Erik Satie cartoon by acclaimed TV/commercials director and animator Pat Gavin. First aired on Equarius in uk 1977. Will upload full documentary soon...
Vive Satie! Great post. Superb animation. Satie was quite the artistic pioneer. For instance, not only could he compose gorgeous music, he was brave enough and sarcastic enough to experiment with the idea of making music that was intended to be coldly off-puttingly eccentric, albeit ironically engagingly so. Sure, most composers are stuck on the idea that the audience ought to actually feel positively drawn to their music. And, granted, that's a nice thing to do when the price is right. But why not do just the opposite? Just for the sake of diverging from the beaten path, why not aim for coldly unpleasantly weird? Thus in 1897 (not coincidentally while living in miserable poverty within a closet-sized unheated room) Satie wrote two sets of works he called Pièces froides (Cold rooms or Cold cuts). The first set is entitled: Airs à faire fuir (Tunes to make you run away). Have you ever heard a work of music that made you want to run away? Perhaps, but Satie wanted to try to create such a work strictly intentionally. This was because, being such an unusually sensitive and perceptive composer, he knew that that is probably exactly what you deserve. "Everybody offers to buy one a drink; but nobody ever dreams of offering to buy one a sandwich." -- Erik Satie So this was an opportunity for Satie to be particularly quirky and droll, and to compose a work that would yank the listener's ear all over the place using dissonant yet melodic themes (often built on the loveliest of augmented fourths) that take many dramatically sudden twists and turns in the style of a joyfully emetic roller-coaster ride. And as if that were not entertaining enough, Tunes to make you run away also features a built-in coldly gloomy effect delicately achieved by negatively reworking a number of famous melodies ordinarily intended to be cheerfully uplifting (such as a fragment of Bringing in the Sheaves, and a cleverly reworked rendition of the folk song, Keel row). Thankfully in the capable hands of Satie these boringly happy themes were artistically revitalized by converting them into depressingly feeble and demoralizing ghosts of their former selves. Being a fan of Satie's unique talent, I imagined Tunes to make you run away (originally for piano) into an violin duet: czcams.com/video/JVJy-GOm_H8/video.html Although just in case that rendition was too unpleasant to bear (mission accomplished), please feel free to enjoy this alternative rendition - possibly similarly unpleasant but in a slightly different way: czcams.com/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ/video.html Moving on, the second set of coldly edgy works from the aforementioned Pièces froides is entitled Danses de travers (Crossed-up dances), an ethereally corkscrewing and dizzying piece in which Satie gleefully goes out of his way to break all the "established" rules of composition. Again originally for piano, here is a serious rendition of Danses de travers performed by two, extraordinarily talented and subtle classical guitarists: czcams.com/video/2SvlMIwN0H4/video.html "Experience is a form of paralysis." -- Erik Satie You've read all the way down to here? Then you must be quite bored. I can relate to that. Perhaps by now you're in the mood for a less confusingly unpleasant artistic experience. If so, take a relaxing break and catch a herd of well-coordinated modern interpretive dancers shaking and undulating their booties to the hauntingly beautiful music of Erik Satie: czcams.com/video/BBCk1RkAYaU/video.html
This short cartoon is utterly brilliant in so many ways. It's quirky nature lends itself beautifully to the quirky manner of the man himself. This cartoon is simply a masterpiece. Thanks Pat for posting.
The sequence where the piano hammers are the embodiment of the great man himself is inspired. I first saw this on Aquarius on its first airing. The images were so strong as to stay with me all those years until I found it on you tube last year.
A sheer delight (except for the gun-toting segment, a bit bizarre and "Yellow Submarine"-ish). I would have loved to hear either the 1st Gnossiene or the third Nocturne at the end, would have worked nicely...
I've literally been looking for this for over 20 years...Thanks!
The end when Gymnopedie No. 1 is played in reverse gave me chills!
A touching film about a wonderful man. As Leonard Cohen wrote - we're all just passing through.
Vive Satie! Great post. Superb animation. Satie was quite the artistic pioneer.
