and Erik Satie's Parade -...

Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's ParadeAuthor(s): Susan CalkinsSource: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 41, No. 1 (JUNE2010), pp. 3-19Published by: Croatian Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27822860 .

Accessed: 24/10/2013 07:09

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Croatian Musicological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toInternational Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 164.15.128.33 on Thu, 24 Oct 2013 07:09:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=croat

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27822860?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


S. Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade

Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade

Introduction

Parade, a curious and provocative work of

performance art described by it creators as a one-act 'ballet r?aliste' was premiered in Paris in 1917. It was conceived after Sergei Diaghilev, the renowned artistic director for the Ballets Russes, had commis sioned Jean Cocteau, a popular avant-garde poet and

caricaturist, to write the scenario. While Parade was based on Cocteau's scenario, the final production was the result of a truly collaborative artistic endeavor. Cocteau's associations with the most fash ionable Parisian cultural circles allowed him to assemble an inordinately colorful group of artists to assist in the realization of his ballet. The Parade col laboration included some of the most unique and

stylish individuals drawn from a rich pool of avant

garde artists living and working in Paris at the time: the stage sets and costumes were designed by Pablo

Picasso; the dance was performed by Sergei Diaghliev's itinerant troupe, the Ballets Russes; L?onide Massine, one of the company's dancers, was

IRASM 41 (2010)1:3-19

Susan Calkins Wayland Schools 44 Oakvale Road

FRAMINGHAM, MA 01701, U.SA. E-mail: [email protected]

UDC: 78.01:7.036(4)"19/20" SATIE, E.

Original Scientific Paper Izvorni znanstveni rad

Received: July 16, 2009 Primljeno: 16. srpnja 2009. Accepted: November 11, 2009 Prihvaceno: 11. studenoga 2009.

Abstract - R?sum? This article discusses Erik Satie's musical score for Jean Cocteau's 1917 ballet Parade and its connection with 20th

century aesthetic movements such as Modernism, surrealism, and cubism. It examines how Satie's work on the music for Parade was influenced by his collaboration with other artists and by the existing social and

political circumstances of his

day. The article offers clarifica tion on many of the descriptive aesthetic terms that have surfaced in discussions of Satie's music for Parade by examining the responses of various critics and music ana

lysts that have appeared since its 1917 premiere. It also discus ses the avant-garde aesthetic movements associated with Parade and how they may have influenced the art of musical composition throughout the 20th century. Keywords: Avant-garde

Modernism Surreal ism Cubism Collabora tive Creation

3



IRASM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 I S' ^lk!n|:

Modernism in Music 1 ' 1 and Erik Satie s Parade

hired as choreographer; and after Igor Stravinsky had turned down the commis sion for the musical score, Cocteau chose an eccentric middle-aged composer named Erik Satie.

The Ballets Russes was established in Paris in 1909 and had attracted a great deal of attention for its innovative avant-garde performances.

Certainly there has never been a more spectacular marriage of movement, music, and

design...Coming from Russia, the most backward society in Europe [at the time] and

performing ballet, the most traditional of art forms, the Ballets Russes nonetheless man

aged to do more than any other single institution to popularize artistic modernism.1

The dance company offered a rich venue for contemporary performance art

and its steady commissions of new works were known to have spawned creative

innovation in a variety of artistic mediums. Additionally, the Ballets Russes per formances contributed greatly to the development of audiences and general pub lic interest in modern performance art in the early twentieth century.

As the centennial of Parade's premiere approaches (and that of the Ballets

Russes has just passed), it is a good time to reflect on the significance and legacy of the work. Ballets Russes productions were generally characterized by their

stylistic innovation and they served as a medium for avant-garde aesthetics in

performance art. The impact that Parade had on the development of avant-gard ism can be examined from many perspectives. Its unique creative thrust certainly demonstrated a daring and radical departure from traditional ballet performance, and it attracted a great deal of attention when it was first performed. But it is the

music for the ballet that has endured nearly a century and that appears on concert

programs throughout the world today. For this reason, it is an appropriate time to

examine the meaning and impact of the aesthetic movements that influenced the

music for Parade as well as its relationship to trends in musical composition that

developed throughout the twentieth century.

High Fashion and Performance Art

Parade's radical stylistic character followed quite closely some of the aesthetic trends evident in the Parisian high-fashion industry at the time:

With the arrival of the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909, the connection of music and fashion was given especially compelling expression. The troupe's intense popularity

1 Mark FEENEY, Russian Revelry: A Weeklong Festival Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the

Ballets Russes, The Boston Globe, G Magazine, May 15, 2009,19.

