The clever and witty Erik Satie gained the recognition of his peers (or anything resembling it) when he was well into his forties. And here his colleague and friend Maurice Ravel had a unique role to play. In 1911 the author of the famous Bolero organized a monographic concert in Paris with works by Satie. It was the only occasion on which the Parisian public attended an evening entirely dedicated to pieces by the composer, the same one who twenty years earlier had astonished a few and baffled others with his now famous Gymnopédies.
From then on, his solo piano music gained great momentum. He had long since passed his "cabaret" stage, but he had not forgotten his sense of humor. During 1912-13 a series of humorous compositions came to light, which he titled in a somewhat outlandish way, adding comments to the score for the performer and, in passing, ignoring the bar division lines. From that period are, for example, Deux Preludes pour un Chien, Descriptiones Automatiques, and Embryons desséchés.
Embryons desséchés, pour piano ("Desiccated embryos")
Barely six minutes long, the piece is made up of three even more extravagantly titled sections, taken from the names of invertebrate beings that Satie came across in a school encyclopedia. But, there are no mentions here about embryos, desiccated or not.
 |
| Erik Satie, in 1820 (1866 - 1925) |
The second piece contains a quotation from Chopin. In the "comments" for the performer, we read: "And then they all began to cry (quote from Schubert's famous mazurka)". As far as we know, Schubert never wrote a mazurka (let alone a famous one). The real quote is to the Interlude of the Funeral March (Sonata in B♭ minor), clearly not by Schubert but by Chopin, with which Satie toys for a couple of bars.
And as usual, the score is not lacking in "character indications" with which the author ousted the usual tempo and expression indications, replacing them with, say: Light as an egg - Like a nightingale with a toothache - Moderately, I beg you - A little bit warm, and the like.