For instance, not only could he compose gorgeous music, he was brave enough and sarcastic enough to experiment with the idea of making music that was intended to be coldly off-puttingly eccentric, albeit ironically engagingly so. Sure, most composers are stuck on the idea that the audience ought to actually feel positively drawn to their music. And, granted, that's a nice thing to do when the price is right. But why not do just the opposite? Just for the sake of diverging from the beaten path, why not aim for coldly unpleasantly weird?
Thus in 1897 (not coincidentally while living in miserable poverty within a closet-sized unheated room) Satie wrote two sets of works he called Pièces froides (Cold rooms or Cold cuts).
The first set is entitled: Airs à faire fuir (Tunes to make you run away). Have you ever heard a work of music that made you want to run away? Perhaps, but Satie wanted to try to create such a work strictly intentionally. This was because, being such an unusually sensitive and perceptive composer, he knew that that is probably exactly what you deserve.
"Everybody offers to buy one a drink; but nobody ever dreams of offering to buy one a sandwich."
-- Erik Satie
So this was an opportunity for Satie to be particularly quirky and droll, and to compose a work that would yank the listener's ear all over the place using dissonant yet melodic themes (often built on the loveliest of augmented fourths) that take many dramatically sudden twists and turns in the style of a joyfully emetic roller-coaster ride.
And as if that were not entertaining enough, Tunes to make you run away also features a built-in coldly gloomy effect delicately achieved by negatively reworking a number of famous melodies ordinarily intended to be cheerfully uplifting (such as a fragment of Bringing in the Sheaves, and a cleverly reworked rendition of the folk song, Keel row). Thankfully in the capable hands of Satie these boringly happy themes were artistically revitalized by converting them into depressingly feeble and demoralizing ghosts of their former selves.
Being a fan of Satie's unique talent, I imagined Tunes to make you run away (originally for piano) into an violin duet: czcams.com/video/JVJy-GOm_H8/video.html
Although just in case that rendition was too unpleasant to bear (mission accomplished), please feel free to enjoy this alternative rendition - possibly similarly unpleasant but in a slightly different way: czcams.com/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ/video.html
Moving on, the second set of coldly edgy works from the aforementioned Pièces froides is entitled Danses de travers (Crossed-up dances), an ethereally corkscrewing and dizzying piece in which Satie gleefully goes out of his way to break all the "established" rules of composition. Again originally for piano, here is a serious rendition of Danses de travers performed by two, extraordinarily talented and subtle classical guitarists: czcams.com/video/2SvlMIwN0H4/video.html
"Experience is a form of paralysis."
-- Erik Satie
You've read all the way down to here? Then you must be quite bored. I can relate to that. Perhaps by now you're in the mood for a less confusingly unpleasant artistic experience. If so, take a relaxing break and catch a herd of well-coordinated modern interpretive dancers shaking and undulating their booties to the hauntingly beautiful music of Erik Satie: czcams.com/video/BBCk1RkAYaU/video.html
Ahh! I just gave your cover of Airs à Faire Fuir a listen and immediately subscribed! Well done!
This short cartoon is utterly brilliant in so many ways. It's quirky nature lends itself beautifully to the quirky manner of the man himself. This cartoon is simply a masterpiece. Thanks Pat for posting.
so psychedelic! i love satie's music, but i also like the way he looked- the dark, melancholic image of him accompanies the music very well
The sequence where the piano hammers are the embodiment of the great man himself is inspired. I first saw this on Aquarius on its first airing. The images were so strong as to stay with me all those years until I found it on you tube last year.
Yes, they even made his snorring sound like a Wagner Tuba!
Absolutely wonderful.
Brilliant film and exceptional composer. Big thank you xx
A sheer delight (except for the gun-toting segment, a bit bizarre and "Yellow Submarine"-ish). I would have loved to hear either the 1st Gnossiene or the third Nocturne at the end, would have worked nicely...
Amazing.
subtittles in spanish pleasee :)
Satie, the anti-Wagnerite.