4



S. Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade I

I RAS M 41 (2010)1:3-19

and far-reaching influence made its performances impossible to ignore, and the

publishers of both music journals and fashion magazines avidly followed each saison russe from 1909 forward.. .critics from both fields found common ground in reporting on this group, since it brought music and fashion into direct and dramatic contact.2

The premiere of Parade caused a considerable stir amongst journalists and

critics. Response to the work was controversial and divided. The piece not only challenged audiences; it pushed the technical and creative limits and abilities of its collaborating artists: it was Jean Cocteau's first scenario for a ballet, Satie's first orchestral score, Picasso's debut into theater design, and Massine's first commis

sion as a choreographer. Following Cocteau's original concept for the scenario, the artists consciously applied basic principles of clarity, simplicity, and purity in the overall aesthetic approach towards the work. The artists seemed to possess a

collective discontent with the rigid self-importance of the European arts establish ment and rejected the notions of the artist-as-genius. They also tended to dismiss

perceived importance that had been placed on formal arts education as an accepted perquisite step to becoming a skillful artist. They proceeded in their endeavor with the attitude of creatively defiant comrades who openly shunned tradition and protocol.

Cocteau was adept at defending his artistic entourage and their aesthetic

principles. Yet, he could also attract and hold the attention of a public that was

hungry for provocative and risqu? affronts on the cultural conservatism that had dominated the performing arts for so many years. Interviews with Cocteau and

Satie, as well as articles written by them, were regularly featured in the most

stylish and contemporary Parisian publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, and

L'?lan. During the Parade collaboration and soon after its premiere, Cocteau offered his admiration of Satie's compositional style, applauding the composer's innovative techniques and his ability to articulate musical ideas with a tangible

modern simplicity. He touted Satie's score for Parade as an example of ?clear and natural orchestration...'purest rhythms,' and 'frankest melodies'?3 within the

pages of French fashion magazines that, at the same time, featured the most sty lish and modern examples of haute couture.

Modernist Collaboration

The ballet scenario was set in a Parisian mansion and a fairground on the outskirts of Paris. It portrayed a circus parade of performers and an array of un

2 Mary E. DAVIS, Classic Chic: Music Fashion and Modernism, University of California Press, 2006,

15. 3 Ibid., 146.

5



IRASM 41 (2010)1:3-19 S. Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade

likely attendees, including a Chinese conjuror, acrobats, and modern audience

members, such as a corporate manager and a young American girl. With Satie's

jazzy, fragmented melodies and rhythms, Picasso's bizarre collage of inanimate

objects, and Massin?'s choreography (stiff and awkward dance movements necessi tated by Picasso's restrictive and bulky costumes) the odd and dreamlike scenario came to life. Parade was the final piece on a program of other works (that were

relatively more accessible to the audience), a provocative mixed-media event that

challenged its ballet-going audiences by openly abandoning any sense of tradi tional beauty or grace in its setting of music and dance.

Avant-garde creative works such as Parade have been able to achieve public acceptance on the basis of their sheer originality. But as Daniel Albright noted,

The great Modernist collaborations all survive as fragments...What is Parade today? Picasso's sketches belong to the world of Picasso studies; Satie's score is an artifact of

musicology; Cocteau's scenario, which seemed so dispensable to Satie and Picasso,

has been fully dispensed with...it was from beginning to end, an exercise in coordi nated incongruity.4

And while it could appear that Albright has dismissed Satie's score by calling it an ?artifact of musicology,? the music for Parade has survived in both versions, the original score for two-pianos and the full orchestral score, for nearly a century as a regularly performed work.

The Ballet has frequently been associated with certain twentieth century aes

thetic movements?modernism, surrealism, and cubism?and these terms have been employed liberally in discussions of Satie's music for Parade. But while they might fittingly apply to the visual arts, these terms tend to become obscured when

employed in relation to the musical arts. In fact, many aesthetic isms used to

describe the qualities of art, become fluid and enigmatic when applied to music.

By examining the life and art of Eric Satie, and in particular, his collaborative creation during the creation of Parade, the author seeks to illuminate the meaning of these aesthetic movements as they apply to musical composition.

Satie's Life and Music

Erik Satie endured a childhood wrought with disappointment and isolation,

profoundly marked by the loss of his mother and the traumatic disruptions that resulted from her absence. Satie's music education began with his stepmother, a

4 Daniel ALBRIGHT, Untwisting the Serpent: Modernism in Music, Literature, and other Arts, Univer

sity of Chicago Press, 2000,185.

I 6



S. Calkins: Modernism in Music I iras m 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 and Enk Satie s Parade \ x '

pianist who later enrolled him in the Conservatoire de Paris. But, in letters to his

brother, the young Satie expressed anger and hatred towards his stepmother and her music. And he attributed the terrible unhappiness he endured throughout his studies at the Conservatoire to his stepmother. Erik suffered frequent reprimands from his teachers, for being lazy and unmotivated in his musical studies.

