Satie the bohemian

by Steven Moore Whiting

Erik Satie (1866-1925) came of age in the bohemian subculture of Montmartre, with its artists' cabarets and cafe-concerts. Yet apologists have all too often downplayed this background as potentially harmful to the reputation of a composer whom they regarded as the progenitor of modern French music. Whiting argues that Satie's two decades in and around Montmartre decisively shaped his aesthetic priorities and compositional strategies. He gives the fullest account to date of Satie's professional activities as a popular musician, and of how he transferred the parodic techniques and musical idioms of cabaret entertainment to works for concert hall. He traces the many connections between Satie and artists in other domains - not just major figures like Cocteau, Picasso, and the Dadaists, but also cabaret humorists, musical performers, esoteric writers, and less familiar painters like Desboutin, Rusinol, and Casas.