Rachmaninoff's Moment Musicaux in E minor?

[@MarcusVinicius116]

I think the annotations don't have to be taken too seriously. Satie was quite ironic and sarcastic and may have laughed at performers. As a frenchman those annotations are often abstruse.

[@namenaim1560]

Very helpful thanks

[@LaserGryph]

Satie. The Cousin Itt of classical music.

[@Lee_music249]

I think he was a genius in his own right, but also a bit of a practical joker.

[@MarcusVinicius116]

And since we are at French music from the beginning of the previous century, how about analyzing Debussy's Rêverie, if you haven't already done ?

[@SonataSecrets]

Well, the Reverie is a hot Debussy candidate I think I will do at some point, maybe in the autumn, or else next year.

[@Bakebakebakebake]

Hello, is there any posibilite for you to analyse the Scarlatti's sonata k213? It's most known as "the lovers"

[@jamessutton9169]

A friend of mine played this piece--the 2-note trills (non-musician here, don't know what it's called) she played the first note (grace note?) more lightly than you do. I don't think I heard you mention the playing of those notes. Any analytical thoughts? Perhaps my friend's thinking of these pieces as having inspiration from the waters of the Mediterranean lapping around the "Island of Knossos" lead to her interpretation of those grace notes.

[@andyxyz01]

You are a gift from heaven. I love you so much:)))

[@felix4833]

12:17 "Step by step" is a quite poor, literal translation for "Pas à pas". A better translation would be "Little by little". That's also much more meaningful musically: each descending chord should be played as a very gradual progression.

[@kpdelaney6460]

Gnossienne No. 6 is the weirdest to me. Would’ve liked to hear your breakdown of that.

[@sheneversleeps]

i think he is saying that the Greek city and the gnostic movement are linked in that both waiting to be rediscovered at least that's what i hear.

[@Royalskunk974]

I havent checked yet if you've already made a video about it, but would you mind making an analysis of "Ballade no 1" of chopin, my favourite piece of all time

[@SonataSecrets]

I haven't yet but I will do it in the autumn!

[@SonataSecrets]

*One year later* kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZzJe6mmhKmWjq8

[@jannyyeung2694]

Thank you! I can't seem to reply you on your response to my question! I shall savour it! Thanks you!

[@TheLastOilMan]

Used by Atle Parlor Trick

[@pyjparte6510]

Henrik, was that you in Crete?

[@SonataSecrets]

indeed, 1.49 is me and my impeccable fashion taste.

[@PianoScenesMoviesandSeries]

Great video. Satie could've just written his shopping list as annotations or perhaps a nice poem, it wouldn't make much difference.

[@SonataSecrets]

XD

[@albertmagician8613]

Du bout de la pensee, lost in thought.

[@aechtrob4775]

The "expressive directions" in French.... for sure look in them for some inspiration for expression, if it helps with an interpretation. Although I think they are Satie being Satie. They are not actually expressive directions at all, but are in fact negations of the whole concept of such a thing. His music is so often all about being music simultaneously with "not-music". He even wrote some music with the express intent of it not being listened to. Other works also take these kinds of "directions" to even more obviously nonsensical extremes. It's a kind of extreme anti-Romantic Dadaism, almost self-destructive or deconstructive about expressive meaning at all, a sort of meta-commentary on its own ontology and epistemology (or lack of either): fascinatingly undermining its own musical idiom that on the surface appears to (and I'd say objectively DOES) have expressive implications though.

[@ilinaacharya2738]

One might be technically advanced to play this and brush it off but are you emotionally advanced and mature as an artist to understand it and play it such ? To those finding it simple

[@FooFighter2017]

As an adult beginner student, I've chosen this piece to learn for my 3rd recital for all of those reasons. You can almost feel the piece breathe. I hope to learn more hand independence as my left hand hops around but I hope tender care with the dynamics and a touch of robato will help bring out its etheral beauty. Satie firmly believed that you didn't have to play like Liszt to perform beautiful and etheral music. I feel like he wrote this for beginners to bridge that gap. I would encourage anyone who wants to learn this to listen to all 6. They are an auditory box set.

[@lynzannabel6990]

@@FooFighter2017 👍🏽❤

[@ispilloil]

Perhaps the French markings were meant to be confusing, as the whole piece is, in itself, "questioning".

[@luvisuzu]

"what is real in this world" LOL

[@forsaken841]

The G is silent

[@cioccolateriaveneziana]

"Weird" wouldn't be my choice of a word. Neither would I vulgarize the piece with emojis...

[@JM-zf1zq]

Shouldn't the G be dropped when pronouncing Gnossienne, any French speakers here?

[@jessevallejo8797]

Weirdest music? Sounds like you've never heard composers like Schoenberg, Cage, Ligeti, Anthiel, etc. They make Satie sound as universal as Mozart.

[@tOo_matcha]

I lovd listening to your analysis, however, I don't have enough knowledge to follow everything. Do you have some literature to suggest on how to analyze pieces in a similar way? I mean, I can look at a catalogue of major/minor scales, but how does one recognize when these change throughout the piece? :) thanks! P.S. This piece was so satisfying to learn for me (a beginner) because it doesn't have many motifs.