Colleagues and reviewers criticized Satie's compositions as being simplistic and lacking in skillful orchestration. As a result of his unhappiness, Satie aban doned formal musical training soon after he had started his studies at the conserva

tory. It was not until the age of thirty-nine, when Satie himself began to recognize the limitations of his skills as a composer that he decided to seek additional instruc

tion. It was at this point that he enrolled himself in the Schola Cantorum and

showed his seriousness in returning to the classroom, at the age of 40, to polish his

craftsmanship under the guidance of Albert Roussel (three years his junior) and Vincent D'Indy.5

But Satie's loneliness and isolation were exacerbated by his frustrated attempts to become validated as an artist in the high society of France. His endeavors to

become established in the Acad?mie des Beaux-Arts met with repeated failure.

He had not faired well on the personal front either. The composer had experi enced only one apparent love affair, and it was said to have ended abruptly. Often

exhibiting an abrasive, conflicted personality, Satie was outspoken in his criticism

of art and of society. And this fa?ade of bitter, sarcastic bohemianism served to

mask his underlying frustration. While openly shunning the bourgeois society that was enamored with modernist sensibilities in music and art, his desire to be

established in this layer of society was unmistakable.

Satie went to considerable lengths to alter his persona through drastic changes in his physical appearance. He would periodically fashion a complete makeover

for himself by altering his style and dress. In many ways, the dandyesque Satie was a complete eccentric?several years before he began working on Parade, he

had attempted to live according to ?absurdist principles.?6 Satie declared publicly ?I eat only white foods: eggs, sugar, grated bones, the fat of dead animals; veal

salt, coconut, chicken cooked in water, fruit mold, rice...?7 During one period of

identity crisis, he sported a tattered velvet top-hat and marched about as a deter

mined and self-righteous artiste with the insolence of an adolescent.

5 Richard freed, Parade, Ballet R?aliste, on a subject by Jean Cocteau, 2004. 6 Rollo H. MYERS, Erik Satie. New York: Dover, 1968,131-35. 7 Erik SATIE, ?crits, Edited by Ornella Volta, (Paris: ?ditions Champ Libre, 1981), item 37.

7



IRASM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 I S'

wCf!n|: Modernism in Music

1 1 I and Erik Satie s Parade

Impressionism, Expressionism and Satie

Western European civilization was war-torn at the time of the Parade collabo

ration, and the political tensions only nourished creative discourse, offering challenges and opportunities. In spite of Satie's peculiar personality and his lack of close friends or family, frequent attendance at cabarets, music halls, and artists' caf?s in Paris provided him with stimulus and opportunities as a composer. The vibrant musical nightlife and interaction with fellow artists must have provided Satie with fodder for his work on Parade.

Satie was also a commentator and journalist who frequently contributed to Parisian journals, covering topics of music and culture. Renowned for his acerbic and reactionary critique of his contemporaries, he was often alienated from his

colleagues. The composer found himself regularly in and out of favor with even his closest friends and associates. Despite a long-term friendship and a history of collaborations with Claude Debussy, he was not restrained in making public state

ments against impressionism, a French aesthetic movement strongly identified with Debussy's music, stating that impressionism is the art of imprecision,? qualifying that he himself ?tend[ed] towards precision. ?8 By openly snubbing his more successful contemporaries, Satie marginalized himself even further, and his efforts to become established as a viable composer were often thwarted by his lack of discretion.

The creative movement of expressionism had begun to take hold in Europe before the turn of the century. As a philosophical approach that developed in

Germany in the late nineteenth century, expressionism was rooted in the idea that art should convey emotions of extreme personal disillusionment, anger, and/or frustration. According to Dorothy Crawford's definition of expressionism, Erik Satie's aesthetic approach could well have fallen within this movement:

A unique aspect of expressionism...is that it is the embodiment primarily of artists'

attitudes toward society and the individual...In their anger at the incrustations of

bourgeois culture, which hid truth and suppressed individuality, artists opposed such manifestations of the art-for-art's sake principle as Impressionism.9

In many ways, the creative underground movements that were brewing in France at the turn of the century (with participants like Cocteau, Picasso, and

Satie) developed as a result of extreme emotional responses to life?personal disillusionment, dissatisfaction with society, and a modernist's desire to break

8 E. SATIE, ?crits, Edited by Ornella Volta, (Paris: ?ditions Champ Libre, 1981), 49. 9 Dorothy CRAWFORD, Twentieth-Century Expressionism: Its Nature, Background, and Lan

guage, in Expressionism in Twentieth-Century Music, John C. Crawford and Dorothy L. Crawford, (Indiana University Press, 1993), 1.

