Trois Gymnopédies by Grant Colburn

Trois Gymnopédies pour la Piano d'après Erik Satie Composé par Grant Colburn
(Three Gymnopédies for the Pianoforte after Erik Satie, Composed by Grant Colburn)
1. Gymnopédie I Lent et rêveur 00:00
2. Gymnopédie II Lent et triste 03:24
3. Gymnopédie III Lent et douloureaux 07:04
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Composers note:
After spending most of my life as a baroque composer and rock musician
the idea for writing the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes came from my
being gifted an old upright piano from my friend and fellow band
member Joshua Patchak. The piano is a beautiful late Victorian model
complete with carved wooden demon faces (or green men perhaps?) on the
corners and center of the lid. Living in a small house I had been
content to have only electronic keyboards to practice and write on so
having an actual acoustic piano in the house again (though relegated
to the porch for space's sake) gave me the inspiration to attempt to
write my first Gymnopédie. Though for most of my life I have loved the
music of Satie and early 20th century music I had never attempted to
write any music inspired by him. Unlike baroque fugues or inventions
or Allemands, there is no set of "rules" for what makes a Gymnopédie
or Gnossienne sound authentic, so I created my own.
For the Gymnopédies the rules were that music had to stay within the
patterns established by Satie with the left hand playing bass notes
and chords while the right hand melodies could go no faster than
quarter notes. Each piece would start with the statement of the left
hand pattern and the chords themselves would use similar chord
structures of major 7th chords, 9ths, etc., and strangely enough the
final rule was they all had to occupy three pages of music just as
Satie's do. After feeling the success of writing the first Gymnopédie
I then decided I need to try to write 2 more, also following Satie's
usual pattern. As I got to starting to write the 3rd Gymnopédie it
became quite a challenge to not only not repeat or copy Satie's
original 3 pieces but also to not repeat myself. One soon learns
there's only so many melodies one can create in quarter notes, half
notes and dotted half notes! I think it helped though that each piece
has its own sets of chord structures and progressions. They gave each
piece its own color and mood.
After completing the three Gymnopédies, the thought of wishing to
publish them as a small book made me think to write 3 Gnossiennes as
well to have enough music to fill out more pages. Similar to the
Gymnopédies, I established "rules" to follow. These included the
similar bass and chord patterns to Satie's own Gnossiennes which used
purer chords than the Gymnopédies, the use of exotic eastern sounding
scales, and to have somewhere within the pieces where the harmonies
and chords twisted into unexpected progressions. As with Satie's, the
melody would begin in the first measure. I had hoped that one of my
pieces would follow Satie's different chord patterns for his
Gnossienne 2, but was never able to find an idea to pursue so all 3 of
mine use similar left hand patterns. Humorously or eccentrically as
with Satie's originals, these pieces all needed to fit within 2 pages
of music and have no bar lines. The final nod to Satie was to dedicate
each piece to friends and family, add in descriptive tempo marks and
to use French for the titles and the words in the music.
About Grant Colburn:
Born in Wisconsin in 1966, Grant Colburn is an American composer, pianist and harpsichordist. He studied harpsichord with Igor Kipnis and composition with Irwin Sonenfield. He is the author of six collections of baroque harpsichord music, and two concertos for harpsichord and strings. Also music for recorder/flute with continuo and works for unaccompanied cello or viola da gamba, as well as songs for voice and continuo. Colburn was the author of a feature article on period composition in the summer 2007 issue of Early Music America Magazine. He is also a contributing reviewer and writer for Harpsichord and Fortepiano Magazine. A concert of Colburn's compositions was given at the 2007 Boston Early Music Festival. Аn article on his performing experiences while there titled, "A View from the Fringe of the Fringe." appeared in Harpsichord and Fortepiano Magazine, Volume 12, No.1. Colburn is one of the founding members of Vox Saeculorum, a society of period composers.
Gymnopédie I Lent et rêveur, à Joshua Patchak
Gymnopédie II Lent et triste, à Kevin et Deborah Hill
Gymnopédie III Lent et douloureaux, à Kurt Colburn
Performed on Nord Grand piano by ‪@NordKeyboards‬
Coversart streamings / socials:
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#Gymnopédies #NordGrand #Piano

[@cutkillershow2218]

Definitly chill❤

[@RosCharron]

Love these versions! Thank you!

[@coversart]

So glad!