8



S. Calkins: Modernism in Music I IRAS M 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 and Erik Satie s Parade | * '

away from tradition?in ways that were not distant from those of the German

expressionists. The aesthetic orientations of French artists, though, were fundamentally

different from the dominant Germanic approach that had taken hold in Europe. Expressionist composers exhibited self-absorbed angst, and an internal preoccu

pation with their work. Demonstrations of emotional extremes were considered

necessary to expressionistic art and musical composition. But, an important distinction of the expressionist artist was his reverent regard for Germanic classi cal elements of form and harmony in musical composition.

When Parade was being written in 1916, France and Germany were at war. Anti-Germanic sentiment was strongly imbedded in the French psyche and French artists were struggling to establish cultural independence and freedom from the dominant stylistic force of Germanic music and art that had taken hold in the nine teenth century. German expressionism was defined by determined preoccupation

with extreme emotional states. This was contrasted by the rebellious, nihilistic ennui exhibited in the artistic sensibilities of French artists. Twenty-first century critic John W. Freeman remarked that Parade ?could be considered an anti-war

piece, in the sense that at the time of its premiere, in 1917, it studiously ignored World War I, which was underway not far from Paris.?10 The dissatisfaction that characterized the French arts scene was reinforced through the incessant interactive

dialogue that transpired in the caf?s, studios, and salons of Paris. But the overriding attitude of sarcasm and disenchantment that existed in

Parisian cultural circles was perhaps a perfect remedy for the frustrations and

disappointments that were both personal and social in origin. Cocteau, Picasso, and Satie were notorious participants in a new wave of artists who were eager to

defy tradition and protocol. But it could not be disputed that Satie was always a

dedicated musician and that ?beneath his camouflage of jest, [he] remained an

essentially serious composer with an amazingly creative imagination.?n He had

fervently disassociated himself from the German expressionist approach, yet he

expressed a similar disdain for the French impressionists. It could be observed

that, as a matter of personal principle, Satie refused to adhere to any defined school of artistic thought or specific aesthetic philosophy.

Satie's Score

After Stravinsky's rejection of the project, Cocteau declared that he'd found the perfect composer for the job in Erik Satie. Attracted by the composer's decidedly

10 John FREEMAN, Review, Opera News, 66, No. 12 (June, 2002), 69.

11 Robert ORLEDGE, Satie's Approach to Composition in His Later Years (1913-24), Proceedings of the Royal Music Association 111 (1984-85), 155.

9



I RAS M 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 S. Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade

lean and musical style, his ironic character, by the fact that he was familiar with the

contemporary music of concert halls and cabarets, Cocteau felt that Satie would offer an appropriate musical compliment to his project. The commission offered Satie an opportunity to express some of his most innovative musical ideas and to

greatly expand upon his skills as an orchestrator.

During this period of collaboration on Parade, Satie's daily routine was

comprised of leaving his home in Arceuil with notebook in hand and walking ten kilometers into Paris. The artists would convene at a caf? to discuss plans, share

sketches, and participate the collaborative discourse. They rejected all sanctified notions of art and culture and identified themselves as stylish avant-garde thinkers. Cocteau and Satie were as united in their distaste for the romanticism of

Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (that had entranced many of their contemporaries) as

they were with the new wave of impressionistic art (by artists such as Debussy, Monet, and the symbolist poet Mallarm?) that dominated the French art scene. And Cocteau's tendency towards simplicity and insolence seemed to resonate with Satie's peculiar and unconventional sensibilities. The composer's quirky style is evident in this drawing of Satie, as it was published in the original score.

In a review of a 2002 Metropolitan Opera performance of Parade, the critic described the unadorned clarity of Satie's Parade music as ?bone-dry textures [and a] deadpan score.?12 In the original program notes, written for Parade's premiere, Georges Auric stated,

Cocteau's drawing of Satie

[Satie's] art, like Picasso's, does not try to seduce us through brilliant and dramatic devices...he shows the individual at the height of his powers and portrays with clarity

12 J. FREEMAN, 69.

10



Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade I

I RAS M 41 (2010)1:3-19

astonishing personages...the score is designed to serve as musical background for

percussion instruments and onstage sounds.13

Satie began composing the ballet in 1916, and the score was completed in just ten months. The collaborative nature of the work may have stimulated productivity, but it also offered him opportunities to expand upon his compositional technique and musical style. Satie exploited popular music, especially jazz and cabaret tunes he'd heard in Parisian cabarets and music halls of Montmartre where he lived for several years.14 The bustling neighborhood was home to many contemporary artists, including Picasso, who lived and worked there from 1904 to 1912. It is not

surprising that the modern melodies and rhythms of cabaret and jazz tunes surfaced in Satie's score.

The Influence of Jazz, Cabaret, and Cinema

At the beginning of the twentieth century a fascination with American culture had infiltrated the European arts scene. The chic attraction of the two new art

forms, cinema and jazz, were consumed with a passion throughout Europe. Charlie Chaplin and Scott Joplin were as popular in Europe as they were in Amer ica at the time. And Satie was no stranger to ragtime, Dixieland jazz, or to Holly

wood cinema. The Ragtime du Paquebot, found at the end of the second movement of Parade, is ?rhythmically identical to Irving Berlin's 1912 hit song That Mysterious Rag, on which it must have been modeled.?15 This compositional gesture is so close to plagiarism that it appears to have been completely intentional. Other

examples of the composer's blatant 'borrowing' of themes can be observed in some of his direct melodic and orchestral references to Stravinsky and Debussy in the cabaret melodies and circus music themes in the third movement, entitled

Acrobates. In these passages, Satie exploited the work of his contemporaries with an almost mocking inflection.

It wasn't only the sounds of jazz and cabaret that resonated with Satie. His orchestration for Parade was also unique for its use of ambient sounds as orches tral timbre. He frequently developed his motivic material by interpolating frag

mented melodies and by employing repetitive or superimposed ostinato-like

13 Georges AURIC, Notes form the 1917 score for Parade.

14 By the time he decided to remove himself from his residence in Paris and move into the remote

suburbs south of the city, Satie had become enamored with the gritty popular music of the burlesque halls. He continued to work there from time to time, even after moving to the suburbs and becoming more of a recluse.

15 R. ORLEDGE, Satie's Approach to Composition in His Later Years (1913-24), Proceedings of the

Royal Music Association 111 (1984-85), 169.

11



IRASM 41 (2010) 1:3-19 | t^SSe?^ara^ ^

lines. ? What Satie aimed at was not of course 'pure music/ if such a thing can be

supposed to exist, but purity of emotional response.?16 The first performance of Parade was two-piano version that premiered in Pa

ris in 1917. The fully orchestrated ballet set off a wave of criticism and, ?to no one's

great surprise, the premiere was highlighted by boos, cat-calls and a near riot.?17 But Satie's score did receive enthusiastic response from many important young composers such as Georges Auric,18 Louis Durey, Arthur Honneger and others,

who viewed it as ?a new direction in French music.?19 Still, while there was no

doubt that he was popular within the Parisian world of fashion and culture, critics were inclined to dismiss his importance as a serious composer. ?It is undeniable that Erik Satie possessed a creative imagination of a most distinctive kind,? even

though ?by the standards of the great Austro-German tradition... [he was] con

sidered a composer of little consequence.?20 But Parade did have an impact on the direction of twentieth century musical composition, and while it ?may not be Satie's 'greatest' work or his 'most important' one, it has come to be regarded as

his most representative one.?21

Modernism

In spite of the criticism it endured, Parade was praised for its stylistic innova tion and its departure from traditional forms. Its place as an icon of avant-garde artistic expression and its importance as a seminal work of modernistic approach are virtually undisputed. The term Modernism has been applied to aesthetic ideals and creative thought since the late 1800s. It is rooted in the word modern, which, as Daniel Albright points out, is a term that has been employed for centuries. Yet, while it was once used to describe any object or event that was current or up-to date, it has undergone significant shifts in context and meaning over time.

Albright has defined Modernism (with a capital 'M,') as follows:

Modernism is a deliberate philosophical and practical estrangement or divergence from the past in the arts and literature occurring especially in the course of the 20th

century and taking form in any of various innovative movements and styles.22

16 W.H. MELLERS, Erik Satie and the 'Problem' of Contemporary Music, Music and Letters 23, no.

3 (July 1942), 217. 17 Ibid. 18 Nancy PERLOFF, Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie (New

York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 1. 19 Ibid. 20 Alan M. GILLMOR, Erik Satie and the Concept of the Avant-Garde, 104. 21R. FREED, Parade, Ballet R?aliste, on a subject by Jean Cocteau, 2004. 22 Modernism. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.refer

ence.com/browse/modernism (accessed: February 08, 2009).

12




I RAS M 41 (2010) 1:3-19

Albright has also outlined some of the distinctive qualities of Modernism as

applied to creative thought: ?Modernism is a testing of the limits of aesthetic construction...a modernist tried to find the ultimate bounds of certain artistic

possibilities.?23 According to Albright, ?many of the modernist artists regarded destabilization of the boundary between high and low art as one of the great free doms of the twentieth Century.?24

Leon Botstein has stated that Modernism, as it applies to musical composi tion,

was fuelled by more than aesthetic ambitions and the embrace of the uniquely new in music. A critique of contemporary cultural standards and the social uses of music as

exemplified by the turn-of-the-century urban concert audience and public for music in the home was, from the start, a driving force behind early 20th-century composi tional innovations.25

In fact, as Albright suggests, music is ?the artistic medium best equipped to

participate in Modernism.?26 In much of his music, Satie appears to have made a

conscious effort to obscure the lines between 'high' and Tow' art forms. In Parade this concept was accomplished by using of melodic fragments from ragtime, jazz, and cabaret tunes, incorporating ambient sounds, and by using common, every

day objects as musical instruments in the orchestration.

Surrealism and Cubism

The original ballet performances of Parade heralded a creative movement that was described with a brand new label. In his program notes for the ballet, poet Guillaume Apollinaire ?invented the term surrealism?having no other existing terminology to describe the unique spectacle he witnessed at the rehearsals.?27 The Oxford English Dictionary defines surrealism as

an avant-garde 20th-century movement in art and literature which sought to release

the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxta position of images.28

23 D. ALBRIGHT, Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources, The University of Chicago Press,

Chicago, 2004,11. 24

Ibid., 367. 25 Leon BOTSTEIN, ?Modernism,? Grove Dictionary of Music Online, Accessed Jan. 30, 2009. 26 D. ALBRIGHT, Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago: The University of

Chicago Press, 2004,1. 27 Robert SHAPIRO, Erik Satie (1866-1925), in Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde, ed.

Larry Sitsky (London, 2002), 428. 28 Oxford English Dictionary.

13



IRASM 41 (2010)1:3-19 S. Calkins: Modernism in Music and Erik Satie's Parade

The inventive poet Apollinaire accommodated the curious phenomenon of Parade by coining this new ism. According to Tracy Doyle, Apollinaire's program notes ?became a manifesto of l'esprit nouveau or 'the new spirit' which was taking hold in Paris during the early twentieth-century. ?29

While the term surrealism may aptly describe the aesthetic orientation in

visual, literary, or mixed-media works, it can be problematic when applied to

works of instrumental music. Several years after the premiere of Parade, com

posers such as Pierre Boulez, Germaine Tailleferre, and Edgard Var?se were

known to have created works based on surrealist poetry or visual imagery (in the case of Var?se's Arcana, it was his own dream that inspired the piece). And while

they may be described as 'surrealist' works, the aesthetic qualities of surrealism are not distinguishable in the musical element of these works in ways that are

easily defined. While Appolinaire's coining of the term was attached to Satie's music for Parade, the music was only one element of the ballet, and his assessment

may have been directed towards the collaborative work as a whole.

Cubism

Satie's score has undergone formal analysis by such theorists W.H. Meilers,

Nancy Perloff, and Robert Orledge, and has been described as an example of cubist aesthetics. W.H. Meilers offered a compelling argument for this:

Ostensibly, the cubists wished to impose a 'fresh order' on the objects of the visible universe, but to reintegrate a world, it is necessary that it should first have become

disintegrated, and it is of this disintegration that their painting is ultimately an affir mation.30

Picasso's cubist approach to visual art might have surfaced in Satie's Parade as a direct result of the collaboration. In much the same manner that cubist visual artists constructed works out of interpolated fragments, Satie's score was a collage like interpolation of thematic musical fragments, taken from a variety of sources. The themes, shattered into motifs, were reconfigured as linear melodies. And Satie's music, ?like Picasso's [art], does not try to seduce us through brilliant and dramatic devices.?31 In contrast to surrealism, which is drawn to unfamiliar and

disorienting realities, Parade establishes a musical atmosphere that is familiar, yet somehow strange:

29 Tracy DOYLE, Erik Satie's Ballet Parade: An Arrangement for Woodwind Quintet and Percussion

with Historical Summary, DMA Diss., Louisiana State University, 2005,1. 30 W.H. MELLERS, Erik Satie and the 'Problem' of Contemporary Music, Music and Letters 23, no.

3 (July 1942), 211. 31 Georges AURIC, from his notes on the original score of Parade, xii.

14



Calkins: Modernism in Music i iraSM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 and Erik Satie s Parade \

x '

.. .as in many of Satie's early compositional sets, the concept is timeless and spatial, as

if the same sculpture were being viewed from different angles. Through repetition Satie makes a lot out of a little; the craft is certainly a simple means to an end, and both the style of writing and the concept were entirely new.32

Picasso had been working everyday objects into his visual art for some time, and his designs for Parade employed this technique to its extreme?costumes for the dancers were mostly constructed of cardboard and incorporated an unusual

and whimsical iconography (i.e. skyscrapers protruding from the head of the American Manager). Satie followed a similar aesthetic approach in his orchestra tion when he included the sounds of objects?a typewriter, a siren, tuned bottles, a revolver, and a 'wheel of chance'?in his full score.

Though the cubist approach in Satie's Parade might be perceived as musical

plagiarism, it was a fitting accompaniment to Picasso's visual art. And, as British

critic Norman Peterkin pointed out in his 1919 review of Parade,

Satie has been termed a cubist composer, though what the term exactly signifies in this connection, I am unable to say. If it means that his music is mordantly witty, perverse and unlike anything else, then by all means, let him be cubist. In any case it is said that he is the preferred composer of the cubists.33

Music analyst Robert Shapiro once stated ?with Parade, Satie accomplished, as Igor Stravinsky had with Le Sacre du Printemps, a constructive provocation of

the musical public.?34 Thus, by considering both Albright and Botstein's notions of

Modernism, and the cubism that Peterkin identified, the aesthetic qualities of

Satie's score for Parade find definition.

Conclusion

Perhaps, just as Cocteau described, the musical language of Satie's Parade is

the embodiment of economy and simplicity. In a 1917 essay, Satie commented on

this aspect of his approach towards composing:

Do not forget that melody is the Idea, the outline; at the same time as being the form and subject matter of a work. The harmony is an illumination, an explanation of the

subject, its illumination.35

32 R. ORLEDGE, Erik Satie, sec. 2: Works. Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press (accessed December 10, 2007). http://www.grovemusic.com 33 Norman PETERKIN, Erik Satie's Parade, The Musical Times, 60, no. 918 (Aug. 1,1919), 426.

34 R. SHAPIRO, Erik Satie (1866-1925), in Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde, ed. Larry

Sitsky (London, 2002), 428. 35 E. SATIE, ?crits, Edited by Ornella Volta, (Paris: ?ditions Champ Libre, 1981), item 37, 48.

15



idacm aa /oa4a\ I S. Calkins: Modernism in Music IRASM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 gnd Erjk Satie>s pamde

Satie's ?influence on the course of twentieth-century music is immense,?36 and his score for Parade can be regarded as an important example of early avant

garde Modernism. Later on, another creative movement developed that was de scribed as minimalism. In fact, this may be a more apt description for what had been defined previously as cubist tendencies in Satie's work, especially in the case

of Parade. In Parade Satie developed his relatively unadorned melodic fragments in a clear linear fashion. Several decades later, similar techniques were expanded upon by so-called minimalist composers such as Terry C. Riley and Steve Reich. Like Satie, these later composers employed stridently repetitive melodic frag ments to create overlapping sonorities in their music.

Satie made all of his sketches for Parade in a notebook of six-or-seven-stave

pages and, as a result, was ?forced to be sparse and to avoid unnecessary

doublings.?37 It is unclear whether Satie's economy of orchestration and uncon

ventional sense of harmonic development was rooted in a lack of technical skill or in pure aesthetic principles. And while terms such as surrealism and cubism may offer incomplete definitions of Satie's sparse musical style, it is clear that his music lent itself beautifully to Cocteau's original conception of Parade.

Some negative public response to Parade was most likely an expected out come. But, Cocteau and his collaborators depended on the very establishment

they shunned in order to fund their project,38 and to mock and ridicule French

society's 'high' art and culture, was somewhat risky for them. They must have known that the brash and daring gestures of Parade would be supported by at least a small number of attendees who thirsted for modern and stylish displays of

avant-garde performances. Today, Satie's score for Parade is recognized as a pivotal work in contemporary music and as an icon of Modernism. And while the com

poser never enjoyed the acclaim or recognition of many of his contemporaries, the aesthetic approach and compositional techniques (e.g. extra-musical sounds,

sequenced melodic fragments, and mixed genres) that were employed in his score for Parade can be heard in the work of subsequent twentieth-century composers like John Cage, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and others.

36 Lothar KLEIN, Twentieth Century Analysis: Essays in Miniature, Music Educators Journal, 53, no. 4 (Dec. 1966), 25.

37 R. ORLEDGE, Satie's Approach to Composition in His Later Years (1913-24), Proceedings of the

Royal Music Association 111 (1984-85), 169. 38 The original performance of Parade was funded by the wealthy Count Etienne de Beaumont.

Subsequent performances were funded by the fashion designer, Coco Chanel.

16



S. Calkins: Modernism in Music IRASM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 and Enk Satie s Parade

'

REFERENCES

AURIC, Georges. Notes for the 1917 publication of the score for Parade.

BOTSTEIN, Leon. Modernism,Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press (accessed Jan uary 30, 2009. http://www.grovemusic.com

CRAWFORD, Dorothy L. Twentieth-Century Expressionism: Its Nature, Background, and

Language. In Expressionism in Twentieth-Century Music, John C. Crawford and Doro

thy L. Crawford, Indiana University Press, 1993:1-21.

DAVIS, Mary E. Classic Chic: Music Fashion and Modernism, University of California Press, 2006.

DOYLE, Tracy. Erik Satie's Ballet Parade; An Arrangement for Woodwind Quintet and Per cussion with Historical Summary, DMA Diss., Louisiana State University, 2005.

FEENEY, Mark. Russian Revelry: A Weeklong Festival Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Ballets Russes, The Boston Globe, G Magazine, May 15, 2009,19.

FREED, Richard, Parade, Ballet r?aliste on a subject by Jean Cocteau, program note origi nally written for the National Symphony Orchestra performance: Leonard Slatkin, conductor/Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano, Jan 22, 2004

http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_ id=2460

FREEMAN, John. Review, Opera News, 66, No. 12 (June, 2002), 69.

GILLMOR, Alan M. Erik Satie and the Concept of the Avant-Garde. The Musical Quarterly 69, no. 1 (Winter 1983): 104-19.

KLEIN, Lothar. Twentieth Century Analysis: Essays in Miniature. Music Educators Journal,

53, no. 4 (Dec. 1966): 25-26.

MELLERS, W. H. Erik Satie and the 'Problem' of Contemporary Music. Music and Letters 23, no. 3 (July 1942): 210-27.

MYERS, Rollo H. Erik Satie. New York: Dover, 1968.

MYERS, Rollo H. The Strange Case of Erik Satie. The Musical Times 86, no. 1229 (July 1945): 201-03.

17



IRASM 41 (2010) 1: 3-19 I S' rfCf!n|:

Modernism in Music * ' I and Erik Satie s Parade

ORLEDGE, Robert. Satie's Approach to Composition in His Later Years (1913-24). Proceed

ings of the Royal Music Association 111 (1984-85): 155-79.

ORLEDGE, Robert. Erik Satie, sec. 2: Works. Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press

(accessed December 10, 2007). http://www.grovemusic.com

PERLOFF, Nancy. Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

PETERKIN, Norman. Erik Satie's Parade. The Musical Times, 60, no. 918 (Aug. 1,1919): 426 27.

Dictionary.com, modernism, Random House, Inc., Unabridged (v 1.1), (accessed February

08, 2009). http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/modernism

SAMSON, Jim. Avant garde. Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press (accessed December 10, 2007). http://www.grovemusic.com

SATIE, Erik. Ecrits. Edited by Ornella Volta. Paris: Editions Champ Libre, 1981.

SATIE, Erik. Parade: In Full Score. Introduction by Victor Rangel-Ribeiro, notes by Georges Auric. New York: Dover Publications, 2000.

SHAPIRO, Robert. Erik Satie (1866-1925). In Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde, Edited by Larry Sitsky. CT/London, 2002: 425-29.

WILKINS, Nigel and Erik SATIE. Erik Satie's letters to Milhaud and Others. The Musical

Quarterly 66, no. 3 (July 1980): 404-428.

18




I RAS M 41 (2010) 1: 3-19

Sazetak

Modernizam u glazbi i Parade Erika Satiea

Premda se partituru baleta Parade Erika Satiea iz 1917. rijetko smatra nekim posebno znacajnim primjerom briljantne umjetnickosti s obzirom na kompoziciju, ona ipak predstav Ija jasan primjer toga kako neki skladatelj moze pridonijeti i sudjelovati u vaznim esteti?kim

pokretima u ranome 20. stoljecu. ?lanak se bavi uvjetima u kojima je Jean Cocteau, popu larni pariski avangardisticki pjesnik i karikaturist koji je napisao scenarij, sklonuo Erika Sa tiea da sklada glazbu za taj balet. Njihova suradnja s Pablom Picassom kao scenografom i L?onidom Massineom, koreografom trupe Ruskih baleta (Ballets Russes), imala je za

posljedicu ovo pionirsko scensko djelo. Premijera Parade bio je dogadaj koji je odrazavao dru?tvenu i politicku atmosferu jedne jedinstvene 'klike' europskoga drustva na mijeni stoljeca.

Satievu Parade do sada se predstavljalo kao proizvod modernistickih, nadrealisti?kih i kubistickih esteti?kih paradigma. Mozda je upravo taj aspekt ovoga djela najvrjedniji poblizeg istrazivanja. Ovaj je ?lanak studija o Satievim zivotnim iskustvima, suradni?koj prirodi stvaranja Parade i nacina na koji su ta iskustva i suradnja utjecali na esteti?ka na?ela u pozadini njegove glazbe za taj balet. On nudi razjasnjenja o nizu raznih pojmova i termina koji su se upotrebljavali u opisivanju esteti?kih osobina Satieve partiture te dono si primjere tih osobina u samoj glazbi. U vremenu od njegove premijere 1917. godine objavljen je niz kritickih i analitickih osvrta na Satievu partituru. Autorica istrazuje razli?ite kriticke sudove o Satievoj Parade u pokusaju da osvijetli drustvene, politicke i kulturne izvore avangardnih esteti?kih pokreta koji su bili povezani s njegovom glazbom.

19



and Erik Satie's Parade -...

Documents

Transcript of and Erik Satie's Parade -...